Early Years Educator – 36 hours per week – 38 weeks per year

The Role:

As an Early Years Educator, you too can make a powerful contribution. We are a dedicated team delivering high quality care and education for children attending Westminster Adult Education Services (WAES) nurseries. While parents benefit from the learning opportunities at WAES, they want the reassurance that their children are in a safe, focused environment nearby.

Our vision is to work with agreed policies and procedures in relation to Revised Statutory Framework, ensure correct staff/child ratios, always foster a high standard of hygiene and health, be fully aware of emergency procedures, and meet all Ofsted requirements. We’re committed to recording weekly attendance figures, ensuring all observations and assessments are up to date, and that two-year checks are completed. If required, we make referrals to the Childcare Manager/SENCO, complete speech and language forms, and request SALT assessments.

But we’re not just about procedure. We’re committed to fostering an environment that meets the intellectual, social, moral, spiritual, linguistic, and physical needs of each child. And as member the Childcare Team, you’ll use your sound knowledge of child development for planning and building a balanced, relevant, and differentiated curriculum. You enjoy fostering children’s language development through meaningful conversations, using questions to develop their ability to think and express their own ideas.

Establishing positive relationships with parents is key to ensuring a child is well cared for. You’ll achieve this by arranging termly parent and staff consultation meetings to agree and review goals. As well as through leading documentation on learning journals and displays of children’s work. We’re also passionate about encouraging school readiness in children, and work in closely with parents and schools to ensure that the transition from nursery to reception class is a smooth one.

This is a wonderful opportunity to have a profound impact on children’s lives during their most formative years. You get to see and encourage the progress of each child, celebrating their milestones with them and their families. It’s a rewarding role and the rest of the team truly enjoy it for exactly that reason.

This position is full time, requiring 36 hours of work per week, 38 weeks a year.

Please refer to the Job description for more information.

About You:

To be a good fit, you have one of the following qualifications: an NNEB certificate, a CACHE Level 3 diploma, a BTEC Level 3 in Childcare, or a BA degree in Childcare and Early Years. You’re experienced at working within a framework of the Early Years Foundation Stage (2021). You’re comfortable observing, planning and preparing a curriculum for individuals and groups of children. Plus, you’re aware of health and safety procedure, and are willing to receive further training. Like the rest of our team, you’re informed on the Equality Act and committed to equal opportunities.

You’ll bring skills in people management, organisation and time management, problem-solving and a good grasp of IT. Plus, you have a strong enough command of written and spoken English to be effective at this role.

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role.

What we offer

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.  

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties 

As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working. 

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible. 

How to apply

To apply for the Early Years Educator post, please complete the online application through the link provided: https://careers.newjob.org.uk/WCC/job/Westminster-Early-Years-Educator-WCC621574-LND/1222745201/, please ensure you address all the role and person criteria when completing your supporting statement.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss the role informally, please reach out to the WAES Human Resources Team via email at recruitment@waes.ac.uk, quoting the job reference WCC621574.