Early Years Practitioner

About the post

The starting salary for this role is equivalent to £14.59 per hour.

Hours of work are all day Monday and Thursday (8.30am – 6pm) and Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons (1 – 5pm).

We would welcome candidates to visit our setting to meet our staff team, see our learning spaces and hear about our ethos.

There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Becky Mounter (Nursery Manager) on [phone removed] or email us at [email removed]

About the Nursery

Acorn Nursery is one of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Family Hub Nurseries. We pride ourselves on plenty of space to play and learn both indoors and outdoor. Each room has its own separate outdoor space with access to the main large garden where children join together to climb and slide, play in the mud kitchen, enjoy the sandpit and tend to our vegetable patches or check that the worms are doing their job in our compost bins . We have a play based approach to learning in a fun, happy and calm atmosphere.

We are proud of our staff team, many who have been at Acorn for over 20 years. The team are qualified to level 3 or above or working towards a higher qualifications. Together the team share the same passion for delivering a high standard of care to the children and provide exciting opportunities for the children to learn, grow and develop into confident young people.

Applicants must have:

• a minimum level 3 qualification in early years and childcare, or a full and relevant equivalent
• experience of working with young children in an early year's environment
• a fun positive attitude to work
• experience of delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
• passion to learn and develop own knowledge and experience
• experience and commitment to meeting the individual needs of young children and their families.
• demonstrate a passion and commitment for providing high quality care and learning opportunities
• excellent communication skills

The role involves

• being a key person for a group of children
• building relationships with children and their families, and supporting attachment building
• being an inspiration and role model to the children
• supporting learning and development
• carrying out observations and completing assessments
• supporting the settings commitment to safeguarding children, and adhering to child protection procedures

We will provide

• Salary above market average starting at £27,254 for a full-time post of 37 hours a week, equivalent to £14.13 per hour (pay award pending)
• Paid days holiday every year plus bank holidays
• a full induction and training programme
• encouragement and support to further your education and continued professional development
• Generous pension scheme
• loans available to support with bus travel, or buying a bike and deposit loans for rental properties, these are paid back straight from your salary.
• staff discount scheme that can be used in local shops/cafes as well as national stores, including discounted cinema tickets, and discounted gift cards
• ongoing support in the form of regular supervisions and appraisals
• the opportunity to work as part of a dedicated team
• a setting that is child and family centred, not for profit.

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.
Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

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.

How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

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 experien