Staff Profile

Hi, my name is Amanda. I moved from my home in The Rhondda Valleys, South Wales at just 16 yrs of age after completing my GCSE’s. I moved to Lancashire to live with my grandmother who had also moved from the Valleys years earlier. In the summer of 2022 I will have lived here for 34 years! I have a younger sister and a large extended family, who all still live in Wales, so I had lots of experience with children and had also helped family by babysitting from a young age. When I moved to Lancashire I continued this with my neighbour’s children. Although I considered a career in childcare at the time, opportunities were not great in the area where I lived and so I settled into working in the retail industry. I enjoyed this work and working with people on a face to face basis in customer service roles. During my twenties I had my two sons; they are now grown men with successful careers in computer engineering and aerospace engineering. I am one very proud mum! Helping them through high school options and choosing a career that they would enjoy was a pivotal time in our lives. I do somewhat agree with the expression, “choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life”. Although I always taught my sons the need to work was important, I also wanted them to be happy and confident in what they chose to do. In my case, a major life change made me address my own choices and I decided on a career change. My path to being an Early years Educator had begun. I started volunteering a few mornings a week in a local nursery. Soon after, a staff member left and a full time position opened up, I was given the position on the proviso I completed a childcare qualification within a short period of time. I’m happy to say, after starting working the full time hours, very long hours every evening doing the written work, two evening classes a week and being assessed in the workplace as well, I managed to gain my first qualification in Children’s Care, Learning and Development. I stayed at the nursery for 6 years and went on to gain a Level 3 qualification in Children’s Care, Learning and Development, along with CPD in Safeguarding and Child Protection to Level 3, Paediatric First Aid, and Providing Quality Provision & Challenge for under 2 year olds. These are just a few of the courses and training I have completed in my time of working within the Early Years sector. I began my journey with Brougham Street Nursery School in January 2019, the fact they employed some of the theories and approaches to play and development I had been researching for myself, enticed me to join the wonderful team here. The theories behind loose parts play and a more heuristic approach to learning, are some of the strategies I endeavour to employ in my daily practice with the children here. I enjoy the opportunities for learning something new that will help me provide an up to date and knowledgeable practice for the children. I have worked throughout the rooms here and more recently I have joined the Inclusion Team here at Brougham street. I will be taking on more training and courses to enable me to be the best I can within the team. When I see a child learn something new, whether its saying a new word, making first friendships or just being happy to be here at nursery, I feel proud of them, and happy I’m a little part of that journey they are going through here with us. To be able to help children that need that little extra care to be able to reach their full potential is something I’m very much looking forward to.