Reporter Neil Fatkin went to Stepping Stones Day Nursery in Washington to experience a day in the life of a nursery practitioner.Reporter Neil Fatkin went to Stepping Stones Day Nursery in Washington to experience a day in the life of a nursery practitioner.
Reporter Neil Fatkin went to Stepping Stones Day Nursery in Washington to experience a day in the life of a nursery practitioner.

11 fantastic photographs as Sunderland Echo reporter Neil Fatkin experiences a day in the life of a nursery practitioner

Nothing is more precious to parents than their children which is why it’s so important to have complete trust and confidence in the nursery practitioners who take on the role of loco parentis to enable mams and dads across the city to continue to work.

Despite the massive responsibility, wages in the pre-school sector are not comparable with other sectors of education and so people who enter the profession do so as a vocation with the pay back coming from knowing they are making a real difference in those formative early years of the children they care for.

As part of our new ‘day in the life of’ feature, I joined the dedicated nursery practitioners at Stepping Stones Day Nursery in Washington.

I spent 17 years in the teaching profession in a whole host of roles, but dealing with toilet training, dirty nappies and toddler tantrums was never in my remit when teaching Geography to GCSE and A Level students.

I was certainly out of my comfort zone but had a thoroughly enjoyable day of baking, messy play and story time.

Check out the following 11 fantastic photographs as I became a nursery practitioner for the day.

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