Our Early years team are fully committed to being the very best they can be. They are always seeking out high quality professional development opportunities. Therefore our project, which included attendance at structured training course in Italy, provided an exciting and invaluable opportunity for our school to develop and further knowledge and skills which would support the changes in the curriculum. The project has provided us with the opportunity to to reflect on what we do, look wider than the UK and protect what we believe to be of the upmost importance in terms of engaging our youngest learners and their families in creative approaches in our Early Year settings. Our main project objectives were: *To further develop our practice and approaches to teaching and acquire further knowledge and understanding of how children learn creatively and especially see how other countries and *Colleagues in Italy and Europe deal with curriculum planning in Early Years. *Gain and inspirational European experience to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Early Years. *To gain a better understanding of ways to develop further links with parents to enable them to engage further in their child's learning and school life * Develop links with other schools abroad and develop partnerships * Gain cultural understanding * Further develop evaluation skills Nine members of staff including 2 Senior Leaders, 4 Early Years Teachers, 1 Early Years Teaching Assistant, 1 Higher Level Teaching Assistant / Nurture Worker and a Teacher of the Arts visited Italy to attend training specifically focused on the use of Creative Teaching Approaches in Early Years Education. Their selection was based on their position and motivation as well as enthusiam to make changes upon their return to school.They had a wide ranging experience including: Senior Leaders including our Early Years leader who are able to drive the project with passion , enthusiasm and successfully cascade to others Early Years practitioners who show a real commitment to developing highly effective creative approaches to early years learning and teaching Early Years practitioners who show a daily commitment to developing effective partnerships with parents: Our course included taught sessions on developing and evaluating specific teaching and learning methods, visiting the Reggio Children' s Centre to learn about the models used in the region, visiting 3 schools to see the methodology in practice and meeting and interviewing the Regional Education Officer in that area, Re-invigorated we returned to the UK with the ability and opportunity to reflect on our own Early Years practice and, with enriched knowledge and understanding, a commitment to transferring aspects of the practice we saw to our own Early Years practice at East Hunsbury Primary School and improving the quality of our provision. The visits generated a number of outcomes: - an improved understanding of creative teaching approaches in the Early Years - an honest reflection upon /self evaluation of the environment and experiences we currently provide for our pupils in the Early Years - the confidence to innovate in our Early Years provision within the context of the new National Curriculum requirements within the UK - an enahnce cultural understanding - forged links with teachers and a school in Croatia As a result of the project we have now created two ateliers for our Year R and Year 1 pupils in order to allow pupils to make their own choices and express themselves in their own language. Following the links made during our project motilities, we were able to establish links with schools abroad which have led to us being partner in a KA2 project with Croatia, Romania, Spain and Italy. Since our return we have disseminated our increased understanding of the methodology , introduced elements of the successful practice to our own daily practice, adapted the physical environment where necessary and trained staff to ensure that we provide the children with an enabling environment and appropriate activities to allow them to achieve their full potential and succeed as learners and as unique individuals. At a time when the National Curriculum is being revised in the UK it has enabled us to protect the most effective early years practices and develop partnership working with others we have met in the host country as well other colleagues from other Early Years settings. Since our visit we have hosted from other local schools to share our best practice and our Year R teacher has supported the training of early years teaching assistance for the local Teaching School Alliance. The cultural aspects of the course was also invaluable for all participants as we gained an enriched knowledge and understanding of the curriculum system in Italy as well as learning about Italy ,including the historic past as well as cultural richness.