Senior Nursery Practitioner

Ashford College; Folkestone; Hybrid; GBP 26,000 - 32,000; Full time

Job summary

EKC Folkestone Nursery at East Kent Colleges Group is seeking an experienced Senior Nursery Practitioner to lead a base room, inspire colleagues and deliver high-quality EYFS care.

The role offers 37 hours per week, Monday to Friday, all year round, with a salary of £27,283 per year. You will supervise staff, champion safeguarding and work with parents to give children the best start in life.

Qualifications

• Level 3 Early Years qualification required.
• Experience leading or supervising nursery colleagues.
• Strong EYFS knowledge, safeguarding and inclusive practice.
• Ability to create engaging, stimulating environments for children.
• Excellent communication with children, families and colleagues.

Responsibilities

• Lead your base room and create a safe, nurturing environment.
• Support and inspire colleagues, promoting outstanding practice.
• Deliver care and education in line with EYFS.
• Build partnerships with parents and carers to support each child.
• Champion children's learning, wellbeing and safeguarding.
• Take ownership of a specialist area (SEND, parent partnership, wellbeing or health and safety).
• Drive continuous improvement and uphold high standards of care.

Skills

Leadership

EYFS knowledge

Safeguarding

Communication

Team leadership

Education

Level 3 Early Years qualification

Job description

About The Role

Lead little learners. Inspire big futures.

Are you an experienced Early Years Practitioner ready to take the next step in your career? Join our friendly team at EKC Folkestone Nursery as a Senior Nursery Practitioner, where you'll combine hands‑on care with leadership, helping children, colleagues and families thrive.

In this rewarding role, you will:

• Lead your base room, creating a safe, stimulating and nurturing environment where every child can flourish.
• Support and inspire your colleagues, promoting outstanding practice across the nursery.
• Work alongside the Nursery Leadership Team to deliver exceptional care and education in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
• Build positive partnerships with parents and carers, ensuring every child receives the best possible start.
• Champion children's learning, development, wellbeing and safeguarding.
• Take ownership of a specialist area such as SEND, parent partnership, wellbeing or health and safety, helping shape and enhance our nursery provision.
• Play an active role in driving continuous improvement and maintaining the highest standards of care.

Working pattern:

• 37 hours per week
• A salary of £27,283 per year
• Monday to Friday
• All year round

If you're passionate about Early Years education and ready to make a real impact through leadership, we'd love to hear from you. This is your opportunity to help shape young lives while developing your own career within a supportive and forward‑thinking team.

Alongside our priority of excellent student experience, we also focus on our employees.

Check out our benefits when working for the East Kent Colleges Group

About You

We're looking for an experienced and enthusiastic Early Years professional who is ready to take the next step in their career and make a real difference every day.

You’ll be someone who leads with confidence, inspires those around you and is passionate about giving every child the very best start in life.

You’ll bring:

• A recognised Level 3 Early Years qualification.
• Experience working in a nursery environment, including leading or supervising colleagues.
• A strong understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), safeguarding and inclusive practice.
• The ability to create engaging, stimulating environments where children can learn, develop and thrive.
• Excellent communication skills, with the confidence to build positive relationships with children, families and colleagues.
• A proactive, organised and supportive approach, leading by example and encouraging high standards across the team.
• A commitment to continuous improvement and delivering outstanding care and education for every child.

If you're passionate about Early Years education, enjoy supporting others to succeed and want to be part of a welcoming team where your contribution is truly valued, we'd love to hear from you.

About Us

Outstanding Ofsted Provider
East Kent Colleges Group is an Ofsted Outstanding rated provider. It is proud to be the first General Further Education college organisation in the country to have received the Outstanding grade against each of the strands under the new Ofsted inspection framework. An inclusive provider, our colleagues place our students and the communities we serve at the heart of everything they do across EKC Group and this is illustrated in our ‘Strong’ skills grading by Ofsted.

Commitment to Safeguarding
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and we ensure that all staff are aware of their responsibilities for upholding these principles.

As a designated establishment, we are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore have an obligation to carry out checks to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. These checks include conviction/caution self‑declaration, Enhanced DBS check and obtaining sufficient referencing.

It is a criminal offence to apply for a post which involves engaging in regulated activity relevant to children if you are barred from doing so.

If you are successful in being shortlisted to interview, your suitability to work with children and vulnerable adults will be explored as part of the interview process.

Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
East Kent CollegesGroup is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all members of our communities. We are particularly keen to increase the diversity of our staff body and encourage applications from candidates where there is underrepresentation in our workforce.

We are proud to hold the Positive About Disability Award and are a Disability Confident Employer. This confirms our commitment to interviewing all applicants who declare that they have a disability and who meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification. With any successful candidate, we will explore any reasonable adjustments to a role due to a health needs or disability.

Similarly, we have a commitment to Care Leavers (Care Covenant Pledge) and to current or previous Armed Forces personnel (Armed Forces Covenant Pledge) with a commitment to interview applicants who meet the positions essential criteria and who have declared this on their application.

We welcome applications from anyone wishing to work flexibly and those considering a return to work from a career break.

We do not engage with agencies for permanent staff and have an in‑house recruitment team.