Jump to content
Home
Forum
Articles
About Us
Tapestry
We will be upgrading the community on Tuesday 10th December and it will be offline during 10pm and 11pm.

Male pre-school assistant


 Share

Recommended Posts

We are about to recruit our first male member of staff. He has never worked in early years before, but his job description is the same as a practitioner - he is planning to study for qualifications, etc, and we will support him in his role alongside his female colleagues.

 

I wondered how other settings have managed to successfully integrate a male member of staff, both with colleagues, but particularly with parents/carers. I am hoping there will be no negative comments, but need to be prepared just in case. I have no qualms about the children thoroughly enjoying having a male about!

Many thanks for any advice/experiences.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have never had a permanent male member of staff but have had two male students!

 

Had no issues with either and the children loved them both!

 

No parent ever said anything that I got to hear about anyway!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a male member of staff who has been with me for two years now. We have never had any negative feedback from parents and in fact have had two parents who have specifically asked that their children come the days that he works as they do not have a male influence at home. The children adore him and he is a valued member of our staff team. People are happy to accept male primary school teachers so why not male early years practitioners. Hope it goes well for you,

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest youngrisers

Our male student was adored by all the children especially the boys, because he was a student he could not change nappies but was able to dress children in their coats, assist with willies and generally play brilliant games with the children. Visiting Norway was a surprise some years ago as the male ratio to female staff numbers are higher than here. There the male staff do the same roll as the female staff including changing children, clearing away and planning. in fact they led whole nursery activities and groups of mixed age children by themselves. It was a wonder to :rolleyes: see and experience.


^_^


Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wondered how other settings have managed to successfully integrate a male member of staff, both with colleagues, but particularly with parents/carers

 

...Wouldn't this just be the same as any other new member of staff...

If we start with an assumption that a man is something to be carefully managed in the eyes of parents where does that lead us I wonder?

Cx

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We had a member of staff who was male , was overjoyed at the prospect of him joining us but he left after a few months , because he was male ? No , he really just wanted to glean as. Uh as possible before opening his own setting. At interview he talked the talk just was not able to walk the walk. Parents felt he was not that approachable and sadly it was down to personality not gender, I would thoroughly embrace more male workers and why is it we are surprised they change nappies etc , ? After all it's what a dad would do !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just thought I'd add that we have a male member of staff and he's a real asset. Since he joined us (as a student) we have had parents who are a bit sniffy about it on open days or when they start, so we very nicely point out that we're lucky to have him as a member of our team and remind them that they can always speak to us if they have a specific concern about any particular member of staff. We never hear any more - presumably because their children are taking home positive stories of what they've been doing with him, rather than whatever their pre-conceived ideas were.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. (Privacy Policy)