Room Leader

Brighton & Hove City Council; Brighton; On-site; GBP 23,000 - 29,000; Full time

Job summary

Cherry Tree Nursery in Brighton is seeking a Level 3 Room Leader to guide a team caring for children aged 2–5 years. The role emphasizes high-quality care, EYFS, and strong teamwork within a supportive environment.

You will be a key person for a group of children, work closely with parents and carers, and uphold the nursery ethos. The post is permanent and based at Cherry Tree Nursery, Hollingdean.

Qualifications

• Must have Level 3 in early years and childcare.
• Commitment to providing high quality care for children.
• Effective communicator with families and staff.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team caring for 2-5 year olds.
• Provide high quality care and education in EYFS framework.
• Create a secure, stimulating environment and partner with parents.
• Act as key person for a group of children and monitor progress.

Skills

Leadership

Childcare experience

Communication

Education

Level 3 in early years

Job description

Please enter your search criteria below and select 'Find jobs'.

location_on Location Cherry Tree Nursery, Brentwood Road, Brighton, BN1 7DY

work_outline Basis Fixed Hours

Room Leader

Location Cherry Tree Nursery, Brentwood Road, Brighton, BN1 7DY 19/11/2026

Job reference REQ0001616

Job details

Contractual hours 37 Basis Fixed Hours Package

We are pleased to offer a wide range of benefits to support you and your wellbeing. You can read about them on our Why work for us pages.

Job description

An exciting opportunity has come up for a Level 3 qualified Room Leader to join our team at Cherry Tree Nursery, leading our team working with 2-5 year olds. Candidates will have experience in working with children under 5 years of age and some leadership experience.

Cherry Tree Nursery is located in Hollingdean, close to Lewes Road and Fiveways. Cherry Tree is a purpose-built nursery within Hollingdean Best Start Family Hub offering care and early learning for children from 3 months to 5 years.

We are committed to making a difference to the children and families we work with. We pride ourselves on being child led in our practice and engage in a lot of creative and sensory play. We have an amazing garden and use the outdoors in all weathers. We pride ourselves on our staff who have a wealth of experience.

Applicants must be qualified to a minimum level 3 in early years and childcare; committed to providing a high quality of care for the children; an effective communicator; and must have a good understanding of meeting the individual needs of young children and their families and some experience of leading in the early years.

The role is to provide high quality care and education for children; creating a secure, safe and stimulating environment; working in partnership with parents and carers; being a key person for a group of children; following the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework and other appropriate guidance; working with other early years professionals for example health visitors, speech and language therapists, being aware of child protection issues and following the council’s child protection procedures and close monitoring of children for whom there are concerns.

At Cherry Tree Nursery, we support all of our staff with on-going professional development and training opportunities. Additionally, we offer Room Leader training to support new candidates in working to our ethos and job description. We have a qualified Early Years Teacher who works closely with the Room Leader. As a BHCC employee you will benefit from all the council employee benefits.

Contract type: This role is permanent

There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion or to look around the nursery, please contact the Nursery Manager Caroline on 01273 295616 or email [e-mail]

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Why work for us?

As a council, we want to:

• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

AI advice for candidates

We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional information

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to an enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.