Nursery deputy manager Review

In my role I am in charge of the smooth running of the nursery on a daily basis. I am designated for safeguarding and also health and safety. I also have to arrange staffing and ratios for the children on a daily basis and make sure they comply with the regulations.

I have already completed a level five in early years, but my qualification is no longer relevant. I have also worked in early years for 8 years and would like to think that my knowledge is pretty solid. I am finding it quite easy to get all my units completed.

I am sometimes finding it hard to complete my programme, because the description in the units aren’t very clear. I sometimes have to message my tutor because I struggle with how vague the work is. There are often occasions that I get told I don’t have to complete work sheets. But the unit says to complete them. It’s abit confusing.

As said above I do think that the programme is a little vague with what the unit wants exactly from you. I’m still trying to figure out the difference between a tutorial and self study etc. Some of the units are quite easy to complete and it’s nice to see how far you are progressing.

My employer gives me lots of time and support to get my work completed. There are occasions that I need to have an observation and that requires my manager to do this for me. I am also the deputy manager so I do have some free time to fit work in.

I do have my trainer call me every month to check in on how I am getting on. If I message my trainer she will also get back to me within a few days to give me an answer. She is also very encouraging with me and praises me alot for all the work I have completed.

I don’t believe it has helped me perform better as I have been in the role for 8 years so I do have quite a bit of knowledge. I do think that when I have my qualification it will help a lot so I can support staff in ratios.

We do have social events in our contracts which involve the parents and children twice a year, these are called stay and plays. I often attend staff meetings around every other month to give more knowledge and information to improve our provision. The nursery also provides good social events for the staff throughout the year to boost morale.

Yes

The job is very rewarding, you create special bonds with the children and sometimes also with their families. The place is a very friendly environment to work in, we get a lot of social perks working for Daisy Chain which you don’t normally see in other working environments. Overall lovely place to work.

One would be to make sure that you are passionate about your job, you need to have a passion to work with children. Their learning comes from you. You need to be extremely creative and imaginative. Childcare isn’t easy, it’s very demanding, but it is extremely rewarding to the right people.