A Day In The Life Of A Reach4Skills Apprentice
Written by Julie, our former Level 5 Childcare apprentice.
My day starts early. Did you know there are two 5 O’clocks’ in the day? Turns out, there is!
To make sure that I have some me time, and that my youngest is out of bed and getting ready for agricultural college two hours away, I am up at 5:00am. For some crazy reason I think this is a reasonable time to either go for a run or take part in an online cardio routine. Sometimes my husband is crazy enough to join me too!
Then it’s time for a shower, grab breakfast and out the door, heading to preschool.
Four days a week I am in charge in the day to day running of the setting. I make sure that risk assessments take place before the children come in. I also take advantage of the peace and quiet to tackle some admin like creating parents invoices. The other members of team then arrive. We can then have any discussions that need to take place. This can include training staff have taken part in, a practitioner may have an idea about how to support a child or we need to discuss something that may have happened during the previous day.
Then the children arrive. And that’s when the fun begins! If I am not wrapped up in managerial tasks, I can usually be found getting as messy as possible alongside the children.
At the end of the session, I then have time to study and hope that nothing else needs my attention. This can be difficult if something important comes up. Suddenly that precious study time disappears.
(Hopefully) an hour or two is then spent studying, undertaking research, or writing essays.
Then I head home to my family.
Since I started the NVQ 5 course, my family have taken to cooking more. They have learnt new recipes too. The healthy chicken and leek pie has to be one of my favourites.
After dinner I can sometimes grab another hour to study. But usually, family life takes over and this includes visits to our local stables with my eldest once or twice a week! Although I don’t ride, I do love to watch my daughter. And who can resist a pony snuggle?
Sometimes I can be found undertaking training that needs to be done. The downside to COVID 19 is that training has pretty much moved to online. The upside is that there is a wide variety of training that can support continuous professional development online. It can be undertaken from the warmth of your dining room chair with a cup of tea and one or five biscuits.
Time for a bit of television, then bed.
One day a week I get to spend a whole day studying whilst in preschool. Sometimes this doesn’t work out as something in the setting needs my attention. But I can usually get a few hours of studying done.
Every few weeks I have a tutorial with my Reach4Skills tutor, Shellie. I find these very helpful as we can discuss anything that I have been struggling with. We also get to discuss my achievements over the last few weeks before moving onto the next subject to be covered.
One thing I do find that helps me with organizing myself is having a daily plan of what I want to achieve. I have also learnt that I need to prioritize what needs to be done first. If the list is still full at the end of the day, then that is OK. Some days the list may grow longer, but it is important to cross off things I have achieved. Then I know my day has not been wasted.
At times it can be hard to try to and balance work life, home life and studying but I get such a feeling of satisfaction when I receive the comments and marks for my essays, and I know that it will be worth it in the end.
Want to find out more about becoming an apprentice, or offering this experience to your team?