Nursery Apprentice

Laura completed her apprenticeship with Roundabout Nursery and has stayed on with them as a full time Nursery Assistant.

Name: Laura Clarke
Apprenticeship: Nursery Practitioner Apprentice
Qualification: Level 3 Early Years Educator

I thought I wanted to be a primary school teacher or a counsellor, so I thought if I got an apprenticeship in a nursery it would give me a good starting point to do that. It would help me learn more about the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and I would be gaining experience with children at the same time.

My apprenticeship involved learning the daily routine of the nursery, learning children’s names and any important information about them e.g. allergies, any family issues or if other agencies were involved etc. Making sure I knew the fire procedure and looking through the policies and procedures to make sure I understood them.

I had to attend training to make sure I knew about different topics, especially on equality and diversity and safeguarding. I broadened my knowledge on the EYFS and how we can use it within the setting to develop the children’s learning and understanding. I also learnt how to write planned observations on my key children and see how I could use these to help develop their learning, making sure I recorded notes on them and took photographs as evidence to use on target tracker (a system I can log their progress on). I learnt how the key children system worked, how many each staff member were allowed to have and the buddy system.

My apprenticeship also helped me gain confidence and self-belief, realising that I do know what I’m doing and what I’m talking about and believing in myself would help improve my practice.

I chose to stay on at the nursery full time because I loved working at the nursery, I realised that it was such a rewarding job and you really get to know each child and their families, so I decided to stay at the nursery instead of going on to university. Roundabout Nursery is also a lovely place to work; I get on really well with the staff and really feel part of a team here. Everyone was so welcoming when I first started and really helped me broaden my knowledge and they are always continuing to help me improve and grow through support, opportunity and example.


You can apply to be a nNursery Apprentice on the council's website