Apprentice Nursery Practitioner Review

I work in Happy Hippos which is age range 2. On a day to day basis we have breakfast between 7-8, circle time, snack time 9:15, play outside, nappies 10:45, story and singing time, dinner 11:15, sleep time 12-2, snack time 2.30, main activity of the day - painting or drawing, nappies 2:45, tea time 3:15, play until home time. Day ends at 6

Definitely, I’ve learnt how to do nappies, what development stage a 2 year old is supposed to be at, interacting on a level where a 2 year old will understand me, one to one play with a 2 year old and seeing how they talk, play, what stage of speech they are at. Watching over and safeguarding children. What 2 year olds need compared to a 3 or 4 year old

I love working at my nursery, even though I struggle with my mental health everyday the nursery and interacting with those children every week keeps me going, makes me forget about my mind, it makes me so happy as well to see how far they have come like say after a few weeks for example a little boy being able to say 2 or 3 word sentences or potty training and how far they have come. In the end it feels like such a big accomplishment and I feel so proud.

Of course everyone has there days where it’s more stressful and a bit more overwhelming but altogether I would say if your working in the right room and with the right people we have created an organised routine.

My employer tries to support me as much as possible but I’m the one who struggles to reach out for help when I’m struggling. I can’t push myself to talk to people when I need help or when I don’t understand something. I’m trying my best but I just feel like I’m bothering or disturbing them because they are so busy and stressed

I’m not sure who my training provider is yet but I can imagine I am going to receive a lot of help and support

It’s definitely going to help me in my job role because it’s helping me to understand a child on a one to one basis and how their brain and physical attributes are developing, or just general skills like feeding themselves, drinking, nappies, potty training. Also learning more on right and wrong, what safety requirements you need for a child and how different the world actually is for a child

I don’t think so like we have our winter wonderland fair at Christmas so we get to interact with the children and parents outside of nursery, have a laugh and socialise

Yes

Since properly settling in now it’s a great place to work because you have become part of a team who want to help and support you on your journey. But like I always say you are there for the children and all that matters is helping them grow, develop and smile at the end of the day

Be prepared it’s very stressful, hard, so much to take on all in one in a very small amount of time. You must learn as you go because you need to have attention on the children 24/7 so you don’t get much time to just sit back unless your on your dinner. You are doing the best you can, everyone makes mistakes because you are learning on the job.