Nursery Manager

Chiltern Nursery & Training College was established in 1931 and is an independent setting in Caversham, Reading, Berkshire. The nursery is set in extensive grounds and has a warm and friendly family ethos following the ‘In the Moment’ approach to learning and development. There is a training suite for our trainees who enrol in our NCFE/CACHE level 3 work-based traineeship programme to gain a childcare qualification.

We are currently recruiting for a passionate and experienced Nursery Manager to lead our amazing Chiltern Day Nursery. You will be part of a Senior Management team, which is led by the Head of CNTC. Our enthusiastic and experienced staff team share their knowledge through supportive coaching and mentorship.

This family orientated 130-place setting features 9 well-resourced rooms, with direct access to their veranda and large garden and outdoor play area which the children can enjoy in all weathers for outdoor learning.

As a Nursery Manager at Chiltern, you can expect a very competitive salary of up to £50,000 per annum (dependant on experience) for a 40hr flexible week for 51 weeks of the year, closure on Bank Holidays, Christmas Eve and Christmas to New Year which does not come out of your annual leave allocation. Annual leave of 30 days, sick pay and pension scheme, childcare discount, excellent training and development, and a caring and passionate place to work.

Your role:

As the Nursery Manager you will be one of the named suitable persons in charge of the nursery and responsible for all operational and regulatory aspects, supporting an overall vision which is shared by the whole team. The role is a key leadership role with responsibility for all aspects of managing a nursery.

This Manager will effectively lead, enthuse potential and engage their team to deliver exceptional care and education whilst supporting Chilterns family ethos and values. The expectation is this will be delivered through the presence throughout the day in the nursery rooms, engaging with staff and families whilst ensuring the expected levels of practice are consistently applied and fully embedded at every level. This will be delivered through leading and managing by example, role-modelling best practice and observation and assessment of standards and practice throughout the nursery.

The role requires you to work closely with the Head and the Senior Management team to ensure the vision for CNTC and journey it is embarking on will be positively implemented in line with regulatory, customer and employee expectations, and to develop staff teams that achieve consistent high-quality performance within the setting.

The Nursery Manager has the overall responsibility for the day-to-day oversight of safeguarding, health and safety practices and child protection in the setting and maintaining accurate and up to date systems and records at all times.

The Nursery Manager is directly responsible for the effective leadership of the nursery team, supporting and implementing training, providing coaching and mentoring and implementing a robust performance management strategy to ensure service excellence for CNTC families. This includes leading change internally and role modelling leadership behaviour in line with CNTC values.

Working with the Head and Senior Management team, the Nursery Manager is responsible for managing and monitoring the commercial performance of the nursery and leading practice to improve customer and employee engagement and retention, alongside effective staff deployment, whilst managing all costs in line with the allocated budget.

Ensuring the nurseries meet regulatory requirements and are fully recruited, maintaining ratios and appropriate deployment with suitable qualified people, encouraging a diverse workforce, who are comprehensively inducted, trained and supported; the workforce plans are in line with occupancy, and all nursery teams are fully compliant with their regulatory training, induction and required development programmes at all times.

Essential Experience:

Full and relevant level 3 qualification (essential)

Undergraduate or Foundation Degree in Early Childhood Studies or other relevant subject (Desirable)

5+ years of nursery managerial experience

Some previous experience of quality roles

Experience/understanding of In The Moment Planning

12 hours paediatric first aid and first aid at work (essential)

A strong record of on-going training and/or professional qualifications since qualifying

Proven experience of working in early years education settings with successful management leading to ‘Good or better’ regulatory inspection outcomes

Demonstrable track record of driving leadership strength and development of successful ongoing performance management and impact measurements, in close partnership with HR

Strong decision-maker, with the proven ability to support change; with the ability to follow guidelines and work with others to achieve success

Experience of developing high performing teams, with a successful record of accomplishment of supporting effective regulatory compliance, quality improvement, delivering high quality pedagogy, innovation and service excellence.

Experience of proving support and leadership to a staff team to enable staff to fulfil their roles, responsibilities and legislation duty in relation to safeguarding children.

Experience of efficient staff deployment and rostering

Knowledge of Local Authority and Regulatory requirements and inspection processes across the UK

Relevant safeguarding/child protection training undertaken and a willingness to update training regularly (essential)

Evidence of continuous professional development

Full, clean driving licence

Personal attributes

Able to communicate clearly with adults and children using a variety of techniques (oral and in writing)

Ability to lead organisational change and transformation whilst retaining staff engagement

Highly motivated and driven, achieving positive impact and meeting deadlines

Ability to build trust and develop cohesive teams – strong empathy to understand child and parents view, clear expectations and fair-minded

High energy and thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment - calm approach and ‘can-do’ attitude

Positive outlook (someone who always sees the glass as half full)

Solution orientated, looking for the effective solutions

Someone who can multi-task, taking on all aspects of the business

Able to reflect on the quality of own performance, respond positively to direction to support improvement

Encourages colleagues to realise their potential and empower high performance

Able to manage workload and manage time effectively to deliver the desired results

Able and competent user of ICT systems and have the willingness to learn and develop ICT skills

We look forward to receiving your application!

If you experience any problems, please email info@chilternntc.com and we will be happy to help.

CNTC has a strong commitment to inclusion and safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff to share this commitment. We follow safer recruitment practices. Successful applicants will be required to provide satisfactory background checks, references, and an enhanced DBS disclosure. Therefore, it is essential in making your application that you disclose any information requested in respect of applicable convictions and cautions (including, as applicable any reprimands or final warnings). This post may be exempt from the provisions of Section 4 (2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, in which case applicants are not entitled to withhold information about convictions which for other purposes are ‘spent’ under the provision of the Act unless the conviction or caution is “protected” as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2013). Any such ‘protected’ conviction or caution is not subject to disclosure to employers, and cannot be taken into account. All guidance and criteria on the filtering of these cautions and convictions can be found in the DBS filtering collection, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dbs-filtering-guidance . The fact that a pending charge, conviction, caution, reprimand or final warning has been recorded against you will not necessarily debar you from consideration for this role but any failure