Nursery Manager - MAT Cover

Bright Horizons Early Education & Preschool; Chasetown; On-site; GBP 41,000 - 50,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Childcare discount

Parental leave

Annual leave

Pension

Wellbeing benefits

Careers coach

Shift options

T&Cs

Job summary

Bright Horizons Elizabeth Terrace Day Nursery and Preschool in Eltham, London, invites applications for a Nursery Manager. This maternity cover runs December 2026 to September 2027.

You will lead a team to deliver exceptional early years care and education and ensure safeguarding, regulatory compliance, and strong partnerships with families. With a Good Ofsted rating, the setting offers a supportive environment, competitive salary from £45,510 per annum, and benefits including 25 days leave and

Qualifications

• Level 3+ Early Years qualification required.
• Leadership experience in an Early Years setting.
• Experience with regulatory inspections leading to Good/Outstanding.
• Experience building high‑performance teams with compliant practice.
• Decisive leader balancing commercial and service excellence.
• Strong safeguarding knowledge and child protection understanding.
• Ability to build trust with colleagues and parents.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team to deliver outstanding care and education.
• Act as Designated Safeguarding Lead and manage safeguarding policies.
• Collaborate with support office to recruit and develop staff.
• Implement commercial plans to drive growth and performance.
• Optimise nursery performance, revenue, and cost efficiency.
• Maintain staff ratios in line with regulatory requirements.

Skills

Level 3+ Early Years qualification

Early Years leadership experience

Regulatory inspection experience

Team development and coaching

Safeguarding knowledge

Partnership with parents

Education

Level 3 Early Years

Job description

Nursery – Bright Horizons Elizabeth Terrace Day Nursery and Preschool

Job Type – Maternity Cover – Dec 2026 - Sep 2027

Salary – From £45,510 per annum (dependant on qualification/s and experience)

Location – Eltham, London

Are you looking to work for an organisation whose culture is driven by our HEART principles – Honesty, Excellence, Accountability, Respect, and Teamwork? Where you can be yourself, feel supported, and help to make a difference to the next generation? Somewhere you can say: “I did that.”

We’re looking for a Nursery Manager to join our Elizabeth Terrace Nursery, situated in Eltham, London. This is a maternity cover position starting in December 2026 and ending in September 2027.

Our lovely nursery is based in the heart of Eltham high street and proudly holds an Ofsted rating 'Good'. We are a small community-based nursery who have built an amazing togetherness with our parent partnerships and homely environment. We have great transport links with a variety of bus routes on the high street and a 10-minute walk to Eltham station.

Our Benefits

• From £45,510 per annum
• Childcare discount of 100% for first child
• Enhanced parental leave
• 25 days annual leave, plus bank holidays and paid Christmas closure. Ability to also purchase additional leave*
• Pension
• Financial and wellbeing benefits including 24/7 virtual GP appointments, early access to wages, and more
• Professional development programme access for every stage of your career, including access to a careers coach
• Shift options: 40 hours over 4 or 5 days
• Subject to T&Cs

The Role

As a Nursery Manager, you will lead a team to deliver outstanding care and education to all the children in your setting, and through inspirational leadership drive employee engagement, retention and performance. You will act as Designated Safeguarding Lead, holding overall responsibility for the day to day running of the nursery, and management of safeguarding policies. You will work in partnership with support office teams to recruit, nurture, and continuously develop high performing colleagues, as well as identify and implement commercial plans and strategies to deliver FTE growth. You will optimise nursery performance, revenue generation, and cost efficiency in line with staff ratio requirements.

What We’re Looking For

• Full and relevant Level 3 or above Early Years qualification
• Experience within an Early Years leadership role (ideally as a Nursery Manager, Deputy Manager, Assistant Manager or similar)
• Experience of participating with a regulatory inspection, leading to a ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ outcome
• Experience of developing high performance teams, with effective regulatory compliance, quality improvement, delivery of high-quality pedagogy, innovation and service excellence
• Confident decision maker, with ability to support change and understanding of complex relationship between commercial and service excellence within a regulated setting
• Strong knowledge and understanding of Safeguarding, Child Protection, and the wider legislative requirements for working with children
• Ability to develop trust and strong working partnerships with both colleagues and parents/ carers

Bright Horizons is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. This post is subject to safer recruitment practice and pre-employment checks, including an enhanced DBS check, which will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed.

We are an inclusive employer and welcome people from all ages and backgrounds to apply. We will consider reasonable adjustments required by applicants. Please note, due to our sector all roles are subject to an Enhanced DBS.

We’re proud to be a Great Place to Work for 20 years.