Meet the student

Holly Love

A conversation with someone on an online childminding forum alerted Holly Love to the FdA Learning and Development of Babies and Young Children.

“She was a current student and recommended the course. When I called the University, the course leaders were really helpful and I enrolled straight away,” says Holly.

“I had looked locally around Abergavenny in South Wales for a part-time course but hadn’t been able to find one close by that fitted in around my other commitments. I’m a registered childminder and completed a Level 3 Cache Diploma in home-based childcare via distance learning and found that it fitted around my family life and work really well. As this course is delivered online too, it’s perfect for me. I come up for a study day at the beginning of each term but these are on Saturdays, which is great as I work all week and my sister lives near the Uni so I combine study with a little family time with her.

“The degree is so relevant to my work with young children. I love learning and the course has improved me so much as a childminder. I’m currently working on a booklet for parents about holistic development. This is a really good task as I can actually use it in my own day-to-day work as a childminder – I’m looking forward to seeing what the parents of the children I mind think of my work. We’ve also looked at child development and our own personal learning style.

“Learning styles fascinate me as I never realised before how much they impact on children’s learning. Studying them has helped me to be a little more sympathetic to my son, who is dyslexic, as sometimes I can get frustrated with him – now I have a better idea of how to help him.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that it’s e-learning I wouldn’t be studying the course, as I’m married with four children and work full time. I can access blackboard whenever I’m free and work my study around my other commitments.

“I was worried that I would be ‘out of the loop’ because I wasn’t physically attending the university and worried that I’d be disadvantage because I couldn’t access the university library but that hasn’t been the case at all. There’s a chatroom facility where we all go to discuss topics so I can interact with fellow students there and I’ve been shown how to use the online library catalogue, through which I can access lots of ebooks.”