phew - finished!!

phew - assessment all done - and it wasn't too bad at all. assessor spent much of the day writing up and looking through my portfolio and witness statements - I had less children here than normal and it was a very nice day actually. I felt a bit silly in my interview cos I kept forgetting the words and terminology I was looking for - not even complicated stuff just everyday words!! but think it went ok and the only thing that she wasn't able to ask me that i hadn't demonstrated was communication with younger children because none of my witness statements had covered it and my activity was with older children. my colleague that was there to help me had witnessed me with babies and young children so was able to write a quick reference (assessors suggestion) and I had another child arrive aged 2 and i said do you want me to interact with him for a bit so I did that and she was really happy with that.
Just glad I've done it now but think rather than doing it for the sake of saying I've got this its propelled me now to move forwards and think what do i want to do next and where do i want to be?
Good luck to everyone still to do assessments xxx

It sounds like a really positive experience! Well done you! :clapping:

glad it went well.

I've only just noticed this, well done.
Any thoughts what you are going to do next?
I'm not sure keeping thinking of MA but everyone around me thinks I'm mad to remain in childminding if I'm doing that, actually they just think I'm mad to consider it :laughing:

Lol! No no idea where I'm heading at all!! I was toying with going for teaching not this year but next but really am not convinced - don't know if its the sensible/ intuitive voice in my head telling me that its not for me or the doubting lack of confidence part of me!!

I'm signed up to do post-graduate credits so I'm going to work on that and I've put my name down to do a mentoring course which means I can go on and mentor future EYT's when they are on the course. that in turn means i get chance to do post-graduate credits so could end up with post graduate certificate - but i don't envision doing a full masters! If i did PGCE that would give me postgraduate diploma but I'm considering the school direct route.

I've also volunteered to do a day once a week in reception class from next September so I can get a feel for working in a class room environment and with a large number of children at the end of the EYFS stage. Think this will benefit me for staying with childminding, going into a pre-school or going into teaching so am definitely thinking long term.

I also have friend who works in local pre-school and the manager there of 20+ years is coming up for retirement and my friend is egging me on to apply for the job when it comes up so I'm thinking I could explore that option - BUT I like everything childminders can offer to children and see how restricted a large pre-school can be in some ways - my son loved going there but in some ways childminders offer so much more and i don't want children to lose out on that - same ways with schools its so restricted and curriculum based and with all these changes Gove is proposing I really don't know if i could do it!!

Another thing I may be doing is I may be becoming chairman on the management committee for a local charity run pre-shool. I will get some management experience and some idea of how a pre-school is run which again may benefit me in the future. I must be mad to do this but my friend was looking for someone to be a chairman and when i asked her about 2 weeks later she said she hadn't found anyone and could i come to the meeting on monday so i will go and find out a bit more and probably do it.
I'm coming up to 40 now and I really have no clue what I want to do. part of me wants to take on an assistant and expand my childminding (but I am limited on space) but another part of me wants to explore all the options that seem to have awakened in me since this last year at uni. I loved doing the academic side of the course and the 3 modules i did were really interesting!
I have no idea what i want to do and had a chat with the careers lady at uni on thursday she was brilliant and gave me lots of good advice but didn't push me in anyway toward anything which is good cos most of them say to me oh you should be a teacher and i'm like do i have 'good with children' written on my forehead and therefore my only option is teaching?!

Sorry that turned into a bit of a ramble but thats pretty much how my mind is at the moment!! If the MA appeals to you I think you should go for it - it will hugely benefit your CPD and your childminding - theres no reason why you should have to move out of childminding if you still love it and you're getting the financial return you need from it.
I'd love to hear how you get on and what you decide.
My reservations about childminding at the moment are my own kids and how they put up with a lot (and also their behaviour seems quite challenging a lot of the time!!) and secondly a child i have is really hard work behaviourly and its taken the enjoyment out of it a bit because its hard work whereas before i've always found it fun and because none of the other children here like him!