Nursery Practitioner Jobs

Inspire those around you through your creativity and passion for early years education.

What is a Nursery Practitioner?

As a Nursery Practitioner, you’ll be passionate about working with the children in your room to create fun and engage activities for them so that they can develop, play and learn through your expert guidance. At Fennies we use the key person approach, so you’ll be designated a select number of children that you’ll care for and grow a special bond with through every interaction you have. You’ll be responsible for the safety, welfare and education of the children in your care, and you’ll develop strong relationships with others in the room to grow the Fennies family.

What does a Nursery Practitioner do?

As a Nursery Practitioner, you’ll build bonds with the children in your care and their families every day. You’ll track the development of your key children and give feedback to their families. You’ll assist with the routines in your room, whether that be naptimes, mealtimes, cleaning and tidying, or creative activities. You’ll inspire those around you to become empowered learners, and you’ll succeed as a team through your positive attitude.

Open Job Positions

Posted 84 days ago

Salary Up to £28,000

Employment Type Full-time

Nursery Practitioner Job in View on map The Old School House / 1A Hook Road / Epsom / Surrey / England / KT19 8TH

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Posted 114 days ago

Salary Up to £28,000

Employment Type Full-time

Nursery Practitioner Job in View on map 1 Tennis Close / Stompond Lane / Walton-on-Thames / Surrey / England / KT12 1FN

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Posted 84 days ago

Salary Up to £28,000

Employment Type Full-time

Nursery Practitioner Job in View on map The Old School House / 1A Hook Road / Epsom / Surrey / England / KT19 8TH

Apply Now View Details

Posted 84 days ago

Salary Up to £27,000

Employment Type Full-time

Nursery Practitioner Job in View on map Beech House / 15 Church Way / Sanderstead / Greater London / England / CR2 0JT

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Posted 84 days ago

Salary Up to £27,000

Employment Type Full-time

Nursery Practitioner Job in View on map St Augustine’s Avenue / South Croydon / Greater London / England / CR2 6BA

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Want to know more?

Our Nursery Manager, Tatiana, takes you through what it’s like in: A Day in the Life of a Nursery Manager at Fennies.

You’ll be the best at...

At Fennies, we break down each job into categories where we want to see you shine. These categories are: Leadership, Communication, Training, Education and Health & Safety.

Leadership

You’ll be the best at being a good role model that the children can follow and look up to and working as a team in your nursery room.

Communication

You’ll be the best at recording the children’s development and sharing progress with parents.

Training

You’ll be the best at taking the time to keep your early years knowledge up to date, and you are looking to create a career in early years education.

Education

You’ll be the best at inspiring interest around the curriculum by creating fun activities that help develop children’s skills.

Health & Safety

You’ll be the best at implementing key person, safeguarding and First Aid and raising concerns to the Management Team through the correct channels to ensure the safety of the children.

Why join Fennies?

Life at Fennies is about loving what you do and having the passion to be the best at it! We believe that this is true for our employees and for us as a company. That’s why we invest in what we believe in – you. We give our teams the opportunity to progress in their careers in a supportive environment.

Hear it from our Practitioners

We already have many exceptional team members who work with Fennies, so hear it from an experienced Early Years Practitioner to learn what they love about working with us.

I love the process of building a relationship with every baby (I am in the Explorers Room), all the love that they offer you with cuddles and smiles, and how excited it is to share in their progress. For example, when they do their first steps, they look so excited and proud of themselves, and it makes me feel amazing!

Early Years Practitioner, Antia

The most rewarding part of my time in childcare is that I see so many 'firsts' every single day! Mealtimes are such a rewarding time because we’re part of the reason why children eat what they do. If practitioners are encouraging and suggest to the children that their food is yummy, the children are going to be more likely to try new foods out! Handover is also a very rewarding part of the day, being able to tell the children's parents or carers how well their superstars have done today!

Early Years Practitioner, Paige

Fennies has supported me in progressing through my Apprenticeship and helped me gain my level 2 qualification, Pru and my tutor Vicki were there throughout and were always available to give me any guidance or reassurance I needed. Because of Fennies, I was supported in gaining my level 2 and have now been given the opportunity to progress onto my level 3.

Early Years Apprentice and Practitioner, Amy

We are looking for passionate Early Years Practitioners to join our teams

FAQs

What qualifications do I need to be a Nursery Practitioner?

To be a Nursery Practitioner at Fennies, we prefer for you to have at least an NVQ level 2 in Childcare. However, if you have experience of working with children and you have a good knowledge of the development of young children, then we do also hire unqualified Early Years Practitioners.

What professional career development does Fennies offer?

At Fennies, we have many training days, programmes and courses you can join. Each one offers a great opportunity to enhance your childcare and child development knowledge. You’ll be given the opportunity to develop your career in the early years all with the support of Fennies Academy.

What is Fennies Academy?

Fennies Academy is part of our commitment to the learning and development of internal staff throughout Fennies and new employees. It has been designed to meet the needs of anyone looking to have a career in the childcare sector, no matter the route they want to take or the qualifications they are looking to achieve. To learn more about what Fennies Academy has to offer, visit our Academy pages.

Where are Fennies Nurseries located?

We have nurseries in London, Surrey and Kent. To find your closest setting go to the Our Nurseries pages.

Are Nursery Practitioners and Nursery Nurses the same?

Yes, Nursery Nurses and Nursery Practitioners are the same position. Nursery Practitioner is another name for the role of Nursery Nurse- other titles for this role may also be Early Years Educator or Nursery Assistant. If you have experience working as a Nursery Nurse- you will be a good candidate to apply for the Nursery Practitioners positions at Fennies.

Which age group will I work with?

Fennies Nurseries offer nursery and preschool places for children between the ages of 3 months to 5 years. We have different rooms, which are specifically designed for the different development stages in the early years. Which room you are placed in will depend on 3 things: your preferred age group, your specialised experience and the vacancies we have available.

Do I need to know about child development in the early years?

Yes. Through your experience working in preschool, day nurseries or other childcare settings, you’ll have a good working knowledge of a child’s development. You will be able to show your knowledge through your early years teaching and your understanding of the expected patterns of development.

How do I apply for Nursery Practitioner jobs at Fennies?

Applying for a job at Fennies couldn’t be simpler. You can either send in your cover letter and CV to recruitment@fennies.com or fill out the application form.

FENNIES BLOG

Early Years Practice

What is a Nursery Practitioner? Everything you need to know

Caroline

Head of Recruitment

Our Head of Recruitment Caroline Horsley explores the important role of an early years practitioner at a day nursery or pre school.

Practitioners are at the heart of every single nursery and their job expands much further than caring for children. As a nursery nurse, you must have teamwork skills, be able to build partnerships with parents and have an excellent understanding of the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) and childhood development.

In recent times, the resilience of nursery practitioners has been celebrated as the country showed an appreciation for the key workers who kept going during a global pandemic. But despite this, I regularly get asked about the role and responsibilities of a nursery practitioner actually involve, especially from those starting out in childcare or aspiring Apprentices.

What is a Nursery Practitioner?

In short, a nursery practitioner (or nursery nurse) is someone who supports children under the age of 5 through their learning journey by nurturing each developmental stage. But a nursery practitioner is so much more than that.

The first five years of life is when the most cognitive development happens and therefore an early years practitioner, alongside parents, is responsible for role modelling crucial skills that lay the groundwork for creating positive habits that will be used throughout the rest of a child’s life.

What does a nursery practitioner do?

When working as a nursery practitioner and being part of a child’s early years, you can guarantee that every day will be wonderfully different.

Although you’ll be following children’s ever-changing interests and creating a variety of learning activities (or provocations) here’s a few of the responsibilities you can expect to take on when working in a day nursery.

8:00 am- Around this time, most children will begin to arrive. This will be a great opportunity for you to catch up with parents and settle each child into the day. Not forgetting the best part of every morning… Breakfast!

9:00 am-11:30 am- Now fuelled by breakfast, you’ll be responsible for channelling children’s energy into some exciting learning activities. You’ll work with your team to carry these out and complete any health and safety checks or risk assessments.

12:30 pm- All that eating is sleepy work so around 12:30 am the younger children will take a nap. You will set up naptime, this can include creating a calming environment by playing music and turning on sensory lighting, laying out sleep mats or reading a quiet story.

During naptime, practitioners carry out sleep checks but will also often use this time to prepare afternoon activities, complete observations and update parent apps with their child’s daily adventures.

1:30 pm onwards- The afternoon will be filled with more exciting activities and as a nursery practitioner you’ll be able to keep children engaged and excited for learning.

Want to find out more?

Discover what happens in a Day at Fennies

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What are the skills you need for the job?

Organisation

As a nursery practitioner you’re responsible for the health and safety of all young children in your care, therefore being organised is extremely important. This will help you prepare exciting learning activities, safe group activities or outings and provide a safe environment by being aware of any necessary risk assessments.

You’ll also be responsible for your key child’s care diary, monitoring their sleep, being aware of any dietary requirements they may have, as well as any special educational needs you’ll need to take into consideration.

Imagination and Creativity

A nursery practitioner is someone who sparks awe and inspiration every single day by creating exciting new learning opportunities. Whether it be making colourful messy play masterpieces, enhancing storytime with props and puppets or an animal tuff tray activity following a child’s weekend visit to the farm. A good nursery nurse must be able to use their imagination to help engage children’s early years learning in a fun way throughout the day.

Positive Attitude

Anyone who’s spent any amount of time around a young child will know that children can easily pick up on how you’re feeling, this is why a positive attitude is essential when working with children. Because children thrive when they feel happy, something as simple as a smile on your face can contribute to creating a welcoming and nurturing environment as well as supporting their emotional well-being.

Not only does a positive attitude come in helpful around children but it’s a great thing to have when working within a nursery team. Nurseries are a fast-paced environment and practitioners often have to think on their feet or adapt quickly to a situation, a positive attitude will give you a boost in any of these situations to keep up morale and support each other.

Dedication

As rewarding as working with children is, it also requires a lot of dedication to the role. Keeping young children engaged throughout a whole day, interacting with parents and supporting your team requires a love for the early years and a passion for the role is essential. Being a good practitioner will also involve keeping up to date with the latest government guidelines in childcare and industry best practices.

Communication

The way you interact and communicate with young children can make all the difference to their education, after all, it can take propel a good learning activity to a great one! These daily interactions of asking questions, narrating and even singing help build bonds as well as allow them to develop their own speaking and listening skills.

Communication skills will also come in handy with parents as building strong bonds with children’s families is a huge part of creating a welcoming nursery environment. This relationship will help you understand their individual needs, the child’s interests and provide support for parents.

What are the qualifications needed to become a nursery practitioner?

To become an early years practitioner at a day nursery or pre school, you’ll need to achieve at least a Level 3 in a recognised childcare qualification and have GCSE’s in Maths and English at A* to C grades, (or equivalent). You can gain these qualifications through a Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification, if you do not have GCSE’s you will be supported to gain Functional Skills at the required levels. These courses will ensure you’re equipped with the right skills and knowledge to work with children, such as:

How to best support children’s early years education and development
Understanding health and safety guidelines for children, staff members and parents
Carrying out observations and assessments of the children within the day nursery
How to provide care and support learning whilst considering each child’s unique needs
How to prepare children for school

However, you can work in a nursery without being qualified as many settings offer Apprenticeship programs to help you achieve level 2 and 3 qualifications. Throughout an apprenticeship, you will gain hands-on experience working in a day nursery whilst learning a range of skills including:

Using creativity and imagination to support the development of children
Support and develop children through interactions during play
Experience that promotes the areas of learning and development within the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage)

Apprenticeships are an amazing opportunity to learn whilst gaining valuable hands-on experiences in the working environment. They enable practitioners to develop knowledge, skills and behaviours from inspiring practitioners who can support them to meet their course requirements and become outstanding practitioners themselves.

Pru, Apprentice Academy Lead Tweet