Nursery Assistant

Acorn Early Years Foundation; Milton Keynes; On-site; GBP 17,000 - 21,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

65% childcare discount

25 days annual leave + bank holidays

Training days and development plans

Enhanced pension scheme

Cyclescheme

Techscheme

Employee wellbeing programme

Job summary

Acorn Early Years Foundation is recruiting a Nursery Assistant for Mulberry Bear Nursery in Milton Keynes. This full-time role supports a holistic curriculum and helps ensure the wellbeing, development and learning of all children in your care.

You will join a dedicated team in a nurturing, child-centred environment with opportunities for training, development and progression within early years.

Qualifications

• No formal qualification is required for this role; training and development will be provided.

Responsibilities

• Support children’s care, wellbeing and individual needs
• Deliver high-quality interactions based on children’s development stages
• Promote positive behaviour in line with policies
• Support learning experiences indoors and outdoors
• Encourage independence, confidence and physical development
• Support planning in the moment
• Maintain records such as care plans and observation forms
• Understand and support the key person approach
• Work flexibly as part of a team and share information with colleagues

Skills

Caring

Teamwork

Communication

Reliability

Interest in child development

Job description

Nursery Assistant

Full-time - Monday - Friday
Mulberry Bear - Open University Campus

We are looking for a Nursery Assistant to join our dedicated team at Mulberry Bear Nursery. This is a great opportunity for someone who is passionate about working with children and supporting high-quality early years care in a nurturing, child-centred environment.

This is a full time position, 40 hours per week.

About Mulberry Bear

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.

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 a Nursery Assistant, you will support a holistic approach to the curriculum, helping to ensure the wellbeing, development and learning of all children in your care. You will work as part of a team to support the smooth day-to-day running of the nursery.

Key Responsibilities

• Support children’s care, wellbeing and individual needs
• Deliver positive, high-quality interactionsbased on children’s stages of development
• Promote positive behaviour in line with Acorn’s policies and procedures
• Support rich learning experiences indoors and outdoors
• Encourage children’s independence, confidence and physical development
• Support planning in the moment
• Carry out regular observations in line with Acorn guidance
• Assist with maintaining records such as care plans, “All About Me” forms, medication forms and progress reviews (where appropriate)
• Understand and support the key person approach
• Work flexibly as part of a team, adapting responsibilities as required
• Cascade relevant information to colleagues and management
• Safeguard all children at all times

What We’re Looking For

We welcome applications from candidates who:

• Share Acorn’s values and ethos
• Have an interest in early years and child development
• Are caring, enthusiastic and reliable
• Value parents as partners
• Communicate effectively with children, families and colleagues
• Are keen to learn, develop and progress within early years

(No formal qualification is required for this role, as training and development will be supported.)

Equality, Diversity & Safer Recruitment

At Acorn, we are committed to creating an inclusive and welcoming environment where everyone feels they belong. We value diversity and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. Reasonable adjustments will be considered during the recruitment process.

Successful applicants must:

• Have the right to work in the UK
• Provide two satisfactory references
• Complete an Enhanced DBS checkprior to commencing employment

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
• Employee assistance wellbeing programme