Features

EYFS Best Practice: Working with babies part 1 – on the go!

In the first of this four part series Meredith Jones Russell explores the challenges and rewards of working in the baby room and discovers it is a very special place

It takes a special person to be a baby room practitioner,’ says Hannah Saunders, manager at Snapdragons in Keynsham, where up to 42 babies enjoy purpose-built spaces including a Baby Cottage and Baby Barn.

New staff are asked the age of children they prefer to work with, as the setting recognises the difference between working in a baby room and with a pre-school age group.

‘Working with babies isn't for everyone,’ Saunders explains. ‘Sometimes people think it will be easy and they’ll just get to sit and cuddle all day. It's not like that. There's a lot of love and nurture needed, but it can be fast-paced and constant go, go, go. You just sit down for a cuddle and then someone needs their milk. It takes an enthusiastic person who uses their initiative to really jump in on that.’

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