Placement Day One

Today I went up to the Links nursery to have a look around and to essentially see the workplace in action. Walking into the building, I already had a sense of the place being a modern environment. 

Upon entering the place, my phone and bag was taken a side as mobile phones are not permitted in the nursery area. Once this was done, I was buzzed through to the main reception area of the building.

The main entrance consisted of two staff offices, disabled toilet, stock and cleaning cupboard and a staff room which would hold personal belongings and lunch items. 

Through another door brought me into the nursery area. Links caterers for children aged 18 months to four year old and so as a result, the area was split into three rooms. The rooms are light and airy, and where possible windows and ceiling lights were added to aid this effect. Each room was accommodated with toilets and sinks for the children. The areas were also bright and colourful and engaged children to play. Even though there are ‘separate’ rooms for the age groups, this is not set in stone. Speaking to the head manager, a more confident younger child would be welcome to play with the older children and also if an older child was feeling overwhelmed, they would be welcome in the smaller age group room. Anything to make the children feel safe and happy.

Outside was another play area, slightly sheltered but with a variety of interactive items an toys for the children to play with. Today was seemingly a quiet day with not many children attending the nursery today. I was told that each day is different with how many children you will have each day and what activities you will be able to do depending on the number of children. This showed that the nursery staff have to be flexible and quick with decisions on what they will do.

Links nursery also houses an after and before school club for both Nathaniel Newton the infant school and Michael Drayton the middle school. A staff member will go over to each of the other schools and escort the children to Links. There is a register given to the nursery before hand so the staff can check off each student and get them to the after school club safely.

When I was showed around today, all of the children were playing, some welcomed a strange face where as some were too involved on their game. 

Each child has a folder at the nursery which the staff fill out. From outsiders point of view the children are just playing, which of course is true but the staff are observing them, how they interact with he other children and staff. From this, the log the information for themselves and also to report back to parents on the parents evenings.

At the end of the tour, it was discussed what my options are whether I would like to come back to the nursery or whether I would prefer to just volunteer at the before and after school clubs. 

For me going on to study a PGCE, I am going to welcome any experience I can get working with children, however, I am more geared to stay later for after school club as this will give me a experience working with children from Year Two, the age group that I would like to eventually work with.