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Nursery Practitioner - Lv5 Apprentice

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This Level 5 Early Years Lead Apprenticeship offers an exciting opportunity to develop into a Room Leader 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.
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
20 Newgate Lane
Mansfield
NG18 2LF
Training course
Early years lead practitioner (level 5)
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.
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Training schedule


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An apprenticeship includes regular training with a college or other training organisation
At least 20% of your working hours will be spent training or studying
Essential qualifications
Early Years Educator - Level 3 in:
- Early Years Educator - Level 3 (grade Pass)
Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.
Skills
- Communication skills
- Attention to detail
- Problem solving skills
- Logical
- Team working
- Creative
- Initiative
Other requirements
Passing a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
About this employer
Our aim at Crocodile Rock Day Care is to make the early years of your child’s life as enjoyable, rewarding, and positive as possible. We believe that children should have fun at nursery and actively promote learning through play.
Our objective is to help children achieve their full potential. We provide an environment rich in active learning opportunities, supported by a qualified team trained to enhance the learning of your child.
All activities are planned to meet each child’s individual needs, within the standards set by the Early Years Foundation Stage. This approach will help your child to develop to the best of their ability.
Company benefits
- Holidays- 20 days & 8 bank holidays
- Pro rata Nursery closure during Christmas week
- Supportive and close-knit environment
After this apprenticeship
Your earnings can increase over time with an apprenticeship. Find out about potential future pay (opens in new tab).
Upon completion of this LV5 Early Years Lead Practitioner course, you will be in a good position to secure opportunities within senior leadership
Ask a question
The contact for this apprenticeship is:
WMC TRAINING LTD
Ben Pope
ben.pope@wmctraining.co.uk
08006446877
The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC2000042477.
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