Hollie Cullen

My name is Hollie, I am enthusiastic and have a passion for learning and developing skills to become a more competent and confident person.

I enjoy working with young children and in the future aspire to become a primary school teacher. I have had the opportunity to gain a lot of experience in this sector; such as volunteering in various children's nurseries in order to complete my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh and enjoy babysitting for my family and friend's children. 

I have successfully achieved a Level 3 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care, finishing with two distinction stars and one distinction, which allowed me to develop many skills and develop my knowledge of laws and legislation, conduct of care, respecting people's dignity and privacy and the importance of maintaining confidentiality massively. 

I am passionate about making a difference to people's lives, for the better, and using my past experiences and knowledge to help young people develop into the best person of themselves that they can, by showing empathy and empowering them to take opportunities and believe in themselves.

I have worked in hospitality settings for a few years now, gaining experience making conversation with customers, acting professionally and providing customers with excellent customer service. Working in hospitality settings has allowed me to become a confident communicator and very much a people person. 

I have had the chance to volunteer in several children's nurseries including Brock House Day Nursey and Court fields Children's Nursery. These opportunities have allowed me to gain an insight of what children's settings are like and what goes on behind the scenes to keep children and staff safe and provide exciting and engaging activities for young children. I interacted with the children and got them excited to get involved with what activities we had going on for them. One of my favourite parts of the experience was seeing the children develop their confidence and become more open to getting involved than what they were when they first joined the nursey- it was great to see them make new friends and participate in things they never would have before.

As part of my level 3 health and social care extended diploma, I also had the chance to take up a week's volunteering experience in a SEN department at a local secondary school. This was an amazing experience that allowed me to put the knowledge I had learnt at college and from past experiences, into practice. I worked closely with certain individuals who had varying learning difficulties and additional needs and was able to find out a lot more about what resources and aids and adaptations are out there to support children with these additional needs. I got to take away a lot from this experience and gained new knowledge of how to react to certain situations which may be challenging, such as ways of calming children down when they have high feelings of anger or upset.

I have got GCSE's in English Literature, English Language, Maths, Science, Geography, History and Health and Social Care.

I have also just recently got my final grades for the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care which I have been studying for for the last 2 years at Richard Huish College and achieved 2 distinction stars and one distinction. I enjoyed this course thoroughly and gained so much knowledge in units such as working in health and social care, caring for individuals with additional needs, physical, intellectual and emotional development through the life stages and repeatedly looked at the ins and outs of relevant legislation such as The Children's Act 2004 and The Equality Act 2010 and the importance of adhering to these at all times.