Nursery Practictioner Review

I work in a nursery so I have to set up for the day, make sure there are activities set out and that breakfast is ready. I have to interact with the children during the day and make sure I am working towards their next steps and that I know everything I need to know to safeguard them. I have to constantly teach them new things and expand their knowledge, challenging them and teaching them new words in English and Spanish as it's a bilingual nursery.

I have learn't so much about a child's development and how to care for a child. The do's and don'ts of looking after a child. I did a paediatric first aid course so know how to deal with any accidents that could happen. I have done various NoodleNow courses so know about certain things. I learnt all about safeguarding a child. I have learnt how to care for a baby, changing its nappy, making a bottle and feeding it. I have learnt how to help a preschooler become independent.

I enjoy learning on the job, being able to be active and make mistakes but fix them there and then. I'm not very good at lesson type teaching as I find I forget the information if I'm not remembering and doing it all the time. I like how there's not any essay type exams and time limits as I find that really overwhelming and stressful.

Well organised, have a timetable of all my webinars and everything, although it was difficult to get a hand on it at first. Also, having an email for my webinar invites a few days in advance is good, also classes as a reminder incase I haven't checked my visit tracker in awhile. Find OneFile a bit confusing at first but once you get to know it its not too bad, but still think it's really complicated if you don't know how to use it.

Employer are really helpful and will happily answer any questions I have. We use slack to communicate to each other about the nursery and we have a channel called apprenticeship as there are 3 of us so we can talk through that. Although if I have any specific questions about my course I will ask one of my deputy managers as I find she always know the answers and how to help me find them and is always willing to help me if I'm stuck. She also will ask me frequently how my course is going and if I am on top of it all and if I need any help with anything.

Whenever I am talking to my tutor she is super supportive and always says that if I need any help I can contact her. Although sometimes when I do contact her she doesn't reply, not sure if that's because she's working from home so its difficult for her with children and husband disruptions. But I have found on a few occasions ill contact her and it'll be ignored or she won't reply for ages or if I have two parts to a message she'll only reply to one. She seems a bit disorganised but always states she's happy to help.

Not much. I learn better by doing so most of what I've learnt I've learnt from on the job. Some aspects I've learned from webinars and then put into practice but as I'm not repeating it I tend to forget. I'm better at repetitive learning and doing things over and over again until its stuck in my memory so having a webinar and then not revising it again I find not very useful.

We have a social committee that I'm apart of that organises social events, like we had a Christmas party/employee of the year event and we are currently planning a baby shower for two members of the team. We also have an annual team meeting in January where we get given a topic each and we have to do a presentation on it and then after we have a team building exercise although because of COVID we didn't get to do the team building exercise.

No

The organisation generally isn't very good and there isn't much support from anyone in realise. Haven't really been told much about the company and the only person I'm aware of is my tutor so not sure who else to speak to about any problems other than my employer. Also, not given much information about the apprenticeship and what it involves other than 1 overwhelming presentation at the beginning that I struggled to follow. Plus I find the use of OneFile not very good as I really struggled to understand it at first and took. my a good couple of months before I realised what I was supposed to be doing.

Maybe do the introduction slower so that we can remember what we're supposed to do, break it down more. Maybe give the tutors more support so they can support us more and make sure they are contactable if we need any help. Make sure the apprentices know what work they're supposed to be doing as I was only told about the longitudinal study about 6 months into my apprenticeship.