Early years professional community

Getting pupils off to the best start at school.

The early years professional community provides a forum to discuss how we create early years cultures of belonging so that all children can flourish.

Our conversations help support you to improve the quality of practice across the schools in your trust, with guest speakers sharing the best of current research to inform practice and pedagogy.

This community aims to provide you with the knowledge and support to ensure that all children get the best start in their educational journey.

We aim to provide support and development opportunities, through a blend of expert input on key practice challenges, facilitated discussion, and networking.

The community offers a safe and supportive environment in which to develop your understanding of some of the key challenges related to early years provision, through:

Termly online community meetings featuring expert voices
Topical webinars on emerging issues
Our community site, which connects you with trust leaders across the country through a dedicated website and mobile apps
Community resources and blogs from our members and partners
Priority access to our annual in-person CST Early Years Summit.

Our professional communities are an integral part of CST membership, and taking part is open to all staff and governance volunteers of member trusts.

How to join

If you already have a MyCST login

If you are already registered for MyCST, CST's personal registration for employees and governance volunteers at member trusts, you can add professional communities to your account using our community registration form.

If you are not yet registered for MyCST

MyCST is CST's personal regisration for employees and governance volunteers at member trusts. Registration unlocks your access to member benefits, include exclusive resource on this website, our briefing emails, and our professional communities.

If your trust is a CST member you can sign up using our MyCST registration form.