Childcare & nursery manager in Gravesend, Kent

Nursery: Windmill Nursery School, DA11 0EH

Hours: 40 Hours per week, Monday-Friday, Full Time MATERNITY COVER for 12 months

Salary: £16.50ph dependent on qualifications and experience.

Hi, I’m Jessica, the Nursery Manager at Windmill Nursery.

Every day at Windmill, we encourage children to be inquisitive and creative in our stimulating learning environment. Our experienced team brings a wealth of early years insight. We understand that every child is unique, with their own story to tell, so we make sure each child learns in a way—and at a pace—that’s just right for them.

Our happy, welcoming nursery is a space where children can imagine, explore and grow—whether they’re enjoying our creative play and sensory rooms, or heading outside to discover adventures in our large garden. We love bringing the indoors outside, often tailoring planned experiences to make the most of our outdoor spaces.

We work in close partnership with parents, building strong relationships that enrich each child’s development. We’re proud to be part of such a vibrant and diverse community, and we celebrate a wide variety of cultural festivals throughout the year with our children and families.

About you

• You are a Level 3 or above qualified, experienced Nursery Manager who thrives on leading by example, and inspiring others to be the best that they can be.
• You love supporting and encouraging the natural curiosity and excitement of young children, whilst also motivating your team to do the same.
• You have a natural, nurturing openness, along with a warm and positive outlook, and you care about learning and education standards for young children in the UK.

What you'll be doing

• Day to day as a Nursery Manager you will be an intrinsic part of the nursery management team ensuring the setting has the right staff, culture, policies and resources to deliver the highest possible standards of childcare and early years education.
• You will offer solutions where you identify areas for improvements whether that relates to learning and teaching techniques or, creating more stimulating experiences and environments for the children and their educators.
• You will embrace inclusivity to ensure the individual needs of all those within your care are achieved.
• You will encourage a love of learning through high quality teaching under the EYFS framework, ensuring that all children are kept safe and have rich stimulating experiences.
• You'll do this by leading, motivating and inspiring the educators, managing ratios through the staff rotas, attracting new hires and providing learning and developing opportunities to the team.
• You will also deputise for the Nursery Manager during their absence.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Early Years Education qualification Level 3 or above or equivalent
• Experience in a managerial role including nursery administration or similar
• Reflecting the Storal values around responsibility, openness and working together and experienced in providing staff training and support
• Demonstrable leadership qualities (ideally within Early Years)
• Excellent communication skills with both children and adults

For you:

• We get the basics right enhanced holidays, paid sick pay, extra wellness day off (yearly) and accessing your pay before payday with PayCaptain
• Family matters - Balance starts at home Childcare Discount + Funding, compassionate leave & enhanced maternity (and more) fertility & menopause support, gym discount, free movie tickets and more
• Development - Investing in your future Micro-learning, financial stability tools & Storal Support Fund
• Our community - Growing together Termly inset days, team app & Storal Awards gathering.
• We pay for your DBS upfront along with reimbursing your annual update service charge

Storal is the highest of standards when it comes to safeguarding, the welfare of children and creating a work environment that encourages feedback-discussion-resilience. We take our role in the safety of children, our families and our team extremely seriously. As governed by the EYFS, we have a designated safeguarding lead in each setting and all staff (and volunteers) complete thorough compliance checks prior to employment including employment references & DBS.