Job Description
Job Title: Nursery and Daycamps Manager
Location: YMCA Nursery Shanklin
Salary: £30,500 - £34,500 per annum
Hours: 40 hours per week
Closing Date: 8th October 2021
YMCA Fairthorne Group is a community-based charity with a serious ambition to grow our already successful social enterprise model. Our purpose allows people the opportunity to lead happy, healthy lives. We achieve this by bringing people of all backgrounds and abilities together in YMCA places and delivering effective programmes.
We operate throughout Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, and Southampton from 30 venues. Our programmes include 14 early years settings, Daycamps, community activities, and housing for young people.
Early Years Setting
YMCA Nursery Shanklin is a 56 place nursery offering early years education for 51 weeks per year. YMCA Daycamps is a school holiday activity programme that takes place during the main school holidays. Both operate from YMCA Winchester House, a large community hub located in Shanklin. The nursery and Daycamps programmes benefit from spacious dedicated facilities with plenty of outdoor space for adventurous play. Local parks, footpaths, and the beach are on the doorstep.
In all YMCA settings, children’s needs come first. Children are cared for and nurtured; supported to challenge and develop themselves, and most importantly allowed to play and enjoy their childhood. We believe children learn best through play, particularly using the outdoor environment. We aim to provide a secure and stimulating environment where children can develop emotionally, intellectually, morally, physically, and socially, at their own pace. Staff use the “YMCA Way” to ensure every child secures the very best outcomes and staff are able to excel.
Job Purpose
The Manager will lead the nursery and Daycamps (Daycamps has an operational delivery lead), actively implementing the YMCA Way and the Curriculum to ensure the highest quality of care and early years education for children under 5 years old, and provide an exciting and fun school holiday activity programme. They will build upon strong foundations to establish an outstanding staff team and continue the excellent relationships we have with parents and the wider community. The Manager will also benefit from peer support and will work closely with all other YMCA nursery managers.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Provide outstanding leadership and operational management in line with the YMCA Way.
- Maintain an exciting and inspirational child-led, play-based environment utilising the outdoors as much as possible.
- Manage, recruit, train, support, and inspire an outstanding staff team able to meet the needs of all children in our care.
- Manage the nursery and Daycamps as a business, contributing to the writing and monitoring of an annual budget and implementing marketing and sales plans to achieve income and occupancy targets.
- Follow the YMCA pedagogy and curriculum, using systems to monitor children’s progress, share information with parents and plan activities to support each child’s development.
- Maintain staffing ratios at all times.
- Engage parents and the community in developing our community offer
- Work alongside our other YMCA nursery managers to share good practice and ensure consistent implementation of the YMCA approach to childcare.
- Maintain full regulatory and legislative approval, including meeting Ofsted, Environmental Health and Health and Safety requirements, this includes seeking an Ofsted grade of ‘Outstanding’.
- To ensure compliance with all YMCA policies and procedures. These include Child Protection, Health and Safety, Human Resources, and Financial policies.
- To ensure you act in the interests of your own safety, and the safety of others at all times • To undertake any other duties and responsibilities reasonably requested by the management.
Person Specification & Key Competencies
Qualifications/Experience
- Hold a minimum level 5 Childcare qualification, or hold an excellent understanding of child development and be willing to study towards a level 5 and/or 6 qualification
- Minimum 3 years of leadership experience in an early years setting.
- Evidence of achieving high quality of care, over and above that required by EYFS
- Hold level 4 safeguarding qualification or willingness to work towards.
- Ability to work to budgets
- Good IT working knowledge, inc Windows, Word, and Excel (training will be given on nursery software)
- Understanding of the role a nursery and holiday club plays in wider community development
- First aid qualification (or willingness to train) • Knowledge of health and safety and ability to complete risk assessments
- Demonstrable ability to meet targets • Skills in mentoring and coaching staff and students
- Evidence of further continual professional development
- Commitment to equality and celebrating
Skills / Abilities
- A genuine enthusiasm for and an inspirational approach to helping young children develop through play.
- Strong advocate of early years with an excellent understanding of the different developmental needs of children and an ability to draw on academic research and evidence to drive best practice.
- Demonstrable leadership qualities able to motivate and develop others and self.
- Enthusiasm for the work and values of the charity.
- Ability to engage the community and build strong positive relationships with parents.
- Demonstrable ability to achieve sales targets.
- Excellent communication skills.