SS&L Apprentice of the Month – December 2025

“Charlotte is a born educator”

It’s no surprise that our current employer of the month, Free Rangers Forest School Nursery, has been able to help train some exceptional individuals, including our newest Apprentice of the Month, Level 5 Early Years Lead Practitioner, Charlotte!

Completing the Level 5 apprenticeship has enabled Charlotte to realise her potential as a leader at Free Rangers, and give her the confidence to believe in herself. Nursery Manager Jess says “Charlotte is an incredibly passionate and skilled practitioner. It has taken some time for Charlotte to believe in herself and hopefully after this recent achievement she is aware of how brilliant she is. Charlotte is a born educator, she is kind, caring and intuitive. We are so very proud of her and know she will go far in her career!”

Overcoming Barriers

“I wanted to further my personal development to boost my confidence and skills to progress in my career,” says Charlotte. “I was excited to start a new challenge! Doing the course has helped me to build confidence with managing a team and to make progression within my job role. I can see that in the future I will be able to approach the next challenge with more confidence and a more positive attitude to what I can achieve.”

SS&L Early Years tutor, and Charlotte’s nominator for the award, Sophie Sharp says that “Charlotte is a really positive practitioner and room leader at Free Rangers. Charlotte really promotes their ethos through her practice. She has overcome some personal barriers to then complete her EPA, and achieve a distinction in her professional discussion. Charlotte really worked with others to help support her with this. She put in a lot of extra hours to help prepare her for end point assessment – which I think was all worth it in the end.”

The Road to Success!

Apprenticeships not only enable individuals to learn on the job for a new career but also improve skills and understanding to turn a career into a true vocation. “This course enabled me to engage in deeper reflection on my career and on child development. I found the SEND units especially valuable, as they significantly enhanced my knowledge and understanding of the subject.”

With support from dedicated learning providers like SS&L and the committed employers we partner with, success needn’t be a pipedream! Charlotte says “the build-up to the exams felt daunting, but with support and encouragement from my tutor Sophie and the management team within my setting, I was able to work through them and achieve a result I’m pleased with. They were very accommodating and helped me to achieve!”

If you would like to learn more about how an apprenticeship can support you in your career aspirations give us a call on 0330 332 7997.