At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead a room in delivering high-quality early years education and care for children.
- Company: Spring Cedars, a friendly nursery in Exeter focused on nurturing children's growth.
- Benefits: Enjoy 25 days annual leave, flexible family packages, and discounts at 15,000 retailers.
- Other info: Join a diverse team committed to creating a safe and inclusive workplace.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on children's lives while developing your career in a supportive environment.
- Qualifications: Level 3 early years qualification and experience in leading an early years setting.
The predicted salary is between 28000 - 28000 £ per year.
Location: Exeter
Salary: up to £28,000 per annum
Contract/Hours: Fixed Term/Full Time - 40 hours per week (12 months)
Closing date: Midnight on the 20th of August 2026
Benefits:
- 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
- Professional qualifications and excellent training
- Flexible maternity, adoption, and paternity packages
- Up to 5% employer contribution and life assurance cover
- Blue Light Card eligibility with discounts at 15,000 national retailers
About the role
As a Senior Early Years Practitioner, you’ll play a key role in the nursery’s daily routine, leading your room to deliver high quality early years education and care for all children. You will plan, implement and review engaging activities that promote learning and development in line with the EYFS, ensuring every child thrives in a safe, stimulating, and inclusive environment. In this role, you will support and guide other practitioners, model best practice, and help maintain strong, positive partnerships with parents and carers. You'll be responsible for completing accurate and up-to-date observations, assessments, and records.
What you’ll be doing
In the role of Senior Early Years Practitioner, you'll be:
- Leading the staff within the room on providing learning programmes for individual or groups of children appropriate to their needs and developmental stages in accordance with Early Years legislation and guidance.
- Supporting children with emerging or established special educational needs, working closely with families, staff, external agencies, and professionals to ensure each child's needs are understood and met.
- Ensuring the compliance and application of nursery policies and procedures and relevant legislative requirements, informing management immediately of any instances of non-compliance or variations in practices.
- Contributing to and participating in the wider nursery management through leading on specific areas of development within the nursery, as directed by the Nursery Manager.
- Preparing and supervising dedicated areas/rooms within the setting on specific working patterns through planning, monitoring of outcomes, managing ratio of children, and the provision of a stimulating and appropriate range of activities whilst ensuring health and care needs are met.
What we need from you
In the role of Senior Early Years Practitioner, we're ideally looking for someone who has:
- Level 3 early years and childcare qualification e.g., NNEB, CACHE, NVQ Level 3 in Childcare and Education.
- A thorough knowledge of children's developmental needs from 0 to 5 years.
- Experience working and leading in an early year setting.
- Strong planning, observation, and reflection of children and their learning.
- Effective communication skills across multiple age groups.
- Paediatric First Aid qualification.
About the nursery
Spring Cedars is a friendly welcoming nursery in Exeter, providing high-quality care and early years education for children from birth to five years. As part of Spring by Action for Children, we’re passionate about creating a safe, nurturing environment where children can learn, grow, and thrive.
Why Spring Nurseries
Imagine a place where laughter echoes, imaginations run wild, and every day is a new adventure. At Spring Nurseries, where more than a collection of settings, we are a family, dedicated to nurturing children to thrive and supporting staff through a clear career pathway. Whether this is a career change for you or the next step in your journey, we'd love to hear from you. We work together to reach our mission to give children a healthy start in life. Good luck! We can't wait to hear from you.
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion
At Spring Oscars, we're dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. We actively encourage applications from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic and disabled candidates as they are under-represented within the organisation. We want to take deliberate and purposeful action to ensure equal opportunity to all groups. Male staff are often under-represented within this sector, and we would like to encourage more male applicants for our roles. We are committed to safer recruitment practices to protect our service users; therefore, all applicants are expected to have an understanding of and commitment to safeguarding best practice. Please note we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
Senior Early Years Practitioner in Exeter employer: Spring Nurseries by Action for Children
Spring Nurseries by Action for Children is an exceptional employer, offering a nurturing environment in Ashton-under-Lyne where you can grow both personally and professionally. With a commitment to employee development, you will receive hands-on training while pursuing your Early Years Educator Level 3 qualification, alongside generous benefits such as 25 days of annual leave. Join our supportive team and make a meaningful impact in the lives of children, all while enjoying a fulfilling career in childcare.
Contact Details:
Spring Nurseries by Action for Children Recruitment Team
