I am currently completing
my placement at Glencairn Nursery in Greenock. Glencairn is a private nursery
that cares for 25 children from the ages of two through to five. The children
are split into four different groups, one for each key worker. The key worker
is responsible monitoring the well being and progress of each child in their
group however the children are not educated separately in there group and all
get the opportunity to take part in every activity. As a result of this I also
get the opportunity to work with all the children and all age groups.
I help the children fun and
exciting activities that support and encourage the children in all aspects of
their development. I support the children in other activities set up such as
construction activities (lego, sticko bricks, etc), games, writing and drawing
activities, singing and reading.
The nursery currently a
three year old child diagnosed as on the autistic spectrum. As the child is so
young it is yet to be determined how sever his autism is. In order to help
fully support this child and his parents a child psychologist comes once a week
to observe and work with this child. The nursery has also sent the child's key
worker to a course to better understand autism and how to deal with it. This will
allow her to provide the best possible care for him giving him the best
education possible and helping his parents to judge whether he should continue
his education in main stream school or whether he requires specialist
attention. There are no children in the nursery who have been diagnosed with
dyslexia as at this stage of their development the symptoms would not be
apparent.
From this experience I hope
to gain valuable experience in al aspects of working as part of a nursery team.
As I have been placed in a private nursery I will take every opportunity to
learn about how this differs from a government run nursery, as any further
placements may not offer this. It also gives me the opportunity to work with
children of two years old giving me experience on how to adjust activities for
a wider age gap and different stages of learning and development. From my
experience at placement this year I hope to become more confident in my
abilities and be able to use my initiative more freely without doubting myself.
This will be imperative in my future career as I will be responsible for the
education of a group of children and will have to have faith in my ability to
do so to make sure they receive the best opportunities possible. Throughout my
placement I will take all criticism and feedback on board so as to become the
best early years care officer I can. I take care to watch the goings on and the
activities of the other staff members, so that I can gather as many ideas as
possible for future activities of my own so that I can plan a large variety of
activities and give the children I work with as many different experiences and opportunities
for learning as possible.
