Hi my name is Jodie Mullen, I am 17 years old and currently studying NC Early Education and Childcare in James Watt College. As part of my course I have to take part in helping to teach and plan activities in a school or nursery. My placement is in Abbey Nursery in Paisley. I started my placement in October as I had to wait for my disclosure to come through. For the first few weeks i didn't plan any activities as I was settling in and getting to know all the staff and children.
Every week i have to have 1 planned activity for the children to participate in. My activities have to be planned 1 week in advanced. On a friday before i leave placement i have to consult with my mentor about what activity i should plan for the following week. It's best to plan an activity around the topic the children are currently doing in the nursery so they can understand why they are doing it. To plan our activities we have to write up all our information in our planned learning outcome sheets that I have in my workplace folders. I start by writing out what we are going to do with the children and how we went about planning it. I must also include the reason why I am carrying out the activity. For example to help the children develop their sharing and turn taking skills. I then go on to write about the resourses i will need to carry it out and health and safety I must carry out. I then carry the activity out with a small group of children and then write up an evaluation of what skills the children developed, anything i would change with the activity and what kind of activity i would plan as a follow up activity. The Activities i plan have to follow the cirruclum of excellence.
The Abbey Nursery aim to provide high quilaty day care to children aged 6 weeks to 5 years. The nursery has 4 rooms, The 0-1 room which caters for up to 15 babies on a daily basis, the 1-2 room caters up to 15 babies. The 2-3 room caters up to 20 children and finally the 3-5 room which caters up to 30 children. The room I help out in is the 3-5 room. At first I was in 0-1 room but my tutor wanted to move me as it was easier to plan activities for the 3-5 room.
