Lead Early Years Educator

Most early years jobs ask you to do more with less. We built ours the other way round.

At Young Friends, we've deliberately stripped away the things that make this work tiring elsewhere — the daily paperwork, the observation quotas, the relentless commercial calendar, the frantic setting-up before children arrive. What's left is the work you came into early years to do: being present with children, in a calm, child-led setting where the day is allowed to unfold naturally.

We're looking for an experienced Level 3 leader to guide a room team in our woodland-based, sustainable kindergarten in Hove.

What makes a day here different

The day flows rather than runs to a timetable. No staged sessions, no herding children between activities. Children set up alongside the adults and help with everything, so there's no early-morning scramble.

Paperwork is light and purposeful — photos to families, the statutory two-year check, three assessments a year and one before school. Nothing comes home. No planning at weekends, no catching up in the evenings. Your own time stays yours.

Because the space is calm and settled, so are the children — which means your team spends its days connecting and supporting, not correcting.

Sustainability sits at the heart of the role

This is the part that makes us different, and it's central to what we'll ask of you. Sustainability isn't a theme we add on — it shapes how we teach, what we use, and how we help children understand the world. As a leader here, you'll be expected to carry that ethos into your room and inspire your team to do the same: natural and recycled materials, loose-parts play, outdoor learning, low-waste practices, and teaching children to care for their environment in age-appropriate ways.

You don't need to arrive knowing all of this. You do need to want to. We have a dedicated sustainability lead and a team of leaders around you who'll support and share their practice, and we'll expect you to research, learn and grow into it — then lead others confidently in turn. A genuine curiosity about sustainability and the natural world matters more to us than existing expertise.

What else we ask of you

You'll lead and develop a team of four or five educators — supervisions, coaching, honest feedback given with warmth. You'll oversee how the EYFS is brought to life through our nature-based approach, and support your team to extend children's learning through genuine, unhurried interactions. You'll build trusting relationships with families, and model the calm, child-led practice that sits at the heart of everything we do.

Part of leading well here is protecting the light-touch culture for your team — keeping communication with families warm and real-time rather than buried in documentation, so the focus stays on the children. It's a different kind of leadership, and a genuinely more rewarding one.

We're looking for someone with a Level 3 qualification (or above), real experience leading a room or team, deep knowledge of the EYFS, and a genuine love of outdoor learning. Forest school training is welcome. Above all, we want a confident, kind leader who can hold high standards and have the harder conversations with empathy.

How we look after you

•  Pay above the sector. £34,642 as a Level 3 room leader, on a clear, transparent pay structure where you can always see how your pay can grow.

•  A team designed to prevent burnout. Everything here is built to lighten the load, not add to it.

•  Real trust and flexibility. A drink whenever you like, a break when you need one, and the freedom to bring your own talents — music, yoga, whatever you love — into the day.

•  Come as you are. No uniform, and no covering up tattoos.

•  Beautiful spaces. A woodland garden, kitchen garden and calm, well-designed rooms that are a genuine pleasure to spend the day in.

•  A genuinely kind culture. A warm, supportive team, free of politics — plus paid CPD, mentorship, staff socials, a wellbeing support package with confidential counselling, fresh fruit each week, and a company pension.

In short

Calm adults make calm rooms, and a settled, well-supported team is the foundation of everything we do. If you want to lead in a place that genuinely does early years differently — and to grow into the sustainability that sits at its heart — we'd love to hear from you.