Nikelle, childcare in Northampton

I have completed my Level 3 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care. I am currently studying Psychology and Counselling at the University of Northampton where I will hopefully progress to become a Child and Adolescent psychotherapist. I have worked as a Customer Service Assistant in Sainsburys from January 2015 till September 2016. Alongside working in Sainsburys, I also worked in a nursery from June 2015 to September 2016. Both jobs have helped me to progress as a person and taught me new things that I can use in everyday life. I have volunteered at many different health and social care settings such as;
• A nursery
• A primary school
• A school for disabled children
• An elderly home
My favourite work placement was the school for disabled children because it helped to push me out of my comfort zone. When I arrived at the school for disabled children, I felt nervous and scared as this was a new experience. However, whist being there, I learnt so many new things such as a basic understanding of sign language, Makaton and braille. This helped me to understand the different ways of communicating with people and taught me how to read body language and adapt myself to each child. It also confirmed to me that later on in life, I do want to specialise in children and adolescents. I found most of my work experiences very useful as it has a connection to the field of work that I would like to study which is child psychology. This gave me a small insight on what my career will behold in the future and helped me to know and understand the difficulties that I may possibly face, but also showed me that this is something I would definitely like to do in the future. Since I was five years old, I have been trained in performing arts. I have done a wide range of different genres of dancing such as ballet, contemporary, tap, modern, street and theatre along with two years at gymnastics from the age of four. From starting performing arts at a young age, I have learnt to work well in small or big groups and individually. I have performed in The Compass Theatre and partaken in three shows in Barbara Speakes stage school where I have done a solo in each show. My most recent performance was starring in ‘high school musical, the musical’ in the beck theatre. Through this, I have also learnt how to follow strict instructions and perfect the things I do. As performing arts is a very demanding and time consuming thing, I have learnt how to organise myself so that I have time for everything.