A day in the life of a Nursery Apprentice

When considering an apprenticeship in childcare it is useful to know what your typical working day may look like! Below you will see an outline of the structure of a typical day. Some nurseries open as early as 7am and close as late as 6pm. You will not be required to work a full day of these hours but your shift pattern may include some early mornings and late finishes!

All these activities and routines require you to be engaged with the children, observing what they are doing and responding to develop their learning and next steps.

Breakfast – supporting the children to choose and serve their breakfast independently. Talking to them about what cereal they like and highlighting healthy eating.

Morning care routines – changing nappies and helping children be independent in the bathroom and focussing on hygiene.

Morning activities – a planned activity or child led play. Supporting children’s next steps in learning across all 7 areas of the curriculum whilst also supporting their developing interests and confidence. These can happen both indoors and out.

Lunch-time – helping children to serve their food and discussing their likes and dislikes and healthy eating.

More activities in the afternoon both child and adult led, focussed on the children’s next steps of learning. These can happen both indoors and out.

Sleep time – some children may need a nap after lunch or at other times of the day. You will settle them, perhaps read them a story and comfort them as they go to sleep.

Tea–time – again, helping children to serve their food and discussing their likes and dislikes and healthy eating.

Throughout the day there will be lots of other jobs happening such as tidying and cleaning toys and equipment, completing health and safety paperwork, carrying out observations on children and evaluating planned activities and provision enhancements.

If you are interested in starting an apprenticeship in childcare please have a look at our current vacancies, email us at enquiries@fwsolutions.net or call us on 01423 536672 for more information!