Childcare Officer (Maternity Cover)

First Steps Nursery have an exciting opportunity for you to join us as a Childcare Officer at our Worthing campus. You will join us on a full time, maternity cover basis, and in return, we will offer a competitive salary of GBP25,708 - GBP26,101 per annum. Are you a happy, supportive and fun loving individual who dreams of a job where no two days are the same? An exciting opportunity has arisen to work as a Childcare Officer at our First Steps Nursery based at Worthing College. Working with young babies through to children ready to start school, you will share your love for learning and make a real difference in children’s development and learning journeys. Together with our dedicated team, you will be a part of ensuring the children are learning, socialising, exploring and having fun.

Key Responsibilities of our Childcare Officer:

• Ensuring the safety, happiness and well-being of children, ensuring that all children are supported to reach their potential and that individual needs are met.
• Effectively leading the team to deliver high quality opportunities, through modelling the expected standards and having high expectations of the team, and ensuring that the day to day experience for children is outstanding.
• Ensuring that there is effective, open and meaningful communication within the team and with parents.
• Supporting children through the implementation of our nursery intent, annual calendar and the delivery of our pre-school curriculum, ensuring that all opportunities for teachable moments are utilised.
• Supporting staff with documentation including (but not limited to) planning, observations and assessments, and reviewing and moderating these to ensure their accuracy and effectiveness.
• Being reflective and reactive to cohort needs/organisational needs/sector updates and to actively aim to solve problems and proactively make a difference through striving for improvement.
• Contributing to and working towards targeted action plans in conjunction with the Childcare Manager.

Our ideal Childcare Officer should have the below skills and experience:

• Level 3 qualification in Early Childhood Studies (or equivalent).
• A period of post qualifying experience working in a childcare setting.
• Experience of leading a team.
• Experience of planning and delivering high quality opportunities for children to support children to reach their potential.
• Working knowledge of current Early Years regulations (including Early Years Foundation Stage, Development Matters and Ofsted frameworks/guidance).
• The ability to communicate effectively and purposefully in a range of ways to suit a variety of situations.

The Chichester College Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. All posts are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check, which may include a check of the barred lists and any relevant overseas checks. We vigorously pursue all references and safeguarding checks to ensure applicants are suitable to work with young people. As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role. We are an equal opportunities employer.