Senior Nursery Practitioner

Ashford College; Folkestone; Hybrid; GBP 25,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

East Kent Colleges Group in Folkestone is seeking a Senior Nursery Practitioner to lead the baby room, creating a warm, nurturing environment where children can flourish. You will lead by example, support colleagues, and deliver high-quality care aligned with EYFS.

The role is 37 hours per week, with a salary of £27,283 per year, Monday to Friday, all year round. You will build strong partnerships with families, champion safeguarding, and contribute to continuous improvement across the nursery.

Qualifications

• Experience leading or supervising nursery staff.
• Strong understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
• Excellent communication with children, families and colleagues.

Responsibilities

• Lead the baby room, creating a safe, stimulating and nurturing environment for every child.
• Support and inspire colleagues, promoting outstanding practice across the nursery.
• Work with the Nursery Leadership Team to deliver high-quality care and education per EYFS.
• Build positive partnerships with parents and carers to ensure every child gets the best start.
• Champion children’s learning, wellbeing and safeguarding.
• Take ownership of specialist area such as SEND, parent partnership or health & safety to enhance nursery provision.
• Contribute to continuous improvement and maintaining high standards of care.

Skills

Leadership

EYFS knowledge

Communication

Education

Level 3 Early Years qualification

Job description

About The Role

Nurture little minds. Build big futures!

Ready to take the next step in your Early Years career?

Join our friendly team at EKC Folkestone Nursery as a Senior Nursery Practitioner and make a lasting difference from their very first days.

Based in our baby room, you’ll play a key role in creating a warm, nurturing environment where our youngest children feel safe, secure and ready to explore. Alongside providing exceptional hands‑on care, you’ll support and inspire colleagues, build strong relationships with families, and help ensure every child gets the best possible start.

If you’re an experienced Early Years Practitioner who’s ready to lead by example, nurture little minds and inspire big futures, we’d love to hear from you.

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 Awardand 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 previousArmed Force 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.