Early Years Practitioner

Job summary

Early Years Lead Practitioner

Acorn Early Years – Mulberry Bear (Open University) Nursery, Milton Keynes
Full time | Monday–Friday |

If you are offerred an EYP role, you will received a £500 recruitment bonus after successfully completing your 3 month probation period. 

Acorn Early Years is seeking an experienced, motivated and passionate Early Years Lead Practitioner to join our team at Mulberry Bear Acorn Nursery. This is a full?time, permanent role, ideal for a confident Level 3 practitioner who is ready to take on increased responsibility, support their team and continue developing their leadership skills while remaining hands?on in practice.

Acorn at Mulberry Bear is a 62 place day nursery in Milton Keynes, which offers full and part-time care for children aged four months to four years, and is open 7:30am until 6.00pm, Monday to Friday, all year round.

All Acorn nurseries are closed for all bank holidays, between Christmas and new year, plus our four training days each year. This means the monthly fees are calculated over 49 weeks. You will not be charged for these days, however fees are payable for additional closure days which are out of our control, eg: additional bank holidays over the standard eight. Funded childcare options are available. The nursery provides children with a caring, challenging and stimulating environment. All children are assigned a key person which helps children to become familiar with the setting and to feel confident and safe within it. We also operate a buddy system which supports children’s wellbeing and development when the main key person is away from the setting.

The Acorns and Squirrels room caters for children aged four months to two years old. The Acorn room has 12 spaces and the Squirrels room has 16 spaces. It has a bright main play room, which offers a range of sensory play with a range of resources to support children’s physical, emotional and language development. There is a sleep area and nappy changing/toilet facilities, and children have access to a safe, enclosed garden.

Our Oaks room caters for children aged three and four, and has 24 spaces, and is a bright room with a wide range of open-ended and first-hand experiences. All the nursery meals are freshly prepared and delivered each day by Acorn Catering, which operates from our hub kitchen at our Shenley Church End nursery. We use local and ethically sourced produce to create our delicious meals and all our menus have been designed to be nutritionally balanced ensuring we offer a variety of foods.

About the Role

As an Early Years Lead Practitioner, you will play a key role in supporting the day?to?day running of your room, role modelling high?quality early years practice and mentoring colleagues. Working closely with the Senior Practitioner and Deputy Manager, you will help drive quality, consistency and positive outcomes for children, families and staff.

This role provides a strong foundation for progression into senior leadership within Acorn Early Years.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Support

• Support the smooth day?to?day running of the room
• Lead the room in the absence of the Senior Practitioner or Deputy Manager, when required
• Support, mentor and guide colleagues, including apprentices and students
• Take ownership of delegated responsibilities with increasing independence
• Cascade key information and updates to the room team and management
• Role model Acorn’s ethos, values, policies and procedures at all times

Quality of Practice & Curriculum

• Deliver a holistic, child?centred curriculum in line with the EYFS
• Ensure high?quality interactions that support children’s development and interests
• Support planning in the moment and ensure observations and assessments are up to date
• Monitor children’s progress to ensure all children are supported to reach their full potential
• Promote children’s independence, physical challenge and emotional wellbeing
• Support positive behaviour strategies consistently across the room

Environment, Safeguarding & Compliance

• Ensure learning environments are stimulating, inclusive and well maintained
• Ensure resources are safe, accessible and engaging for all children
• Safeguard all children and follow Acorn safeguarding procedures at all times
• Maintain a safe, organised and well?supervised environment

Key Person & Partnerships

• Act as an effective key person and build strong relationships with children and families
• Communicate positively and professionally with parents and carers
• Complete accurate child?related documentation, including care plans, observations, accident forms and two?year checks (where applicable)
• Communicate confidently with external professionals, including Ofsted

What We’re Looking For

• Level 3 Early Years qualification (or above)
• Strong working knowledge of the EYFS and safeguarding requirements
• Experience within an early years setting with emerging leadership responsibilities
• Confidence to support and mentor others
• A calm, positive and professional approach
• A genuine desire to develop leadership skills and progress your career

Why Join Acorn Early Years?

At Acorn, we are committed to providing high?quality, inclusive early years education where children and staff thrive. We actively support career progression, professional development and leadership opportunities across our nurseries.

We are proud to be an inclusive employer and welcome applications from all backgrounds. Reasonable adjustments will be considered throughout the recruitment process.

Safeguarding & Compliance

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK, be able to provide two satisfactory references, and all roles are subject to an Enhanced DBS check.

Benefits

As a thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to making Acorn a safe, nurturing and fun place for our children to be, we offer:

• Payscales that are competitive, transparent and reviewed annually
• 65% Childcare discount Pro-rata according to contracted hours
• Generous family leave
• Christmas closure
• 25 days of annual leave, plus bank holidays (and the option to buy more)
• 4 dedicated training days and individual development plans
• Enhanced pension scheme
• Cyclescheme
• Techscheme
• Length of Service awards
• Summer and Christmas parties
• Pay advances for when times are tough
• Employee assistance wellbeing programme

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