There’s no such thing as a typical day in early years. Discover real stories from our local early years workforce, making a difference every day.
Cyn Leonard, Senior Support Worker with Jersey Child Care Trust
“A day in the life of a support worker varies considerably, no two days are the same due to the ever changing needs, wants and interests of the children we support and this is one of the reasons the role brings such enjoyment.
A typical day would start by liaising with the parents/family members and/or the children’s key workers. This not only ensures that the needs for the child for that particular day are fed back to the support worker to ensure the day goes as smoothly as possible but it also fosters a strong relationship between support worker and families/keyworkers. Communication is key in ensuring everyone is working together in the interest of the child. A home-nursery note book also helps with this and parents love getting an insight into their child’s day.
Support workers assist the children throughout the day, through interaction, observation and play. Throughout the day the support worker will work on targets given to them by outside professionals for example speech and language therapists or occupational therapists. The needs of our children can range from assistance with physical skills such as feeding, walking or toileting to aiding their social and communication differences with the use of communication boards/ visuals and signing. Support workers will also ensure they support the children with the daily routine of the setting, aiding transitions throughout the day. This is implemented by the use of now and next boards, timers and visual timetables. Support workers get to know the children they support extremely well and will recognise what works well for the development of the child.
Support work is a highly rewarding job, there is no better feeling than seeing the children we support progress in their learning and achieve something new”.
