Senior Nursery Practitioner

East Kent College; Canterbury; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job description

About The Role

Are you passionate about shaping young minds and creating a nurturing, inclusive environment where every child can thrive?

We’re looking for a Senior Nursery Practitioner to join our dedicated team at EKC Canterbury Nursery. If you're an experienced early years professional who leads with warmth, enthusiasm, and purpose, we’d love to hear from you.

Why join us?

• Be part of a supportive, forward-thinking team that values creativity and child-led learning.
• Enjoy a workplace where your ideas and input are encouraged and valued.
• We’re proud to offer flexible working arrangements to support a healthy work-life balance.

Your Role

As a Senior Nursery Practitioner, you’ll play a key leadership role, working closely with the Nursery Manager to:

• Deliver high-quality early years education in line with the EYFS framework.
• Support and inspire the staff team, ensuring every child receives tailored, inclusive care and learning opportunities.
• Foster a warm, stimulating environment where every child feels safe, supported, and eager to explore.

Bring your experience, passion, and vision to a role where you’ll make a real difference every day.

Ready to take the next step in your early years career? Join us and help shape a bright future for the children in our care.

Benefits

Alongside our priority of excellent student experience, we also focus on our employees. Here are just some of our benefits when working for the East Kent Colleges Group:

• Competitive salary and holiday entitlement
• Access to 100's of online discounts via our Rewards Scheme (Inc. Restaurant, Grocery, Retail, Gym, Holidays)
• Access to cycle to work, car leasing and tech purchasing schemes
• Generous pension scheme - 18% employer contribution
• Being part of a company with a Eco-Sustainability focus of being Net-Zero
• Time off for your child's first day at school, moving home and for interviews
• My 10 Days initiative - bid for up-to 10 days off work to pursue voluntary work
• Being part of Community Days and Annual Staff Celebration Day

About You

We are looking for a hardworking, dynamic and organised individual who has the skills and knowledge to provide and monitor the standards, care and education with reference to all aspects of Early Years Foundation Stage, and in particular meeting the needs of all children.

You Will Have Experience In

• Working within a nursery setting
• Providing guidance and support for practitioners on planning and delivery of the Early Years curriculum for all children.
• Leading on liaison with outside agencies and other professionals
• Liaising with parents and carers to ensure they are well informed

No need to spend time updating your CV, just click apply and complete our short application form. You can save your progress as you go, and we’ll review all applications and get back to all candidates after the closing date.

If you are interested in an informal chat about the role, or have any queries, please email us on [e-mail]

About Us

Outstanding Ofsted Provider

East Kent Colleges Group is an Ofsted Outstanding rated provider. It is proud to be the first General Further Education college organisation in the country to have received the Outstanding grade against each of the strands under the new Ofsted inspection framework. An inclusive provider, our colleagues place our students and the communities we serve at the heart of everything they do across EKC Group and this is illustrated in our ‘Strong’ skills grading by Ofsted.

Commitment to Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and we ensure that all staff are aware of their responsibilities for upholding these principles.

As a designated establishment, we are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore have an obligation to carry out checks to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. These checks include conviction/caution self-declaration, Enhanced DBS check and obtaining sufficient referencing.

It is a criminal offence to apply for a post which involves engaging in regulated activity relevant to children if you are barred from doing so.

If you are successful in being shortlisted to interview, your suitability to work with children and vulnerable adults will be explored as part of the interview process.

Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

East Kent Colleges Group is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all members of our communities. We are particularly keen to increase the diversity of our staff body and encourage applications from candidates where there is underrepresentation in our workforce.

We are proud to hold the Positive About Disability Award and are a Disability Confident Employer. This confirms our commitment to interviewing all applicants who declare that they have a disability and who meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification. With any successful candidate, we will explore any reasonable adjustments to a role due to a health needs or disability.

Similarly, we have a commitment to Care Leavers (Care Covenant Pledge) and to current or previous Armed Forces personnel (Armed Forces Covenant Pledge) with a commitment to interview applicants who meet the positions essential criteria and who have declared this on their application.

We welcome applications from anyone wishing to work flexibly and those considering a return to work from a career break.

We do not engage with agencies for permanent staff and have an in-house recruitment team.