Keep Guard Day Nursery is an independent family run business that offers a total childcare service with early years education for children aged from 6 weeks to 5 years of age within a safe, secure and stimulating environment, from 8am - 5pm Monday to Friday, 49 weeks a year situated in the heart of Kempston. We provide a learning adventure for all children, set in a truly unique setting of a castle with twelve magical playrooms across three floors and two external spaces to explore as part of their learning adventure.
We are looking for a passionate Level 3 Early Years Practitioner or Level 2 Early Years Support Practitioner to join our family here at Keep Guard Day Nursery!
If you do not have a qualification in childcare, but feel this position could be for you, then you will need to show a willingness to train to a CACHE Level 2 or Level 3.
The position is working three days a week, all year with the following working combination available:
• Initially working a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 8am-4pm each week, plus staff meeting 5:15pm-6:15pm on a Wednesday – 22 hours
• Initially working a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 9am-4pm each week, plus staff meeting 5:15pm-6:15pm on a Wednesday – 19 hours
Staff benefits;
• Work-life balance – no work is taken home or off site to complete.
• Purposeful learning environments – no unnecessary setting up each morning as resources are out all day, every day!
• Allocated PPA time each week – time to complete observations and assessments away from the children in a purpose designed PPA room.
• No planning sheets or lengthy documents – planning is in the moment for each child.
• A wealth of different learning environments to explore – physical room, in-house library, natural garden, and the courtyard.
• Uniform – to help feel part of the Keep Guard family!
• Designated break of up to an hour (dependent on number of hours worked) away from the children and in a work-free space.
• A tablet-based system to support smarter working.
• In-house training opportunities and career progression.
• A shift pattern, which allows you to plan home life in advance and ensure you leave at the end of your shift.
• Regular supervisions and annual performance management.
• Company pension.
• Onsite parking.
• Most importantly, inquisitive children!
At Keep Guard Day Nursery we are working alongside Bedford Borough Council to embed Five to Thrive, which are the building blocks for a healthy brain. Five to Thrive was developed by Kate Cairns Associates and it promotes positive parenting skills to help understand the things you do everyday to help your child's growing brain.
Five to Thrive complements our established practice ensuring babies and young children are offered a wide range of activities and given opportunities to develop strong relationships with their key person to ensure they are RESPONDED to, CUDDLED when needed, enjoy quiet times to RELAX, PLAY with a variety of stimulating activities and TALKED to using high quality communication. If you would like more information on Five to Thrive please ask Esther.
During your child’s time at Keep Guard Day Nursery they will have the opportunity to bring home a ‘Humpty Bag’ used to support the principles of Five to Thrive at home. Each bag contains age-appropriate activities and ideas and a diary to record Humpty’s adventures. To further support different experiences, in line with what we offer at Keep Guard Day Nursery, alongside the Humpty bags, your child may also experience some of our sensory and fine motor bags, story sacks and maths activities.
As part of our Five to Thrive offer, we run a free-of charge group each Friday morning, term time only (9:30am-11am) to celebrate the birth of new born babies within our local community. This group is designed for non-mobile babies and is ran by Esther in a different part of the Setting. The group allows new mums to come and relax with a drink in a safe space for their new born to explore different sensory experiences with monthly visits from the Family Support Worker from the Children’s Centre to offer further advice and weigh-ins. Expectant Mothers are also welcomed.