Past experiences? 

Prior to speaking to lecturers about placement, I had an idea in my head. I wanted to do something completely different; a placement with a different age group or setting that I had not experienced before.

My prior experiences involved volunteering in a primary school for about six months. This included children aged from five to seven years old. I had also done volunteering in another primary school, with the same age of children as part of the Duke of Edinburgh award. When thinking about placement options now, I wanted to interact with an age group from two till four years old.


Why did you chose this placement?

My first choices involved either a forest school or a children’s prison. When researching more into each of these, I figured this would be one of the less likely options for me. This was mainly because they were far from my home. Furthermore, one of my career options for the future involved a setting either being a school or a day nursery. This resulted in me then looking for placements based in nursery or in a Montessori. 

When realising that I wanted to do my placement in a day nursery and Montessori, I was on the hunt to find one that I was confident with. At first, the university gave me great options and opportunities but I figured I wanted to go out and find something myself that was much close to me. After speaking to a family friend, she informed me about a day nursery and Montessori just about a five-minute walk from where live. Perfect. A couple days later I contacted the placement, just to make sure I knew what I would be doing. Also, so that I know what I’m getting myself into.



What did you expect to learn?

I expected to learn the basics within a nursery setting. As we know, children who attend nursery are much younger and need more help than children who are in primary school. I want to learn things from the practitioners, such as how to approach the children, how the normal day goes, and what is the main goal to achieve before the children go off to start primary school.

I had an idea of what working in a nursery would be like and I hope to adapt this to what I learn and the experience I gain from the nursery. Furthermore, I would like to learn how to work with certain children, some of whom have perhaps had things going on in their lives affecting their behaviour, language or development.