Apprentice Blog
Encouraging male apprentices into early years
If you have been reading our magazine for a while now, you will know that we occasionally revisit the problem of the gender imbalance in the early years workforce. Change is slow in this area but it is happening. The Education Policy Institute...
National Apprenticeship Week
This month sees the return of National Apprenticeship Week (NAW), and this year will be the 15th week-long celebration of everything to do with apprenticeships.
Domestic Violence Awareness Month
It’s hard to imagine but in this day and age, there are still two women each week who are killed by a partner or former partner in England and Wales. In the Northeast, the area with the highest recorded rate of domestic abuse, there are an...
Celebrate ‘all things apprenticeships’ during National Apprenticeship Week
The annual National Apprenticeship Week (NAW2021) is upon us, 8-14th February, and with it, comes a great opportunity to celebrate ‘all things apprenticeships’. Apprenticeships allow individuals to earn while they learn and can lead to new and...
National Apprenticeship Week 2020
We love to celebrate our apprentices and their achievements here at Parenta. There’s no better time than National Apprenticeship Week to share with our readers what it means to our learners to complete a childcare course with Parenta Training....
National Apprenticeship Week is here!
This week-long celebration, organised every year by the National Apprenticeship Service, aims to unite everyone who is passionate about apprenticeships, to encourage more young people to choose this path as a first step (and often fast-track) to...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 15
On Friday I decided to stay a little later at the pre-school than my normal working hours and paint the Wendy house in the garden. I plan to add numbers, letters and lots of lovely flowers to the outdoor area for the children. It’s the second...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 14
Wow, how quick those 6 weeks go! And after my first week back, they seem like a lifetime ago. My pre-school is busy with lots of new little ones, I've got another key child so I've spent the week getting to know her; it's lovely seeing new...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 13
This first week of the summer holidays has been lovely with my children, enjoying the sunshine and just being together. Needless to stay in this heat I’ve spent most of the week in the pool and not had the laptop out much at all! However, I do...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 12
This was my final week working at the pre-school before we close for the summer holidays! We celebrated by getting the soft shapes out for the children to play with and we all had cake. Now I can look forward to an amazing 6 weeks off to spend...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 11
This week at work has been crazy as both managers have been off! Sometimes life takes over (as it does for us all, occasionally) but it’s meant the rest of us pulling together to get school transitions and last minute paperwork done, as well as...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 10
My week started with 3 poorly children at home, so no work for me and no chance of getting any coursework done! I was back to work on Wednesday and it’s flown by since. I’ve been doing my children’s tracker forms to monitor their progress and...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 9
This week has been quite emotionally exhausting for me! In my Child Development coursework, we were asked to write about transitions (like when children go to school) and some examples of transitions that not everyone goes through. This got me...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 8
This week engineers have been carrying out building work on my road, which means the internet has been crashing. Therefore, my well-intentioned plans to do lots of research for my next unit on child development sadly haven’t materialised. But...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 7
After a lovely sunny half term in Weymouth with my family, it was back to work and routine. Work's been busy this week with lots of inductions and prospective parents looking around for September. I managed to get up to date with all my key...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 6
This week was another busy one for me! I went on a safeguarding course on Wednesday, which was my first one. Staff have to do refresher training on this every year. I found it really informative and got a lot out of it – although it also...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 5
Finally managed to get my coursework up to date and it’s been marked – all good and now I’m on to the next bit, thank goodness, which is about Duty of Care! I’ve promised myself I will stay on track with it now and, with the lighter evenings, my...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 4
My husband has been in recovery from an operation he had last week. I had hoped he’d be on his feet by now, but unfortunately I’m still getting up in the night to give him painkillers. Trying to care for him whilst working full time and managing...
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 3
This week has been hectic, to say the least! My husband had an operation yesterday so the pre-school allowed me to take the week off. I would normally work half days on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, as well as full days on Tuesday and Thursday....
Diary of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 2
First day back after Easter - the alarm’s going off, it’s 5.45am! I haven’t seen that time of day in two weeks. We’re up and dressed ready for the day ahead when it suddenly occurs to me that I haven’t even opened my laptop for the whole half...
A day in the life of childcare apprentice Melanie Pitt – Week 1
Nothing could have prepared me for the amazing reactions and responses I received from the parents. After a deep breath and my first handshake, I just gave it my all and before I knew it I was off, in teacher mode, confidently talking parents...