Early Years Practitioner

Spring Nurseries by Action for Children; Norwich; On-site; GBP 29,000 - 36,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday + bank holidays

Staff discounts portal + blue light

Salary Finance access

Childcare discount 60%

Dependency Leave (up to 3 days)

Paid maternity, adoption and paternity

Professional qualifications and career

Pension with employer contributions

Job summary

Action for Children in Norwich is seeking a qualified Early Years Practitioner (Level 3) to deliver high-quality care, education and support for children aged 0–5. You will promote learning through play, form strong relationships with families and maintain accurate learning records in line with EYFS and safeguarding requirements.

The role requires a Level 3 Early Years and Childcare qualification and a reliable, professional approach with a passion for excellent practice and outcomes.

Qualifications

• Experience planning and delivering educational programmes for children aged 0–5.
• Ability to observe and guide less experienced colleagues.
• Experience communicating with children and families.

Responsibilities

• Provide high-quality care, education and support to children in the nursery.
• Promote learning and development through purposeful play and engaging activities.
• Maintain accurate observations and learning records in line with safeguarding and EYFS requirements.

Skills

Observation

Plan educational programmes

Communication with families

Safeguarding

Education

Level 3 Early Years and Childcare qualification

Job description

Early Years Practitioner (Level 3)

Location: Norwich

Salary: up to £27,300 per annum

Contract/Hours: Permanent/Full Time – 40 hours per week.

Closing date: Midnight on the 3rd of September 2026

Benefits:

• Time off to recharge – 25 days per annum plus bank holidays
• Treat yourself: Staff discounts portal and blue light card with 15,000 + retailers.
• Salary Finance – access tofinancial advice and the ability to manage savings or loans directly from your salary.
• Childcare Discount – A whopping 60% off childcare within our nurseries and out of school clubs
• Up to 3 Days Dependency Leave – to care for dependents in an emergency.
• Paid maternity, adoption, and paternity leave.
• Gain professional qualifications and excellent training/development opportunities.
• Secure your future: Pension with up to 7% employer contribution with included life assurance cover.

About the role:

An opportunity for a qualified Early Years Practitioner to provide high-quality care, education and support to children within our nursery.

This role requires you to promote children’s learning and development through purposeful play and engaging experiences, while ensuring their individual needs are recognised and supported. You will maintain strong professional relationships with children, families and colleagues, contribute to accurate observations and learning records, and work in line with safeguarding, health and safety and Early Years Foundation Stage requirements.

We are looking for a Level 3 qualified practitioner who is reliable, professional and passionate about delivering high standards of practice and positive outcomes.

What we need from you

In the role of Early Years Practitioner (Level 3), we're ideally looking for someone who has:

• A Level 3 Early Years and Childcare qualification (NNEB, CACHE, NVQ Level 2 or 3 or equivalent)
• Experience in planning and delivering educational programmes for children aged 0 to 5, tailored to their individual needs and developmental stages.
• The ability to observe, guidance support less experienced colleagues, helping them to develop their skills.
• Experience applying effective communication techniques with children and their families.
• Knowledge of children's emotional, physical, psychological, and educational development from 0-5 years
• Awareness and understanding of special educational needs (SEN) and how these are supported in an early year setting.

About Spring Thorpe Hamlet:

Spring Thorp Hamlet is a warm, welcoming setting in Norwich, rated Good by Ofsted. With the care for children aged 3 months to five years, our setting offers bright and spacious indoor learning areas, well-resourced nursery rooms, and a secure outdoor environment that encourages exploration, creativity, and physical development including a separate forest school area encouraging independence, exploration and a love of nature.

About Spring

Spring offers award-winning childcare services, as part of the national charity Action for Children. It's our mission to be the best provider of outstanding quality early education to children throughout the UK, that is accessible to all. We are focused on enabling young people to learn, have fun and make friends in our bright, engaging settings. That starts with creating a happy environment for our team.

Join us and you can look forward to:

• A kind, caring culture with an emphasis on wellbeing, both physical and mental.
• Flexible working – wherever possible we offer flexibility on hours and/or hybrid working.
• Lots of opportunities for training, learning, development, including gaining qualifications.
• Excellent benefits that compare favourably to other employers in our sector.

Ready to make a difference in the lives of children? Whether you're looking for a career change or the next step in your journey, we'd love to hear from you!

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion

At Spring Oscars we're dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. We actively encourage applications from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic and disabled candidates as they are under-represented within the organisation. We want to take deliberate and purposeful action to ensure equal opportunity to all groups.

Male staff are often under-represented within this sector, and we would like to encourage more male applicants for our roles.

We arecommittedto safer recruitment practices to protectourservice users; therefore, all applicants are expected tohaveanunderstandingof andcommitmenttosafeguarding best-practice.

Don't meet every single requirement?

If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with the job description, we'd love you to apply anyway. You might just be the perfect person for this role, or another role within the Action for Children family.

Application Process

Please note we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for thisrole.

There are 5 sections for you to complete - Personal Details, CV, Supporting Statement & Information, Equality & Diversity, Submission & Declaration – please refer to the JD and Person Specification when applying.

We also want to know what unique qualities you can bring to help us reach our vision for children and families.

Talent Pool:

We're sure you've got what it takes to join our ambitious team. If you're unsuccessful this time around, we'd like to hold your details in case similar jobs come up that you might be better suited for. But feel free to let us know if you'd rather, we didn't do that.

Want to know more about Spring and Oscars?

Check out our socials on Linkedin,FacebookorYoutube.

Job Description

See below for further information about working with us:

Employee Reward Booklet

Spring Early Years Career Pathway