Nursery Practitioner

Tiny Moments, Big Milestones and a Career you'll be Proud of! East Kent Colleges Group is proud to be home to three thriving nurseries, supporting our students, staff, and local communities across Broadstairs, Canterbury, and Folkestone. Thanks to our continued success, our welcoming Folkestone Nursery is growing, and we’re excited to be looking for a passionate Nursery Practitioner to join our team!

At Folkestone Nursery, we believe every child deserves the very best start in life. That’s why we’re committed to creating a warm, nurturing environment where children can flourish, families feel supported, and our team enjoys working together every day. Are you ready to use your Early Years expertise to make a lasting difference in children's lives? If so, we'd love to hear from you!

We are recruiting for 2 full time Nursery Practitioner roles. Both positions are for 37 hours per week with one worked across Monday-Thursday in our baby room and one across Monday-Friday across the Nursery. Please submit an application if you are interested in either working pattern, and this will be discussed with you upon interview.

Join our thriving and friendly Folkestone nursery where you'll find:

• A welcoming, supportive team that values collaboration and celebrates each other's successes
• A child-centred environment where safeguarding, wellbeing, and outstanding care are at the heart of everything we do
• The opportunity to inspire curiosity, nurture development, and help give every child the very best start in life

Here are just some of what we offer when working for the East Kent Colleges Group:

• 24 days annual leave (FTE) plus enhanced leave after 5 years service
• Discounts on restaurant, grocery, retail and holidays via our Rewards scheme
• Flexible Personal Leave
• Wellbeing and Health Support
• Generous sick pay
• Staff Community Days, annual Staff Celebration Day, and an eco-friendly organisation dedicated to reaching net-zero by 2030
• Competitive Pension Scheme

We’re looking for compassionate, skilled Level 3 Practitioners who are ready to make a real impact in children’s lives. If you’ve got solid nursery experience, strong EYFS knowledge, and a warm, nurturing approach, we’d love to hear from you. In this role, you’ll be a key person supporting children’s learning and development, building strong partnerships with families, and maintaining the highest standards of care and safety. You’ll communicate confidently with colleagues, parents and professionals, and bring a solid understanding of child development, safeguarding and inclusive practice. We’re looking for team players who are adaptable, proactive, and ready to get stuck into whatever the day brings.

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.

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.

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 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.