Myself, my setting and my role and responsibilities. My setting is a private nursery, providing day care for children 3 months- 3 years.

University Degree Education and Teaching

Myself, my setting and my role and responsibilities.

Part 1

My Setting

My setting is a private nursery, providing day care for children 3 months- 3 years. My setting operates 50 weeks of the year, 8am-6pm. My setting is recognised by Ofsted and ISI which are the schools independent school inspectors. My setting is part of a fee paying independent school which serves mostly professional families. My setting acts as a gateway to the main school and we work very closely with staff from one department to another to support transition when moving settings. We have a number of children from different ethnic origins but in response of the parents they are spoken to in English.

My role within the setting is an Early Years Practitioner, I am the team leader. I am located in the baby room. I work with children 3 months–16 months, there are 3 other practitioners that work alongside me and as early years practitioners we work well together to meet the needs of the children. Read and Rees (2010 p43-53) states the importance of teamwork highlighting that “theoretical and practical insights for early years practitioners into ways of working together, communication in forging and maintaining professional relationships and consider how to develop and manage strategies for dealing with conflict within teams.” As team leader I have to demonstrate leadership and be able to delegate some responsibilities to my team. Pierce and Newstrom (2006:9 p11) agree that “everyone in the early years has some time to act as a leader”.

The curriculum I follow is the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework (DCSF, 2008). Within my job role I have many responsibilities that contribute to the well-being and safeguarding of the children. In collaboration with qualified practitioners we support children’s learning and development across the curricular.

My Responsibilities

As a team leader I have to manage the day to day running of the appropriate aged room(Babies 3 -16 months). I am to provide high quality childcare for children within that room and manage staff appropriately and professionally.

Main Duties;

To provide cover for the Manager and Deputy Manager when necessary.
To promote an atmosphere of care and enthusiasm, where all families are welcomed and all children reach their full potential.
To develop a positive working relationship amongst the staff team.
To support staff in observations and assessments and guide them in record keeping tasks
To plan with my team to provide care and stimulation for the children in our room.
To ensure all records for the children are up to date and complete.
To develop good relationships with parents and carers so that children’s development may ...

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Main Duties;

To provide cover for the Manager and Deputy Manager when necessary.
To promote an atmosphere of care and enthusiasm, where all families are welcomed and all children reach their full potential.
To develop a positive working relationship amongst the staff team.
To support staff in observations and assessments and guide them in record keeping tasks
To plan with my team to provide care and stimulation for the children in our room.
To ensure all records for the children are up to date and complete.
To develop good relationships with parents and carers so that children’s development may be supported.
To ensure the room is healthy, safe and free from any potential hazards.
To attend regular staff meetings.

Key Accountabilities

To ensure that the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage is met at all times.
To carry out all responsibilities in line with current legislation.
To carry out all responsibilities in line with the school’s equal opportunities framework.
To support and supervise less experienced staff and students.
Implement policies and procedures.
To keep up to date with current childcare practices.

In my setting we operate a key person system where all practitioners are responsible for a small group of key children. The key person has a special responsibility to give the child reassurance and to feel safe and secure in their new environment and build up relationships with the child and parents .Jones and Pounds (2010;p14)supports this notion and states there is “the need for a key persons to develop trusting relationships with children and parents”.

In my setting we follow the EYFS Framework(DCSF,2008) and we have to comply with a number of policies, e.g. child protection, child collection and arrival, lost child, equal opportunity, confidentiality and admission policy. We have added new policies of our own to show how we illustrate our changing role, they include social networking and mobile phone policy and food and drink, which I recognised a gap in this policy which led me to create a breast feeding procedure within this.

The Curriculum

The curriculum we comply with is the EYFS Framework(DCSF,2008) which has four complementary themes, ‘A unique child’, ‘Positive Relationships’, Enabling Environments’ and ‘Learning and Development’ which are then broken up into six learning and development stages. The Statutory framework for the early year’s foundation stage 2008 says “effective practice in the EYFS is built on these four guiding themes, they provide a context for the requirements and describe how practitioners should support the development, learning and care of young children”.(P9;1.11)This is then used to undertake regular observations and assessments to record each of my key children’s development in correlation with the EYFS Framework(DCSF, 2008) Using this framework enables me to plan and provide for my key children’s next developmental stage and differentiate provision to meet each of their individual needs. These observations and assessments are shown in learning journeys for parents to view every 4 months and are discussed at regular parent’s evenings. My team and I meet once a week to plan activities for the children as a group and individually. It is important to provide activities that are suitable for their age, stage and development.

As an Early Years Practitioner our planning should allow for flexibility and the children’s spontaneity. We have intended curriculum which relates to the EYFS (2008) but sometimes we have unintended curriculum when we have fund raising days, play days with parents, photographer, adverse weather conditions and if the child does not want to join in the day’s activities.

Reflection on aspects of my developing practice.

Reflection is an important aspect of emerging professionalism in all parts of the early year’s sector. As a team leader I am always looking how I can develop and improve my own practice. As an early year’s practitioner, there has been controversy about our role. In Thinking about Change (p.6) it states “They are expected to keep up-to-date with new developments and to consider their own professional identity.” From researching this, there will be opportunity for me to develop my career to a foundation degree, progressing to an Early Year’s Professional (EYP). From doing more training and gaining more qualifications, I will grow in confidence. Amongst my responsibilities within my setting, I liaise with other team leaders about impending children who are due to transfer to the next room. We have regular meetings about their development making sure they are ready for the transition. We do not want to hinder their increasing development, e.g. if they are not ready for the transition or vice versa if the child is progressing ahead. I liaise with the school nurse when medical training is required we discuss which staff members need it and make sure they have appropriate documentation. I support the Manager and Deputy Manager by taking on clerical and administrative duties in their absence and I make changes to the planning, after reflecting on the day’s practice.

Part 2

When completing part 1 I found a number of resources very useful. One in particular that stood out for me was;

Book: Carrie Cable, Linda Miller and Gill Goodliff, Second edition (2010).Working with Children in the Early Years.

Roles provision and practices (Carrie Cable), Working in teams in early years setting (Mary Read and Mary Rees)

I got this book from the Open University in the resource pack. This book covers a lot about working with young children in the Early Years. It includes chapters on roles, practices, curriculum, children’s learning, relationships with parents, children’s play and professionalism in the early years.

This book was helpful when it came to researching about leadership and it influenced me to write about it in part 1.This included me looking at my responsibilities as a team leader and a key person. It showed me the advantages of a team leader and how to share responsibility. It has taught me to have good professional relationships with team members, create an ethos in which staff feel valued and want to learn more and develop further. You should respect them as they play a key role within the setting.I can take my developing job role skills to the next level and share my knowledge with other practitioners.

Part 3

Within this assignment, I have found the research helpful and it has helped me to be able to write in an academic manner. I have found it quite challenging and difficult to get quotes and learn how to reference again after such a long time away from studying.

Reference List

Jones, C and Pound L. (2010) ‘The roles and responsibilities of leaders’ in Cable, C et al (eds) Working with Children in the early Years setting (2nd edn) Abingdon, Routledge/Open University.

Read, M and Rees, M (2010) ‘Working in teams in the early years setting’ in Cable, C et al (eds) Working in the early years setting (2nd edn) Abingdon, Routledge/Open University.

The Open University (2011) “Thinking about Change”, E100 Supplementary material. Milton Keynes. The Open University.

Department for Children, Schools and Families,(DCSF)(2008a). The Early Years Foundation Stage. Nottingham DCSF.

Appendix

The role of an early year’s practitioner within the setting

KU3

CS2

CS3

CS2

CS3