Bronwen wasn’t always a pre-school leader. She worked for the Police for many years before taking a break to raise her two children. When the eldest started the local pre-school, Bronwen decided to offer her services as a helper. She became part of the furniture and was offered the job of Leader of the group when the two ladies in charge decided to retire. Bronwen and a colleague became the new Leaders of the group. Ten years later she is still there, along with the same colleague.
She comments on her employment as follows, “The job was originally just supervising children playing basically. Parents stayed and had coffee and chatted whilst their ‘little ones’ played and made new friends. Over the years the job changed drastically. It all started with Social Services suggesting we kept records on the children. The Government then decided that all children should have free nursery places (paid by the Government.) They decided that all Nursery groups would have to offer the same facilities for early education and that they would set the standards. This way the child will not miss out at one place when compared to the other. The next real major change within the following few years was that OFSTED appeared. These people check up on standards of the building i.e. qualities and faults. They also make sure the nursery is being run appropriately, and that the child is being taught the right things. The leaders have to show their plans in long , medium and short term formats. They have to observe and evaluate the extent to which children are making progress towards the six early learning goals. It is taken into account what the children are doing, how worthwhile it is, whether they respond well and are keen to learn and the quality of learning opportunities provided to them. All this entails lots and lots of paperwork, leaving very little time to spend with the children some days!
Pre-school leaders average about £7 an hour which by today’s standards is pretty good. When I first started doing this work I got £6 per morning. Also extra is given for planning at home. ‘I often volunteer for planning as you get paid quite a bit extra.’
The money for the pre-school comes from funding in general. This is basically the government. This is where the government offer children of three to four years of age free education in approved nurseries. This way the parents do not have to pay and get their child supervised for a morning free of charge.
I work four mornings a week at the pre-school, Friday is my day off, I need it to retain my sanity. Most mornings I get up at 7.00am, take a quick shower and head downstairs for my usual breakfast of porridge and a cup of tea. The cat gets fed and an early morning tickle before she departs the house followed shortly by my two teenage children and myself. We travel a short distance down the road together before they go across to their school and I begin the long trek down through Horsforth to the pre-school. I arrive at 8.50am and begin the thankless task of setting up the play room for the morning, along with my co-workers.
The children are dropped off by their parents at 9.15am, give or take ten minutes and for the next two and half hours are entertained and educated by myself and staff members.
The mornings are never dull, each day is different. We try to stick to our ‘plans for the day’ but often end up doing something totally different – going with the flow – so to speak!
The children in our care are aged between two and a half years and four and a half years. They each have their own personalities and idiosyncrancies. For instance, Ben has to be heard at all costs. This may or may not be relevant to the topic we are discussing. We could be talking about how the leaves are changing now that it is Autumn. Ben, who exists on another plain for most of the time, will tell you “I like number 2 the best, it goes vrooooom” as he speeds off down the room, pretending to be a Thunderbird!
The children sit together for a snack at around 10.15am, whilst we change the room around from a physical, loud, free-play area to more structured, quieter, educationally focussed activities. During this session, the children are expected to behave in a calmer manner, completing jigsaws, counting, threading, gluing and making things to take home to their ever appreciative parents.
At 11.30am one member of staff takes the children into the ‘story room’ for a short session of stories and singing, whilst the main room is tidied up. They depart at 11.45am and I leave shortly afterwards for the long uphill hike back home.
It isn’t a bad job, I have had worse. However, if I could change anything about it, it would be to be based in a purpose built classroom. The fact that we have to set up and tidy everything away each day makes the job harder. Lifting furniture and equipment soon makes you ache.
I would also enjoy the job more if we didn’t have Ofsted breathing down our necks. We are now given no warning of their arrival, other than a time scale of up to six weeks when they may descend to inspect us. I think they are hoping to catch us doing something dire!
On the whole though, the hours that I work fit in well with what I want to do.. I work four mornings, term time only, which leaves me free to pursue my other interests of gardening and meeting friends for coffee!
I never dreamt that I would end up working with children, I didn’t even like kids when I was younger. I wanted to be a probation officer or some sort of social worker whilst I was growing up.”
Bronwen intends to continue in her job for the foreseeable future. She says, “the hours and holidays suit me whilst my own children are at school, but I would like to retire by the time I am fifty!”