Personal Work Experience of Being a Nursery Assistant 

I went to Leicester montesori nursery / school for a work experience placement. Nonetheless, the placement took 1 week to gain even more experience and knowledge of the profession which I applied for an extra one week that I was given. I operated from 8:45 a.m. Monday to Friday. Around 3:30 p.m. My primary teacher was Mrs. Roshika Deio, who was the nursery manager I arrived at 8.40 on the first day. As I wanted to make a good impression and avoid being late as being timely is key to success in a working environment and I was introduced to the other staff members. I held a variety of jobs during the placement of work experience. 

The main job, which was extremely important and had to be carried out from the moment the children arrived to the moment they left, was overseeing them. The nursery days have been very structured. The kids arrived at 9 a.m. Around 9 a.m. And at 9.30 a.m. It was the moment when the kids were sitting on the couch, reading books and doing academic work like phoenics that I was there to help with. They took the register and read stories to them. About 9.30 a.m. The children's activities was .These varied from craft to learning to count. Around 10.45 in the morning The kids helped the staff to clean up their activity The younger kids went to the toilet after cleaning up before having a drink and some fruit. It was playtime again until 11.50 a.m. after having a break. When it was afternoon. The children went with the Infant Scholl to the dining hall at lunchtime. I was allowed to help the younger babies between the ages of 6 months and 2 years as my main goal was to work with the younger kids. Lunchtime usually lasted about 25 minutes. The kids watched a video at about 1.30 p.m. after dinner At 13:30 p.m. it was playtime until 2.45 p.m. Both games and toys have been completely cleared away at this time. The children got a drink and they read stories until it was time to go home at 3.15 p.m. While the kids are playing or doing stuff like painting, I would do a variety of jobs. Almost everyday or my placement, I was asked to supervise the craft activity in the morning.

It included a number of tasks on its own. I had to make sure each child was wearing an apron and when finished watched their hands, I also had to write the child's name on their work. Once the child had finished the activity, I had to make sure the work was put on a rack to dry. I had to make sure that the kids didn't run out of glue or paint, sometimes a kid would ask me to read them It usually got some kids ' attention and I'd end up reading to a small group. The kids wanted me to play with them a lot of time. I arranged a dominoes game with a team of six kids one day during my placement. Sometimes I would make drinks for the kids at break time and prep the fruit. Another work I always enjoyed doing and found satisfying was to help the kids complete counting books created by the Nursery. I think the kids enjoyed doing this with me, and I found it interesting. It was my most satisfying achievement. 

I have learned a lot of other different skills on my placement as well as teaching children to count. Speaking clearly was an important thing that I had to do when reading to children. Generally I'm a pretty vague speaker, but I've developed this ability during the placement. One thing that I found really necessary was to have patience when managing children. Very often the kids didn't do as they had been told the first time, so that meant I had to be careful with them. I found that as time went by, it became simpler. I found that I didn't really experience a lot of problems during my placement. Nonetheless, I found myself constantly asking questions about where items were held in the first week. I even understood where everything was held after the first week and habits became more familiar to me. Another minor issue I found was with some of the boys. We were very stubborn and they were not going to do what I asked. Sometimes this was troubling because I feared they were putting themselves in danger. I often found that one of the staff members was very condescending. I felt like she spoke to me and talked to me the same way she spoke to the kids. At first, this was really on my nerves, but I chose to ignore it after a while and not let it bother me. This position has helped me understand this type of work's drawbacks and advantages. It also helped me decide what I want to do in the future. 

In conclusion, I thought it was a very time-consuming job to be a nursery assistant, although it's very hard work. This is the only real downside of this kind of work. I think the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. Sometimes this job can be very hard, but it can also be very rewarding. I think it's cool to work with young kids. This placement made me realise that as a potential occupation I would certainly like to work with children.