My work experience placement was at Orchard day nursery in handforth and was really really good although we did the same thing everyday at the same time it was amazingly fun and the children were really energetic and friendly. Before my first day I was feeling quiet nervous as I hadn’t really wanted to be placed wit screaming toddlers all day for 2 weeks but once I arrived there all my nerves were abolished as all the staff were really young, hilariously funny and also made me feel really welcome which I loved to.
On my first day I had to get the bus to handforth so I had to leave at quarter to eight every morning to get a bus to cheadle and then a bus to handforth so I arrived at 8.30 therefore being 1/2 an hour early. And the journey home was a lot worse I finished at 5 and the bus came at 5past so if you weren’t quick at getting to the bus stop it would drive straight past you this happened to me virtually everyday which wasn’t fun at all so I then had to walk home from handforth to gatley which took around a 1 1/4 and neither of my parents would come and get me as it was rush hour and it would have taken them longer to come and get me then it would have me walking.
In the nursery the staff follows the high scope day nursery plan where they believe that children learn best by pursuing their personal interests and goals, children in High/Scope settings are encouraged to make choices about materials and activities throughout the day. As they pursue their choices and plans, children explore, ask and answer questions, solve problems, and interact with classmates and adults. In this kind of environment, children naturally engage in “key experiences” activities that foster developmentally important skills and abilities. The key experiences are grouped into 9 categories: creative representation, language and literacy, initiative and social relations, movement, music, classification, number, space, and time.
The nursery was split up into different areas tree house, blossoms, and buds. And they were then split up again the tree house had Green apples aged 2 1/2 to 3 Red apples aged 3-4 and pips aged 4 to when they leave for school and they had a different member of staff for each set. The blossoms were split into white, pink and blue blossoms. White blossoms were aged 18months to 24months, pink were aged 24months to 30 and blue were aged 30 to 36 months Buds were ages 3months to 18months.
Each room had 3 members of staff and then there were 3 other members of staff who went to each different room to make sure that they could cope and then there were 3cooks and one who doubled as a cleaner. Also in the nursery they don’t believe in any processed foods everything that the children ate was made in the kitchens fresh and if a child has a special diet then they cater to that child’s needs: Vegetarian, lactose intolerant etc.
My routine was the same for everyday and this was good as it gave the children a structure on which to work on and prepared them for a school environment. Also in having a set routine I new when I had to do something and when I could have my breaks and lunch and when I was going to be needed in a certain area of the nursery.Overall I really enjoyed my work experience placement it was fun interesting and I met a lot of new people but I definitely wouldn’t choose this as a career path for me as it really has just put me of doing it completely from the work that they do and the hours that they have to work but for a work experience placement I couldn’t complain and on the last Friday they let me leave at 2.30 instead of 5 because of the work I had done.