Nursery Manager
About the role
As we expand, we are looking for a Nursery Manager to join the founding team at Ark Start Nurseries. In this role you will provide the highest standards of physical, emotional, social, and intellectual care for all children in your care, you’ll ensure all children are safeguarded and their welfare and safety are promoted, and you’ll work to provide an enabling environment in which all children can play, learn and develop.
Our central team are responsible for the majority of administrative functions so we are looking for people with a genuine passion for young children and the skill, creativity, commitment, energy, and enthusiasm required for leading the nursery from the front.
Key Responsibilities
- To be responsible for the successful running of the nursery in every room including observations, assessments and relationships with parents
- To ensure the daily operational running of the nursery is smooth and well organised
- To work alongside the room leaders to ensure staff are deployed effectively and meeting the needs of all children
- To ensure the implementation of the Ark Start curriculum
- To ensure staff engage in high quality interactions and model high quality interactions across nursery
- To create an enabling environment where all children make good progress
- To ensure that the nursery is safe and secure, risk assessments are in place and followed by all staff and that all staff are following the Ark Start safeguarding policy and procedures
- To keep child records up to date and reporting to parents and senior staff
- To work alongside senior staff to implement improvement plans to support the nursery to continuously improve
- To promote and model high standards of the nursery at all times to parents, staff, and visitors in line with the Ark Start code of conduct and handbook
This job description is not an exhaustive list and you will be expected to carry out any other reasonable tasks as directed by your line manager.
Key Requirements
- Minimum level 3; ideally level 5 or above
- Right to work in the UK
- An awareness of keeping children safe, noticing safeguarding and welfare concerns, and knowing how and when to take appropriate action
- A team player that can work collaboratively as well as using own initiative
- Excellent knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework
- Experience of leading a team
Ark offer some great benefits which include:
- We are committed to providing the best development for all our staff. We close the nurseries for five days each year to focus on staff training and ensure there is protected time for training and supervision each week for every adult. We work hard to ensure there are clear career progression routes so staff that start with us can continue their career with us.
- 25 days holiday per year, excluding bank holidays.
- 11% pension contributions.
- Above market salaries – we are a Real Living Wage employer for qualified staff.
- Access to Ark Rewards providing discounts of thousands of retail outlets as well as for example free counselling, financial and legal advice and much more through our Employee Assistance Programme.
Successful applicants will need to provide ‘right to work in the UK’ documentation, undertake a DBS and provide at least two satisfactory references prior to commencing employment.
Diversity and Inclusion at Ark
At Ark Start, we have a particular responsibility to advocate for diversity and inclusion to make a positive difference to the lives of our pupils. We believe that inclusivity and representation of people, circumstances, identities, cultures, and ethnicities from all sections of society make us stronger as individuals and as an organisation.
We are committed to attracting, developing and retaining a diverse workforce, with a broad range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. We welcome any candidate requests for reasonable adjustments to the selection process in order to ensure equal access to all candidates.
Ark is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people in our academies. To meet this responsibility, we follow a rigorous selection process. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate a commitment to safeguarding the welfare of children, which will be tested at interview. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check.
