My name is Naomi, and I am employed with National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) as a Trainee Nursery Assistant on the NDNA Cymru’s Childcare Works project.
NDNA Cymru’s Childcare Works West Wales & the Valleys 25+ project is a supported employment programme funded by European Social Fund, supported by European Social Fund through Welsh Government and managed by WCVA. It follows the previous successful Childcare Works projects funded by Welsh Government.
The programme supports unemployed individuals aged 25+ with a desire to pursue a career working within the childcare sector, as well as supporting childcare settings with recruitment and retention. Participants are employed by NDNA as Trainee Nursery Assistants for 16 weeks whilst on the project and are paid to work 16 hours a week. Trainees undergo 4 weeks of training at the start of the programme to gain underpinning childcare knowledge, followed by 12 weeks placement within a childcare setting.
I have completed my 4-week training, covering Paediatric First Aid, Safeguarding Children, Equality and Diversity; Health and Safety and many more. I am now ready for my 12 weeks placement at Cylch Meithrin Penderyn in Aberdare.
As I am placed at the Meithrin, Sadie (NDNAs Childcare Works Project Coordinator) gave me the flyer and information on the Camau course and said that this would be helpful if I embarked on further training to help me speak Welsh with the children in the setting.
I studied Welsh at GCSE level, but haven’t had the opportunity to use it since leaving school. My daughter is learning Welsh, and I was supporting her with colours, weather and how to respond if someone ask her ‘what is your name’.
I’ve always enjoyed learning Welsh, so I registered onto the online course, which was easy and started Mynediad 1.
The first 10 modules were all the basics, which I already understood from my GCSE Welsh. It covered, how to ask ‘who are you’ where do you like’ and how to answer these correctly, also colours, numbers, shapes and the weather.
I really enjoyed the course and then moved onto Mynediad 2.
The next 10 modules were more beneficial to me. I wanted to do an activity of an edible messy beach tray and there was a beach based module, which has supported me with the language and wording for sandcastle, shells, crabs, spades, buckets, this is a great help.
Within the course, there are downloadable resources / leaflets to support you embed the Welsh language into everyday practice.