IHVYL training for teachers

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IHVYL Course and Certificate

The International House Certificate in Teaching Very Young Learners (IHVYL) is an in-service teacher training course and certificate designed to prepare teachers of English as a Foreign Language to teach children between 3 and 6 years old.

Who is the course for?

  • Those who teach or wish to teach English as a foreign language to very young children
  • Teachers already working in the pre-school environment
  • Experienced teachers who want to further develop their skills to teach pre-literate/pre-school students
  • Teachers that have had some sort of pre-service training in the teaching of English to adults (IHC/CELTA) or children (IH CYLT – International House Certificate in Teaching Young Learners and Teenagers)

The course will be delivered completely online. Please note that like all of our online Teacher Training courses, this course is 100% live. Trainees and tutors are together as a group in real-time for the duration of the course.

IHVYL training for teachers

Do you want to attend the IHVYL course with a colleague?

There is a discount in store for you! Two or more teachers of the same school complex who enroll in the course can take advantage of a 10% discount !! In fact, we want this course to be an opportunity to expand the teacher training within your school as much as possible.

Aims and Structure

The major aims of the course are to introduce the principles of teaching Very Young Learners (VYLs) and to help trainees consider, evaluate, and develop their own teaching skills in this area.

Course Participants (CPs) will:

  • Consider the different needs, realities and challenges of teaching very young learners
  • Practice planning to meet aims
  • Look at games and activities aimed at recognition, production and early years literacy
  • Design and adapt practical teaching activities and materials to meet the needs of the learners and curriculum
  • Look at the different stages in learning and development of young children
  • Learn about activities to use to stimulate and support language development, for example craft, games, stories and songs and ways to make learning opportunities from play
  • Analyse what is suitable for different ages and developmental stages
  • Consider techniques for developing literacy at different developmental stages and nurture developing reading and writing skills

The course is comprised of 10 sessions of 90 minutes each designed by VYL experts from around the International House network. CPs complete a written task for each module which are internally assessed by the course tutors. Final assessment is based on an end of course portfolio made up of the tasks completed over the duration of the course and a final reflective essay. Portfolios are externally assessed by the International House World Assessment Unit at the end of the course.

  • Next online courses (live on Zoom):
    • 05/10 – 09/11/2024 (no class 2/11)
    • 18/01 – 15/02/2025
  • Total hours: 15 hours
  • Live online attendance on Saturday mornings (9:15-10:45 / 11:00-12:30)
  • Pre-requisites:
    • minimum C1 level of English,
    • initial teaching qualification (CELTA or equivalent) or extensive experience teaching the VYL age group (eg. nursery school teacher)
  • How to enrol: complete the registration form in the last tab (for any information write to teachertraining@ihmilano.it)
  • Price:
    • € 450.00 + €2 tax fee 
    • includes IHWO fee for digital verifiable certificate
    • Our school is a certified member of AISLI, an association accredited to teach state and private school teachers, you can spend your “Buono Scuola” here
Day 1Session 1Introduction to the course: What are VYLs
Session 2The Very Young Learner teacher
Day 2Session 1Managing the classroom
Session 2Coursebooks and materials
Day 3Session 1Materials development
Session 2Lesson planning
Day 4Session 1Storytelling
Session 2Games
Day 5Session 1Songs
Session 2Early literacy skills
Day 6Single session TUTORIAL SLOTS/Draft Assignments TBC

Meet the Course Tutors.

  • Stephanie Holme

    Stephanie is the Head Teacher Trainer at IH Milan & San Donato. She holds the Cert TEFLA, Dip TEFLA, the CELTYL, CERT IBET, and the CERT ICT. She has been a CELTA trainer since 2006, a CELTYL/IHCYLT Trainer since 2009, a DELTA trainer since 2010. She has accompanied hundreds of teachers, both new to the profession and experienced teachers, on their training journeys, as well as having accompanied thousands of learners on their learning journeys, covering a range of ages from 2 to 75 years old!!

  • Tiziana Pace

    Tiziana Pace is a teacher, teacher trainer, and has held roles of both YL Senior Teacher and YL Coordinator. Tiziana has a CELTA, DELTA Module 1, and is an approved tutor on both the IHVYL and IHCYLT.


Tutors’ support was mind-blowing, it helped me focus on the learning and teaching a lot more and this played a big role in succeeding in the course. I’d also like to mention all the admin staff too, always attentive and helpful, thank you 🙂

IHVYL Trainee

What I found useful: interactive and student-centered lessons, working on different tasks (arts and crafts, exploit a song, literacy and print awareness strategies, etc.) that I will use when I teach, pre-reading tasks (very interesting articles!)

IHVYL Trainee

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