Level 5 Early Years Lead Apprenticeship

This Level 5 Early Years Lead Apprenticeship offers an exciting opportunity to develop into a Deputy Manager while working in a professional early year setting. You will gain hands-on leadership experience, support day-to-day nursery operations, and help deliver high-quality care and education for children.

Wage: £35,000 a year. Your earnings can increase over time with an apprenticeship with this employer offering a contract of permanent employment beyond completion.

Training course: Early years lead practitioner (level 5)

Hours: 35 hours a week with 20% of employed time guaranteed to complete assignments with support of a tutor. 35 hours a week

Start date: Monday 3 August 2026

Duration: 2 years

Positions available: 1

What you'll do at work:

• Ensure full regulatory compliance.
• Deliver outstanding care and education.
• Support, develop, and lead nursery staff.
• Build positive relationships with parents, carers, and external agencies.
• Manage budgets and maintain financial targets.
• Lead and manage the nursery team, ensuring company policies and procedures are followed.
• Maintain high standards of care, learning, and safeguarding in line with the EYFS.
• Oversee planning, assessment, and inclusion practices, including SEND provision.
• Ensure children’s safety and staff understanding of safeguarding procedures.
• Recruit, induct, train, supervise, and appraise staff to maintain high-quality practice.
• Effectively deploy staff and manage staffing, operational, and running costs.
• Promote reflective practice, continuous improvement, and staff development.
• Build strong partnerships with parents, carers, and external professionals.
• Represent and promote the nursery within the local community.
• Ensure compliance with health and safety, emergency procedures, and safer recruitment requirements.
• Manage complaints, inspections, and all nursery administration, including records and personnel files.
• Support disciplinary and grievance processes in partnership with the Franchisee and Head Office.
• Undertake additional duties as required by the line manager.

Where you'll work:

PRIORY CRESCENT
CHEAM
SUTTON
SM3 8LR

What you'll learn

Course contents:

• Advocate for children through their child-centred approach, listening to the voice of the child; ensuring children’s rights, views and wishes are heard, respected and acted upon at all times. Offer appropriate support and influence decisions in the best interests of the child.
• Develop, model and implement strategies to support the emotional, social, psychological, physical and cultural needs of all children within the educational setting.
• Support and promote children’s diverse speech, language and communication development and determining and adapting appropriate responses and interventions to support verbal, nonverbal interactions and engagement with written communication.
• Support children to engage in a range of learning contexts such as individual, small groups and larger groups as appropriate for their play and support confidence within social experiences.
• Engage in effective strategies to develop and extend children's learning and thinking, including sustained shared thinking.
• Promote, model and support children and families to develop a healthy approach to making choices relating to personal care including eating, sleeping and physical activity.
• Analyse and articulate how all children’s individual learning can be affected by their current developmental capabilities, characteristics and individual circumstances taking into account all factors contributing to typical and atypical development.
• Ensure plans fully reflect the individual development needs and circumstances of children and actively participate in the provision of consistent care, responding quickly to the needs of the individual child.
• Plan, carry out and guide appropriate personal care routines for individual children.
• Competently action and carry out safeguarding procedures, using their professional curiosity, knowledge, insight and understanding.
• Explore and understand, challenge and question; knowing when to act to safeguard and protect children.
• Encourage all children’s participation, ensuring a sensitive, respectful and effective balance within the adult and child dynamic to facilitate play opportunities.
• Ensure staff are deployed effectively to suit and enhance the learning environment, prioritising the safety and wellbeing of all children.
• Cultivate professional partnerships with parents, carers, colleagues and other professionals, presenting their understanding of the child’s journey within multidisciplinary teams to holistically support the child’s individual needs.
• Demonstrate the importance of the home learning environment, developing an effective and collaborative partnership to enhance opportunities for the child.
• Provide a dynamic, evolving and enabling environment that reflects the current interests, motivations, and play of individual and groups of children.
• Use current and contemporary knowledge, research, theories and approaches to develop, enhance and articulate their own pedagogical approach and practice.
• Observe, assess, plan, facilitate and participate in play opportunities which include current curriculum requirements.
• Make use of formative and summative assessment, tracking children’s progress to plan for future learning possibilities including early interventions based on individual developmental needs.
• Take responsibility for supporting the key person in articulating children's progress and planning future learning possibilities including the safe use of digital technology to communicate effectively in both oral and written English.
• Promote equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice.
• Be a leaderful practitioner to support, mentor, coach, train and guide colleagues in a range of educational settings, providing inspiration and motivation to engage others to develop their practice, supporting teams and guiding change.
• Identify, action and competently challenge issues and undertake difficult conversations where appropriate.
• Use reflection to develop themselves both professionally and personally to enhance their practice.
• Ensure the security and confidentiality of data, records and information in line with current legislation.
• Identify and act upon own responsibilities in relation to health and safety, prevention and control of infection, carrying out risk assessments and risk management processes in line with policies and procedures.
• Apply the principles of sustainability and segregate used resources for reuse, recycling, and safe disposal.