Early Years Nursery Apprentice - Early Birds Nursery

You will be part of a supportive work family who support each other and value staff wellbeing and diversity. We are forward thinking and embrace new continuous professional development opportunities including Five to Thrive, Attention-Strategy, Emotion Coaching, Theraplay and evidence informed practice.

North Somerset Council is dedicated to providing high-quality services to our community. We are committed to creating a fair, green, and more inclusive environment for all our residents. Join us and contribute to making a positive impact on our community.

The Role

We are seeking an enthusiastic and committed apprentice to join our Little Waves Nursery Team.

In this role, you will actively contribute and support high quality care and education to children aged 0-4 years attending the nursery, ensuring developmental needs are met. Working positively in partnership with parents/carers whilst creating a safe and nurturing environment as part of the nursery team.

We are proud of our strong community links and the shared core values which are embedded throughout our nursery. We work closely with our families and have effective partnerships with a range of agencies including Family Support Workers, Social Workers, and Health Visitors, towards improving the outcomes for our children.

As an apprentice you will be supported by a strong, experienced team, with plenty of opportunities to access quality training and professional development.

Key Responsibilities:

You will be reliable, patient and be confident to use your initiative, whilst working under the direction of a room lead.

You will use your developing knowledge of the EYFS framework and child development to support children's learning and development, whilst keeping them safe.

We are looking for a caring and dedicated individual who will understand and value the importance of providing outstanding learning and care in a fun, safe environment, giving all children a positive and successful start in life. You will need to be a team player who can also demonstrate initiative, nurture, and joy. You will be reliable, friendly, passionate, reflective, and committed to delivering an outstanding child centred approach to Early Years in keeping with our Early Birds Nursery ethos.

It is essential that you actively promote and support the safeguarding of children, ensuring policies and procedures are always observed.

We are looking for a practitioner who promotes our nursery's positive values, attitudes (including British Values) and can build warm and positive relationships with children and their families and a willingness to work as part of a team.

Essential Criteria:

A competent level of understanding in English.
Prepared to be working to achieve level 3 in Early Years Care and Education.
Some experience of direct working with children in a Care, Early Years Education and/or Play setting.
Understanding of Child development and the needs of young children in a childcare setting.
Awareness of the Early Years Foundation Stage.
An understanding of children with SEND.
Awareness of Safeguarding/Child Protection policies and procedures.
Awareness of OFSTED requirements.
Occasional working in the evenings and weekends

Desirable Criteria:

Paediatric First Aid.
Food & Hygiene Certificate
Experience working with children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Ability to provide a flexible and calm response to children and families., Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.

Early Birds Nursery is one of three maintained nurseries for children aged 0-4 years old located in Long Ashton. Early Birds Nursery has a Good Ofsted judgement, and our dedicated team continually strive to seek innovative ways to further improve and develop practice. We have an exciting opportunity for the right candidate to join our aspirational team.

Competitive salary and benefits
Flexible working arrangements
Local Government Pension
Opportunities for professional development
Inclusive Staff groups including Carers, Disabled, LGBTQ+, REACH (Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Heritage), and Young Staff Forums
Opportunity to purchase up to an additional 10 days annual leave each year
Dedicated in house Wellbeing Team
Salary sacrifice Cycle to Work and Electric Vehicle schemes

Further details of our excellent rewards package can be found in our Benefits booklet.