Michelle, childcare provider in Kingsbridge TQ7

Working with children has always appealed to me as a career choice because I feel I have the potential to ensure that all children gain the correct help they need in their education to excel in their own personal and individual learning development. What attracts me most to this career choice is the ability and opportunity to help with the education of young people and to make a difference in regarding a child’s development in all aspects, by ensuring the services they have are inclusive to their own individual needs.
As a nursery manager I was able to improve the nursery along with fellow staff with the Ofsted report from having inadequate to gaining a good within the space of nine months.
To me this is a huge achievement in my own personal development and I feel very proud of myself and my team in what we managed to achieve in those short months.
I have also had the opportunity to work as an inclusion support worker in a local preschool providing one to one support for a child and work closely with other multidisciplinary teams to ensure the child’s needs were being met.
I have also done some health work with children which saw me take on a new challenge in becoming a personal assistant for one night a week for a disabled boy in his own home, which saw me carrying out personal care tasks and helping the child with his medical needs.
I have also had personal experience of working with children with additional and learning needs. My brother has Aspergers and dyspraxia and I have had a lot of input with his education and behavioural management. I also understand the process of a child’s statement and have attended a few of my brothers meetings regarding his statement.
From having a brother with special needs my enthusiasm of wanting to work with children with special needs has also grown in strength and I am a very passionate person regarding making sure disabled children get the correct education that they deserve too, and ensuring all practices are inclusive to all.
There are many qualities and attributes which are needed to make a good, effective childcare worker or childcare professional.
From doing a foundation degree in Early Years Care and Education and doing my BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies I have developed an ability to relate to young people and have developed good interpersonal skills and learned the ability to listen to individuals and take into consideration their views, values and beliefs which also takes into consideration inclusion which is a massive factor within education settings as every child deserves to be treated the same but as individuals, taking into consideration their human and disability rights.
I have learnt and developed the capacity to be creative in my role and imaginative through my time in various settings and from being a supervisor of a summer camp which sees me planning the day to day activities ensuring they include every individual and also considers what OFSTED have outlined.
From working in many different settings over the past six years I have developed in becoming a good team worker and have demonstrated this ability through attending staff meetings and conveying and sharing my ideas while also taking into account other members of the settings views and opinions. This was particularly put into practice when I became a manager of a setting and I learnt you do need to be accepting of other people’s thoughts and ideas, to gain the best for the staff and the setting.
Through my connections within my placements I have developed a self desire to become more of an effective practitioner in all attributes which are considered to make an inspirational and influential early year’s practitioner.
All my placements have helped me to develop a high level of understanding of the EYFS and the curriculum which is essential to every child. I have learnt that the curriculum needs to ensure that every child is unique and should be treated as an individual and that having positive relationships with teaching staff is just as important to ensuring that the child learns and develops in an environment which enables them to do this. The curriculum has to consider that children learn in different ways and at different rates and that all areas of a child’s learning and development is equally important and are connected.
Education for all children influences and reflects in society and the kind of society we as educators want it to be for the children we care for. It is important therefore with the guidelines met that we all as childcare providers understand and recognise a broad range of common values and purposes to make it learning effective for all creating an inclusive rich learning environment.