Aug 9, 2011
Talented Child Care student Anna Rowmanska, who is studying for a Level 3 Diploma in Child Care and Education at the College, has won the National Heinemann and Nursery World Child Care Student of the Year Award, a competition organised by Pearson Education Limited.
Anna, who is 26 and originally from Poland has previously studied for a Level 2 Diploma in Child Care and Education at the College, and despite having only arrived in England shortly before she began the programme, with English as her second language, she gained an A and impressed her tutors early on. With a three year old son, Anna juggles her College work alongside caring for him and her tutors say that they never need to ask her to catch up on work.
Criteria for the competition is stringent and following short listing, Anna had to submit a piece of written work which demonstrated her ability to work with children and evaluate her own practise. For the finals, Anna travelled to Pearson’s Head Quarters in Oxford, where she was judged against other competitors from Colleges across the UK by Liz Roberts, Editor of Nursery World magazine; Penny Tassoni, popular child care Author and Virginia Carter, Heinemann’s Commissioning Editor for child care.
Anna’s tutor, Carol Dobson put her forward for this prestigious award and said “Anna has been an exemplary student on the Child Care and Education course, she has an exceptional work ethic and a real thirst for knowledge meaning that she gained a well deserved grade A in her first year. In her practical placements she has always been outstanding; using her first language, Polish, to help the nurseries to work effectively with parents and help the young children to get the most out of their nursery experience. Her placement supervisors have said that her practice and enthusiasm when working in the classroom is inspirational! It is all of these things which prompted me to put forward Anna for the Child Care student of the Year award, as she is already a winner in the eyes of the College!”
A spokesperson from Pearsons reported that this year’s finals were extremely difficult to judge due to the extremely high calibre of students put forward. However, the College was delighted when Anna was announced the overall winner! Judges said, “Anna showed an excellent grasp of the key issues in her own case study and also contributed positively to the other candidates’ case studies. In particular, she demonstrated empathy by seeing things from the parents’ point of view and putting the needs of the children at the centre of her response.”
As the winning student, Anna will receive a cheque for £350 and a year’s free subscription to Nursery World magazine. As the winning college, Nelson and Colne College Sixth Form will get £350 of Heinemann vouchers.
