Job summary:
A nursery nurse is employed by nurseries, schools, hospitals and private homes to help with the non-clinical care of young children and babies. Nursery nurses offer care for children until the child has reached the age of five. A nursery nurse includes taking care of a child’s learning, education, play and social development.
Daily Tasks:
The work of nursery nurses normally includes the following: he/she need to provide physical, emotional and spiritual care for the children; he/she need maintain the environment in a child friendly manner, they would need to support carers in the parenting of their children. Duties also include attending meetings, finding ways to stimulate children particularly those with special and sensory needs, planning and supervising activities such as arts and crafts, music and cooking.
Qualifications required:
Nursery nurses usually need to hold a relevant child care qualifications such as:
CACHE Level 3 Diploma in Child Care and Education - for entry onto this course you may need some GCSEs or equivalent level qualifications
BTEC National Diploma in Children's Care, Learning and Development - for this course you may need four GCSEs (A-C) or equivalent level qualifications
NVQ Level 3 in Children's Care, Learning and Development. These are usually undertaken within the workplace, so you will usually need to be employed in an appropriate job role
Skills and Qualities required:
The skills and qualities you will need are: communicate skills, you would have to understand child behaviour and care; you should also be good at handling emergency situations. Being organised and practical is a key skill for being a nursery nurse.
Salary:
Trainee nursery nurses normally earn around £9,000 to £12,000 a year. In private nurseries, nursery nurses usually earn around £6.00 to £9.00 an hour. Salaries in local council nurseries can vary but usually start from around £19,000 a year,