The Pedagogical Leadership in the Early Years (PLEY) Quality Rating Scale will help leaders working with children aged birth to six to achieve their potential, enjoy the benefits and pleasure of delivering high quality education and care, and act as a scaffold to improve understandings of high quality leadership for learning.
With an increasing spotlight on early childhood education and care (ECEC), it's crucial that leaders and teachers in ECEC can evidence their intentions and show how they support the learning of both children and staff, through the promotion of excellent practice, improved child learning, and family support. The Pedagogical Leadership in the Early Years (PLEY) Quality Rating Scale will help leaders working in centres with children aged birth to six to achieve their full potential and enjoy the benefits and pleasure of delivering high quality early education and care, as well as acting as a scaffold to improve their understanding of high quality leadership for learning.
The Quality Rating Scale (QRS) is a unique tool to uplift process quality in Early Childhood Education and Care. It is designed to support systematic quality improvement processes in a centre or class and enhance children’s learning and development. It supports leaders to be self-reflective, lead and manage themselves, change process in their centres, promote intentional and relational learning, pedagogy and curriculum development with staff, and forge diverse partnerships. It democratises assessment, as educators use it for self-assessment, and will be an invaluable classroom tool for all early years leaders of classrooms and centre managers.
Key contextual issues for the development of leadership and pedagogical
leadership in the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector
Introduction to the development of the Pedagogical Leadership in the Early
Years (PLEY) Quality Rating Scale
Rationale for the development of the PLEY Scale
The structure of the PLEY Scale: principles and pedagogical leadership
Preparing to use the PLEY Scale and scoring. Important guidance before you
start
The PLEY Scale sub-scales
· Self-reflective leadership
· Leading others and managing change
· Intentional and relational learning and pedagogy
· Curriculum and Continuous Improvement
· Diverse partnerships and contextual literacy
Iram Siraj is Professor of Child Development and Education at the University of Oxford and Research Professor at the University of Maynooth, Ireland. She is the co-author of each of the Curriculum, Leadership and Interaction Quality Rating Scales (CLIQRS) and has led several RCTs on effective professional learning. She has previously published The Movement Environment Rating Scale (MOVERS) (2024, Routledge), The Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Well-being (SSTEW) Scale (2024, Routledge), Early Childhood Matters (2010, Routledge), Doing Early Childhood Research (2010, Routledge) and Early Childhood Quality Rating Scale Emergent Curriculum (ECQRSEC) (2025, Routledge).
Denise Kingston is senior researcher at Oxford University and an honorary research fellow at the University of Sussex. She is a specialist in childrens development, with a background in educational psychology. Her research focus is on effective professional development and EC pedagogy and practice. She has previously published The Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Well-being (SSTEW) Scale (2024, Routledge) and Early Childhood Quality Rating Scale Emergent Curriculum (ECQRSEC) (2025, Routledge).
