Tag: nursery work

Talking tantrums

Parents and childcarers – nannies, childminders, aupairs or nursery staff – are almost all familiar with the tantrums, but there can be differences of opinion on how to deal with them.

As a childcarer it’s difficult to bring up a sensitive subject. Tantrums are an entirely normal phase of development, coming from a child’s desire to show their independence and assert themselves or an inability to communicate, and intellectually parents know that but no-one likes to hear that their child has been ‘misbehaving’.

Parents may not share details of the behaviours with childcarers, perhaps feeling that it’s a reflection on their parenting skills, or perceived lack thereof. Children do often save their worst behaviour for their parents but it is not a sign of weakness to make others aware of facts.

It’s important that neither party shies away from discussing the issue. The best way to deal with tantrums is a consistent approach from everyone involved. That way a child quickly learns what the limits are and that having a paddy isn’t an effective way of getting what they want. Communicating also allows parents and childcarers to share tips and tricks. Parents may know what frustrates their child and be adept at handling it so sharing that information with their child’s carer is vital to help prevent tantrums. Childcarers may be able to offer strategies that have worked with other children or reassure parents that their child is indeed learning to deal with frustration and that the tantrums will soon decrease.

Toddlers especially need to make sense of the world. It’s reassuring for them to have a set of consistent rules and boundaries, consistent positive attention for good behaviour and a consistent response to a tantrum. It’s especially important that everyone is on the same page when it comes to safety. Communicating about expectations and accommodating each other’s practices where possible makes the transition as easy as possible for children and avoids unnecessary tantrums.

Children also need autonomy. Some adults are inclined to say ‘no’ to anything out of the ordinary, even when it’s perfectly possible to accommodate a request, and others will bend over backwards to comply. Obviously in group childcare settings it’s more difficult to deal with individual whims, and it doesn’t do any good to spoil children by giving in to them all the time, but by working together parents and carers can agree what will or won’t be accommodated.

Finally, while it’s important to communicate between adults it’s also important not to let what happens when you aren’t there affect your relationship with a child. Sharing information should help you understand and deal with tantrums, but it needs to be done sensitively and with respect.

Nursery Jobs: Are You Cut Out for One?

Nursery jobs are, by some, considered to be unskilled jobs that anybody can do – this is not the case.  Nursery jobs come with plenty of challenges, and not everybody is cut out for working in a childcare setting.  Fun they may be, but nursery jobs are no easy option!

However, the rewards of nursery jobs are many, and if you are the kind of person who can adapt to nursery life, a nursery job might well be the perfect career option for you.

So, how do you know if you are cut out for one of the many nursery jobs that are available?

Do you like children?

This may be devastatingly obvious, but it’s an important point nonetheless – in order to be able to hack the daily hustle and bustle of a nursery, you will need to have some kind of passion for children and early years education.  With office jobs and the like, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t like your job much, as long as you can fulfil your tasks – with nursery jobs, enjoying your work (most of the time) is important.  After all, you’re dealing with little people every single day – little people who will need to be connected with you and who need you to have their best interests at heart.

Can you tolerate noise and chaos?

Good nurseries tend to be well-organised and run to a schedule.  In any facility where there are a lot of people in one place that need caring for, some kind of schedule is necessary.  However, children being children, things won’t always go to plan.  There will be moments that the nursery will be a chaotic environment, and you can guarantee that it will be noisy nearly all of the time.  Not everybody can tolerate such a busy and noisy environment, and nursery jobs require that you are able to stay calm and in control even if all hell is breaking loose.

Are you patient?

We all lose our temper sometimes, and you don’t have to be endlessly patient to be a great nursery worker.  However, you need to be able to be patient with the children – shouting at them is never okay.  We all have limits and that isn’t a bad thing, but you need to be self-aware enough to realise when you are approaching your limit so you can remove yourself from stressful situations before they escalate.

Do you have a sense of fun?

If you don’t enjoy playing and being silly, you certainly won’t enjoy working in a nursery.  Of course, there are plenty of other duties besides playing to undertake in nursery jobs, but playing is certainly one of the most important.  Small children learn through play, so being able to engage them in stimulating, creative activities is vital.  Having a sense of fun and a good imagination is important, as is not being afraid to make animal noises and dress up like a princess or a superhero in the presence of lots of children (and probably a few adults, too).

New qualifications for childcarers

On 1 September 2014 the standard qualifications for new learners within the childcare profession changed from the Certificate and Diploma for the Children and Young People’s Workdforce to the Early Years Educator Qualifications. Previous diplomas, including the BTEC, NNEB and DCE as well as the DCYPW, remain full and relevant and therefore suitable for nannies.

The new qualifications focus on the 0-5 age range, with some knowledge of the 5-7 age group, and require a Grade C pass in GCSE English and Maths. For the academic year 2014/2015 this will be an end of course, rather than an entry, requirement but in following years learners will be expected to obtain these before enrolling on the course if they are accessing funding.

Early Years Educator qualifications can be taken at a college or in a workplace, but the workplace needs to be registered and following the EYFS, meaning that nannies would need to undertake practical placements to complete the course. It will take 12-24 months to complete. The qualification is the same standard as A-levels and can be used to apply for university to study courses such as childhood and early years, primary teaching or nursing.

The criteria for the new EYE qualifications set out by the Government can be found here.

More Great Childcare II

In our first blog post on the changes proposed by Liz Truss we focused on the changes to ratios. This second part is about the changes which relate to qualifications. To understand this one must first understand that Professor Cathy Nutbrown undertook a review, culminating last year in the report Foundations for Quality which made a number of recommendations. More Great Childcare is, amongst other things, the Governments response to that.

Early Years Educators

Liz Truss proposes a new standard ‘Early Years Educator’ badge for qualifications. As anyone who has looked into gaining a qualification over the last decade, or looked at employing someone, there is a huge array of qualifications, some of which are simply a rebranded NNEB and some of which are barely worth the paper they’re written on. These were all slimmed down the the Diploma for the Children and Young People’s Workforce, which was criticised by Nutbrown’s review for being, amongst other things, too broad. Clarity here would probably be welcomed by everyone.

Early years teachers

More Great Childcare proposes a new status and training course for Early Years Teachers, a postgraduate qualification that will focus on teaching in the early years and have the same entry requirements (including the skills tests) as school teachers, but crucially stops shorts of giving Early Years Teachers the same Qualified Teacher Status that their primary and secondary colleagues have. Given that there is already Early Years Professional Status, which can be taken by professionals working in registered settings, the proposed change doesn’t seem to go much further and is likely to be a source of discontent.

GCSE Maths and English

Nutbrown recommended that all entrants onto an early years qualification hold a level 2, with the reasoning that learners should be ‘confident and capable in their literacy and numeracy’. The Government has interpreted this as a grade C in Maths and English GCSE.

This has been of particular interest to many on our Facebook page. It used to be a requirement of many colleges before entry, and some people seemed unaware that this policy had changed. Others appreciated the need for English to develop children’s communication skills but questioned the need for maths. Still others placed a higher value on aptitude for working with children.

Nannies in particular, who are not obliged to hold any qualifications, are uniquely affected by this recommendation. Parents can order their own priorities when hiring a nanny, but particularly for those with school aged children GCSEs and further educational qualifications are increasingly important. A quick random poll revealed that parents felt academic qualifications combined with a natural affinity for children actually outweighed the need for formal childcare training. What would Nutbrown or Liz Truss say to that?

So how does this link back to ratios?

Professor Nutbrown herself suggested that the Government explore whether qualified teachers could work with more three and four year olds. The Government re-examined ratios in a larger sense and suggested increased ratios possibly based upon:

–          Setting based criteria e.g. 70% of staff qualified to level 3; 100% of staff qualified to level 3; 100% of staff to have a C in Maths and English; at least one graduate plus 70% of staff qualified to level 3

–          Practitioner based criteria e.g. only staff with a C in English and Maths to operate the higher ratio

There is some sense in the second requirement, although we don’t recall our GCSE (or O-level) certificates giving us extra eyes or arms, in that the paperwork is going to increase by 50% and strong literacy and numeracy skills will be essential to cope with that in a timely manner.

What does this mean for people already working in early years?

If you already have a qualification rest assured, that will be assessed against the criteria in place when they were awarded. If you are working, or wish to work, in a nursery and you don’t meet the literacy and numeracy requirements you may find your prospects limited. If you don’t have a qualification you may find that you need to brush up on your maths or English first.

More Great Childcare

The biggest changes to childcare in a decade were announced early this week. A report, entitled More Great Childcare, was sent out by Elizabeth Truss MP, the Minister with responsibility for early years. Two major changes were proposed: relaxing the adult:child ratio for childminders and nurseries and setting out new plans for qualifications. This is the first of two blog posts on the report – first we’re going to look at ratios and the second post will be about qualifications.

 

What are the changes?

For nurseries the ratios will become 1 adult to 4 babies and 1 adult to 6 toddlers with no change to the ratios for pre-schoolers.

Childminders will still be allowed to care for 6 under 8 but routinely 4 under 5, of which 2 can be under 1 instead of 3 under 5, 1 under 1.

There is no change affecting ratios for nannies.

 

We spoke to Penny Webb, a childminder with 30 years’ experience who starteda petition against the changes. She currently uses the exception granted under EYFS2012 to regularly care for four or five under-5s on grounds of continuity of care.

 

“I am shattered every day, I am doing more tasks in my own time that used to be able to fit into the working day. I am passionate about childminding – the children will always come first and will always experience outstanding care and education but I know that I can not maintain this level of commitment and this level of effort long term.” Penny Webb, Childminder

 

She also warns against the impact on children of childminders who rush into caring for too many children at once with little or no experience. Even as a mother of four and with many years of professional experience she has been surprised by how tiring her current workload is. 

 

“I do know people will do it for the money – I also think some will take on more children – with best intentions and then ‘crash and burn’. This will be bad for the children as either will stay with that minder and not have the best experiences – or the minder will be honest and the child will have to go to a different setting – very bad for emotional development.” Penny Webb, Childminder

 

That’s without even getting started on the lack of space in most homes for 4 under-5s, the difficulties finding triple prams, the cost of a seven-seater and car seats, and the sheer enormity of keeping 4 under-5s safe when out and about. The Minister also shows no sign of allowing OFSTED to slacken their regulatory role, intending to make them the sole authority over childcare settings (the role is currently shared with Local Authorities). This means the paperwork burden on childcarers who are obliged to follow EYFS will go up by 30% for childminders and 50%  for nursery staff.

 

Em, a former nursery worker who is now a nanny, highlighted that current arrangements already impacted to the interaction she was able to have with the children ‘to their disadvantage’. She feels becoming a nanny gave her freedom to really bond with children and follow their interests, and the care the children receive is better for that.

 

“That kind of ratio would seriously change my mind about nursery work [in the future] especially with the paperwork burden on nursery staff at the moment let alone with more children in their care. It’s insane!” Em, Nanny

 

Private nurseries in favour of the changes have been accused of only being interested in profit however Sarah Steel, MD of The Old Station nursery points out that any cost saving from relaxed ratios is likely to be eaten up by increasing quality, paying staff a higher wage and subsidising Early Years funding. The most worrying consequence she sees is a potential two-tier system.

 

“Those in most deprived areas, where nurseries are already struggling to survive, will have to embrace lower ratios, but this may be at the cost of quality.” Sarah Steel, MD, The Old Station Nursery

 

This is most evident in areas which are supposed to offer funded places for 2 year olds, an age group where the number of children per adult has been increased by 50% and where struggling nurseries may have no choice but to make ends meet by reducing staff costs. Even experts are unsure that more children per adult will lead to a reduction in cost. Eva Lloyd, from the University of East London, said there was no relationship between ratios and cost to parents. She is also sceptical that higher quality will be possible under the proposed changes and it’s easy to see why. The most highly qualified childcarer is physically limited in the number of children they can safely care for or comfort at once. Higher ratios may effectively prevent them from deploying their knowledge and reduce them to refereeing hordes of toddlers. The members of the PLA  seem inclined to agree and Laura Henry, an early years consultant but also parent of two boys, posted an impassioned letter on her blog aimed at parents.

 

Even though the changes proposed don’t mention nannies it would be naïve to assume they won’t somehow be affected. On the one hand it’s good news for the sector – parents who are unhappy about the quality of care offered by local childminders or nurseries may look into a nanny or nanny share. A nanny with 4 under 5 would still be able to dedicate more time to his/her charges because nannies are not required to provide reams of paperwork for OFSTED inspections. On the other hand parents may find it more difficult to find quality candidates. It doesn’t take a GCSE in maths to work out that reducing the required number of adults to care for a roomful of 12 toddlers from 3 to 2 leaves a member of staff without a job. The BAPN expressed concern that the nanny market may become flooded by nursery workers who have been made redundant because they are no longer perceived as fit to work in nursery settings, leaving an entire sector of the market lagging behind in terms of quality.

 

Many parents are unhappy about the changes. The online parenting forum Mumsnet revealed that only 5% of members surveyed polled in favour of relaxed ratios and Netmums reported a figure of 20% in favour. They may still be faced with an impossible choice, to pay over the average for a provider with low ratio and high quality care or accept lower quality care for lower cost. Parents who are unable to get spaces in settings offering coveted lower ratios may stretch themselves to pay for a nanny until the funded hours kick in at 3 years old, an age group unaffected by the ratio changes.

 

 

Nursery Jobs

Nurseries take care of children from just a few weeks old until the age of 4-7 (depending on the nursery), so they are usually very noisy and busy places! One thing’s for sure – no two days will be the same!

 

You don’t usually need any specific qualifications to start – employers generally want to see some evidence of education in the form of 3 or more GCSE passes, but specific childcare qualifications are unnecessary for somebody starting out as a nursery assistant.  One thing that everybody who works with children is required to provide is a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check, the cost of which will usually be met by your employer.

 

Aside from qualifications, to be a great candidate for any nursery jobs you may apply for you will need certain traits, such as:

 

  • A caring and sensitive nature
  • A love for spending time with children
  • Responsibility
  • Ability to work as part of a team
  • A positive, fair approach to discipline
  • A good sense of humour
  • Creativity is always a bonus
  • The ability to relate to young children
  • An awareness of safety and hygiene practices, although training on these areas will be provided

 

As a nursery assistant, you can expect to earn about £10k-£12k pa.  Fully qualified nursery nurses can earn up to £18k and other nursery jobs, such as a nursery manager, can provide in excess of £30k.  There are other jobs available in a nursery, such as cooks and cleaners, the wages of which are usually not far above minimum wage.

 

In nurseries, there are separate rooms for different age groups, the baby rooms having a higher staff ratio than the rooms for older children.  The days are usually structured, especially so for the older children, but play is the focus for the majority of the time.  Gone are the days of strict learning schedules for young children.  Play-based learning has been proven time and time again to be more effective (and more fun for all involved!).

 

So what does the average day look like for somebody with a nursery job?

 

  • Planning and facilitating activities such as arts, crafts, cooking, music and dancing
  • Personal care such as changing, feeding, bathing, and assisting toilet training children with using the bathroom
  • Reading stories in a group setting, or one-on-one
  • Taking children on planned outings
  • Playing outside
  • You may be responsible for some paperwork
  • Implementing health and safety guidelines
  • Being aware of possible signs of abuse and neglect, and reporting any concerns you may have to the appropriate person

 

There are many opportunities for advancement in nursery jobs.  From being a nursery assistant, you could qualify as a nursery nurse, then a senior nursery nurse, and move on to becoming a nursery manager or an EYP (Early Years Professional).  To gain further qualifications, you may be able to train on-the-job (an apprenticeship), or work part time and attend a college course.