Senior Early Years Educator (12-month fixed term contract)

We are looking for a Senior Early Years Educator to provide high quality play and learning experiences for children and families. This role leads our programme of Stay and Play sessions where parents and carers with children aged 5 and under have an opportunity to meet and engage with learning activities which help to improve the child’s personal, social and emotional skills. The post holder will also have a hand in leading and developing other activities to meet the needs of young families across Waterloo and North Southwark.

You will be responsible for leading and planning stimulating and engaging play sessions, building and nurturing relationships with parents/carers, monitoring progress of children and developing interventions and development plans to build their skills, undertaking outreach in the community and referring parents/carers onto other activities and organisations that could play a useful role in their lives.

This role would be ideal for someone with a track record of planning and delivering informal and play based learning in an early years setting and who can demonstrate an ability to work closely with parents/carers to support the development of their child. This job will demand strong organisational skills to manage a busy timetable of sessions throughout the school year and to ensure each session is well planned out to provide first rate opportunities for learning and making new connections.

This is a term time only role across 39 weeks a year. The post holder will lead a number of sessions throughout the week, which will include two Saturday sessions a month.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

• A childcare or early years education qualification equivalent to NVQ 3 or above

• Experience of working with a childcare or early years educational setting

• Evidence of continued professional development

• Experience of planning and leading play activities, family learning sessions or similar within childcare or early educational settings

• Experience of undertaking risk assessments & operating within occasional play spaces which are hosted by other partner agencies.

• Paediatric first aid & safeguarding training

• Experience of managing and supervising other early years staff

• Knowledge and experience of wider family support work supporting parents/carers and families with complex needs

SKILLS AND PERSONAL QUALITIES

• Highly organised, reliable and dependable, with the ability to plan termly learning activities, organise staffing, keep parents/carers and partner organisations informed and ensure everything is in place for the effective delivery of sessions across more than one venue
• Ability to create both whole group and individual learning plans to ensure the development of personal, social and emotional skills and which allow progress to be tracked over time

• A natural ability to build rapport and make parents/carers and child feel welcome and comfortable in a new setting, with a warm, positive demeanour

• A track record of working successfully with a wide range of families including those with complex needs and those for whom English is not their first language

• Excellent attention to detail to observe and capture the progress of children as they develop

• Flexible and unflappable, with the ability to find solutions to challenges and problems which arise in the course of organising and running sessions

• A belief and passion for early years learning, with an ability to empower parents/carers to try new approaches and activities with their children

• An external facing approach, with an interest in connecting with other organisations who can play a useful role in supporting parents/carers and children

Coin Street Community Builders is part of a central London community creating an inspirational neighbourhood. We have been doing that since 1984. We have transformed a largely derelict area into a thriving place for people to live, work and visit by creating co-operative homes, public realm shops, restaurants and meeting spaces.

We are a social enterprise. That means income we generate stays in the neighbourhood. It’s used to improve and maintain our neighbourhood including managing and maintaining Bernie Spain Gardens and the riverside walkway and providing a range of programmes and activities for families, children, young people, adults and older people in Waterloo and North Southwark.

A big part of our neighbourhood centre is our Family and Children’s Centre which offers families and children high quality and affordable programmes, providing integrated childcare and early years’ education. Whether it is our 84-place nursery, facilitated play sessions, parenting courses, peer support groups, family exercise, counselling or one to one support for parents and carers we are here to help children get the best start they can in life.

Coin Street Community Builders strives to be an equal opportunities organisation and all staff are expected to share this commitment.

Our values are:
•Creative: By looking for solutions rather than problems I will find better ways of doing things
•Collaborative: By respecting the views of others we will learn, grow and achieve more together
•Committed: I do what I say I am going to do and do the best job I can.

The 3 Cs are lived by all staff at CSCB. You will be expected to demonstrate your understanding of the behaviours associated with these values during the recruitment process