Lead Early Years Practitioner

Lead Early Years Practitioner YMCA Fairthorne Group
• Andover, England, GB

Lead great practice. Make a difference for every child.

Some Early Years roles are about your own room.

This one is about the whole nursery.

As a Lead Early Years Practitioner at the YMCA Fairthorne Group, you’ll be part of the nursery leadership team, helping to strengthen practice across the setting whilst supporting children who may need something extra to thrive.

This is a primarily supernumerary role, giving you the space to work alongside practitioners, observe children, coach colleagues and help make sure additional needs are identified and supported well.

As an Lead Early Years Practitioner

You’ll still spend meaningful time with children.

You’ll just have the opportunity to influence far more than your own key group.

A role with wider impact

You’ll work across the nursery, supporting children, practitioners and leaders.

A big part of your role will be helping us make sure that children with additional needs, vulnerabilities or emerging concerns are noticed early and supported consistently.

You’ll:

• work alongside practitioners across the setting
• observe children and help identify where additional support may be needed
• support key persons to develop appropriate support plans
• help coordinate referrals and next steps where specialist support is required
• coach practitioners and model strong Early Years practice
• support colleagues to build confidence in SEND, behaviour and inclusion
• contribute to nursery improvement priorities
• help embed high standards of care and practice across rooms
• support safeguarding and safe Early Years practice
• deputise for the Nursery Manager when required
• spend time directly with children in rooms and outdoor spaces.

This isn’t leadership from a distance.

You’ll be in the nursery, alongside the people and children you’re supporting.

Helping every child belong
- Children don’t all develop in the same way or at the same pace.

Some need additional support with communication., some with behaviour or emotional regulation, some may have an identified SEND need and others may simply be experiencing something in their lives that means they need more support for a period of time.

Your role is to help us notice.

To ask the right questions.

To work with practitioners and families.

And to make sure the support around the child is thoughtful, consistent and appropriate.

The aim isn’t to define children by what they find difficult.

It’s to understand what they need so they can participate, grow in confidence and feel that they belong.

A big part of this role is helping other people become even better at what they do.

You’ll observe practice, share ideas, model approaches and coach colleagues.

Sometimes that means helping somebody recognise something they’re already doing brilliantly.

Sometimes it means supporting them to try something differently.

And sometimes it means having a constructive conversation when practice needs to improve.

We’re looking for someone who can challenge positively, build confidence and bring people with them.

The person we’re looking for

Ideally, you’ll hold a Level 5 Early Years or Childcare qualification.

We’re also happy to consider experienced Level 3 practitioners who have the right background and are willing to continue developing.

You’ll need experience of:

• working in an Early Years setting
• supporting improvements in practice
• modelling good practice and coaching colleagues
• supporting behaviour and additional needs
• working with children who may be vulnerable or need additional support.

You’ll also need a good understanding of safeguarding and health and safety.

Paediatric First Aid and Designated Safeguarding Lead training would be valuable, but we can support the right person to complete these where needed.

More importantly, we’re looking for somebody who is:

• confident without needing to dominate
• warm and approachable
• observant
• calm under pressure
• comfortable giving constructive feedback
• able to build trust with practitioners and families
• curious about why things happen, not just what happened
• passionate about inclusion
• motivated by seeing other people develop
• committed to improving experiences for children.

A different kind of…