Nursery Manager - Maternity Cover

Bright Horizons UK; Bracknell; On-site; GBP 39,000 - 46,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking organization as a Nursery Manager, where your leadership will inspire a team dedicated to nurturing the next generation. This role offers a unique opportunity to influence the quality of early years education while ensuring compliance with safeguarding regulations. With a fixed-term contract, you will implement strategies for growth and performance, all within a supportive environment that values your contributions. Enjoy a range of benefits including childcare discounts and professional development opportunities, making this a rewarding career choice for passionate educators.

Benefits

100% Childcare Discount for First Child

Enhanced Parental Leave

25 Days Annual Leave

Pension

24/7 Virtual GP Appointments

Access to Careers Coach

Qualifications

• Full and relevant Level 3 or above Early Years qualification required.
• Experience in an Early Years leadership role is essential.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team to deliver outstanding care and education.
• Manage safeguarding policies and nursery operations.

Skills

Leadership in Early Years

Safeguarding Knowledge

Regulatory Compliance

Team Development

Decision Making

Education

Level 3 Early Years Qualification

Job description

Nursery – Bright Horizons Forest Park Day Nursery and Pre School

Salary – from £39,416 per annum (dependant on qualification/s and experience)

Location – Bracknell

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 Forest park, Bracknell nursery.

This is a fixed term contract from September 2025 to September 2026.

Our Benefits

• 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, 24 hours over 3 days, or 16 hours over 2 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

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.

If you want to make a difference, with a company who has been voted Great Place to Work every year since 2006, apply today!

INSDH

We look forward to receiving your application!

If you experience any problems, please [e-mail] we will be happy to help.