Nursery Manager - £1000 welcome bonus!

Little Barn Owls Nursery & Farm School; Horsham; On-site; GBP 52,000 - 64,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Industry-leading salaries

All-expenses-paid international CPD

£1,000 joiner's bonus

Seasonal bonuses

Company pension

Free on-site parking

Job summary

Little Barn Owls Nursery and Farm School is seeking a Nursery Manager to lead a 120-place setting with around 40 staff at Faygate, Horsham. The role requires a proven track record in a similar-sized setting and strong leadership to inspire teams and maintain exceptional Early Years practice.

You will implement the Reggio Emilia approach, support staff development, and ensure high standards for children, families and compliance with Ofsted.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years' experience as Nursery Manager or in a similar senior leadership role.
• Experience leading a large team and driving high standards.
• Strong knowledge of Ofsted requirements and Early Years framework.

Responsibilities

• Organise and manage a 120-place nursery with ~40 staff, ensuring smooth daily operations.
• Lead and develop staff through coaching, planning meetings and training in the Reggio Emilia approach.
• Oversee activities, resources, and documentation, with regular reflection meetings with senior leaders.
• Uphold high standards for children, families and staff, and ensure compliance with EYFS and safeguarding.

Skills

Leadership

Organisational skills

Ofsted knowledge

Communication

Education

Level 3 childcare and education

Degree in Early Years (preferred)

Job description

Little Barn Owls Forest and Farm School Nurseries | Full time

Nursery Manager - £1000 welcome bonus!

Horsham, United Kingdom | Posted on 11/02/2026

Nursery Manager – Little Barn Owls Nursery and Farm School

Salary: Up to £58,000 per year

Location: Faygate, Horsham, West Sussex

Job Type: Full-time, Permanent

Our award-winning Nursery Group, based in West Sussex, is proud to have been crowned winners of the Team Development Award at the Nursery World Awards 2026 , as well as being named finalists for Nursery of the Year 2026!

These latest achievements follow our success in winning the Enabling Environments Award 2024 , recognising our continued commitment to exceptional Early Years Education, inspiring environments and the development of our incredible teams.

What does this role require?

Little Barn Owls Nursery and Farm School is a 120-place nursery comprising four age-grouped rooms for children aged 3 months to 5 years.

We require someone with a minimum of two years' experience as a Manager of a similar-sized setting, with experience leading and inspiring a large team to success.

As part of a large team of Room Managers, Leaders, Pedagogical Coordinators, Atelieristas and Educators, you'll need excellent organisational skills and a passion for delivering high standards to collaboratively strive for excellence.

Confidence is key in this large team, and it's imperative that you uphold our high standards with employees and parents. You'll also need excellent working knowledge of Ofsted requirements to ensure that relevant goals and standards are achieved.

Other key attributes include:

• A critical and creative thinker who welcomes a challenge and thrives on problem-solving.
• An inspirational leader with high impact, professionalism and credibility.
• Robust and commercially astute - commercially and cost-conscious, with the ability to ensure results are achieved through innovation that adds value and provides a return on investment.
• Able to communicate effectively at all levels, including parents, children, colleagues and senior management.
• Strong interpersonal, influencing and presentation skills.
• Naturally proactive and keen to add value.
• A minimum of Level 3 qualification in Childcare and Education, ideally degree qualified or working towards Early Years Professional Status.

The Role of the Nursery Manager

The Nursery Manager is the welcoming face and at the forefront of the nursery.

You'll be responsible for organising a busy and innovative nursery for 120 children and 40 employees, collaboratively working with Room Managers and Leaders to ensure the smooth running of this award-winning, Reggio Emilia-inspired setting.

The central and most important part of this role is supporting staff on the ground to ensure excellent practice is carried out with children, putting into place the best and most up-to-date researched practices, including behaviour management, personal care and hygiene, and child-led learning.

The Manager will oversee and advise on the arrangement of activities and resources, as well as the development of project work and documentation within the nursery, aided by the Head of Children and Adults' Learning, the Pedagogical Coordinator and Managing Director through regular reflection meetings.

The Manager will show passion and enthusiasm for the Reggio Emilia Approach and support and train staff on the nursery floor, providing inspiration, teachings of the approach and feedback to staff throughout the day to create a culture of continuous professional development.

It is expected that the Manager will spend a good proportion of their time in practice with staff, including side-by-side coaching, supporting planning meetings, training and building educators' confidence with the Reggio approach and EYFS delivery.

Our nurseries are predominantly child-led and our curriculum is emergent, so you'll need to inspire your team to think on their feet and be in tune with children to extend their learning in the moment.

Benefits of a Little Barn Owls Career

• Industry-leading salaries, reward and recognition programme
• All-expenses-paid international CPD for qualified staff
• Seasonal bonuses
• Up to £1,000 joiner's bonus (on successful completion of probation)
• Amazing all-expenses-paid international breaks to inspire our qualified Educators and Artists
• Christmas shopping loyalty bonus
• Regular monetary reward and recognition schemes
• Wellbeing centre, including an employee-contributed Healthcare Cash Plan and access to an Employee Assistance Programme
• Option to buy and sell annual leave
• SmartSpending - discounts and money off at over 800 retailers and suppliers
• Caring, supportive environment and culture
• Generous holiday entitlement of 33 days inclusive of bank holidays
• Long-service rewards of £1,000
• Working alongside professional expert consultants
• Team-building fun days, meals out and social events
• Career progression opportunities
• Company pension
• Discounted or free food
• Employee mentoring programme
• Free on-site parking
• Referral programme
• Sick pay

About Little Barn Owls

Little Barn Owls Nursery and Farm School in Faygate is close to Horsham town centre and situated next door to a welcoming farm shop, surrounded by open fields.

Our spacious garden is home to Woody the pig and his free-roaming Farm School friends of both the two and four-legged variety!

Alongside our large garden and Farm School, our edible garden gives children a space to grow a large variety of vegetables and herbs, used by our in-house chefs as part of our healthy daily meals.

Our innovative and creative Reggio Emilia-inspired, Forest and Farm School Nursery Group has been recognised for its approach to Early Years Education around the world. Nurturing confident, caring and curious children is our passion and our promise.

We employ professional artists in each nursery to work with children, enabling their enquiring minds to develop in dedicated creative studios called Ateliers.

Our Awards and Achievements

We are incredibly proud of our achievements, which reflect our commitment to providing exceptional environments for children and investing in the development of our teams.

• 2026 - Winners of the Nursery World Team Development Award
• 2026 - Finalists for Nursery World Nursery of the Year
• 2024 - Winners of the Nursery World Enabling Environments Award
• 2020 - UK Nursery Group of the Year
• 2015 - UK Nursery of the Year

Our commitment to providing exceptional environments for children goes hand in hand with our passion for developing, supporting and inspiring the educators who work within them.

Our nurseries operate 51 weeks per year, 7:30am-6:00pm, Monday to Friday.

We are not currently able to offer school hours or term-time-only positions.

This is a full-time, permanent position based at our nursery in Faygate, Horsham.

Applicants must have the right to work in the United Kingdom.

Applicants must be able to reliably commute to Horsham or plan to relocate before starting work.

Our policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified persons without regard to race, creed, colour, religious belief, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, or veteran status.

Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding our children and staff. You will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check and provide suitable references.

Application Question

What interests you about a career with Little Barn Owls?