Apprentice Nursery Practitioner Review

my role is to work with my team to ensure the children are safe and content whilst providing and planning appropriate and enriching activities to aid and support their development and spark their interests, i also write assessments and weekly observations for the children in my key group which is sent to the parents to read.

i have developed a plethora of skills as i was new to this industry before. i learnt how to change nappies, first aid, safeguarding, plan activities, manage behaviour. i have also been on some more child specific training courses such as understanding autism, makaton and down’s syndrome to help me support SEN children.

i have enjoyed my apprenticeship and have learnt many new skills, i feel learning on the job has been more beneficial than going to college as i have learnt so many more skills. the written work enabled me to learn new things so that i could put them into practise in work.

the programme itself is well set out and follows a structure where you initially do a small intro to a topic and then a larger piece of written work. however there is little support with writing the work itself and i found it difficult to keep up with the workload at times

my employer has been very good at supporting me with any questions i have, i didn’t initially get much time out of ratio to do my work due to staffing however wherever possible they did offer me time in work hours to complete work, which did help me ultimately finish on time.

i did not receive much support from my training provider as she was very busy and wasn’t able to reply quickly, i did receive a phone call once a month to talk to her about any issues and also set new work for the upcoming month, this was beneficial

my qualification has allowed me to understand the deeper reasons behind my work and also given me much more knowledge about the job itself, although i have learnt a lot from my employer rather than the course itself as each setting does things slightly differently such as how observations are carried out

yes, at my work we have regular staff days out such as festivals, meals out etc. these are usually spread out throughout the year and everyone gets a chance to socialise without it being in a work setting, also many rooms plan their own social events to strengthen the team

Yes

This company is very good at helping apprentices with developing their skills and i was supported with training courses throughout my apprenticeship, i feel the company they used for my apprenticeship lacked support however Daisy Chain were very helpful in aiding me to develop my skillset and helped to support me throughout

Be aware that the apprenticeship provider they use does not offer much support however the manager and other staff are very knowledgeable and offer lots of additional help and support