Description
Early Years Practitioner (qualified)
Location: Taunton, Somerset.
Salary: £26,000 - £26,499 per annum
Contract/Hours: Permanent Full Time – 40 hours a week.
Closing date: Midnight on the 1st of March 2026
Benefits:
* Time off to recharge – 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
* Treat yourself - Staff discounts portal and blue light card with 15,000 + retailers
* Childcare Discount – A whopping 60% off childcare within our nurseries and out of school clubs
* Up to 3 Days Dependency Leave – to care for dependents in an emergency.
* Paid maternity, adoption, and paternity leave
* Gain professional qualifications - with excellent training/development opportunities.
* Salary Finance - access to financial advice and the ability to manage savings or loans directly from your salary.
* Secure your future - Pension with up to 7% employer contribution with included life assurance cover.
We're thrilled that you're considering a career with Spring. Spare us five minutes, and we'll tell you what you need to know…
Why Spring Nurseries
Imagine a place where laughter echoes, imaginations run wild, and every day is a new adventure. That's Spring Nursery We're not just a nursery; we are a family dedicated to creating a joyful and nurturing environment where children thrive. As part of Action for Children, we're on a mission to provide outstanding early education that's accessible to all.
At Spring, we are committed to supporting your career growth Check out our Spring Career Progression Map attached to this advert, which highlights the options for progression into a specialist role.
About the role
This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who truly enjoys making a difference in children's lives and is committed to creating a warm calm and nurturing, inspiring environment where every child can thrive.
You'll play a key role in delivering high quality care and education, supporting children's learning through play, and building strong relationships with families and colleagues. We're seeking someone who is enthusiastic, caring, and confident in supporting children's development in line with the EYFS, while bringing creativity, energy, and new ideas to the setting.
You'll have the opportunity to work across all rooms and age groups, building meaningful relationships with children and gaining a rich, varied experience that enhances your skills and supports every stage of early development.
In return you'll be part of a welcoming team the values your experience, encourages professional growth, and recognises the important role you play in shaping young minds every day.
About the nursery: The Hollies
Nestled in the heart of Somerset, The Hollies is a beautiful, 50 place nursery providing exceptional can early education for children aged five years. A nursery is set in a bright, welcoming environment with a fantastic outdoor space where children can play, explore and learn in nature throughout the seasons.
The Hollies is part of a supportive cluster of nurseries in the area, overseen by Senior Nursery Manager Who provides excellent guidance and collaboration across the settings. This ensures you'll have strong leadership support, shared resources, and a chance to work as part of a wider experienced nursery community, while still having the freedom to make The Hollies truly your own.
As a Level 3 practitioner in our nursery, you'll play a vital role in shaping young lives during their most important early years
What we need from you
In the role of Early Years Practitioner (Level 3), we're ideally looking for someone who has:
* A Level 3 Early Years and Childcare qualification (NNEB, CACHE, NVQ Level 2 or 3 or equivalent)
* Experience in planning and delivering educational programmes for children aged 0 to 5, tailored to their individual needs and developmental stages.
* The ability to observe, guide and support less experienced colleagues, helping them to develop their skills.
* Experience applying effective communication techniques with children and their families.
* Knowledge of children's emotional, physical, psychological, and educational development from 0-5 years
* Awareness and understanding of special educational needs (SEN) and how these are supported in an early year setting.
Whether this is a career change for you or the next step in your journey, we'd love to hear from you.
We work together to reach our mission to give children a healthy start in life.
Good luck We can't wait to hear from you.
Contact: If you need support with your application, please contact our Recruitment Team at quoting reference
We'll be happy to give you any support you require.
Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion
At Spring, we're dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. We actively encourage applications from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic and disabled candidates as they are under-represented within the organisation. We want to take deliberate and purposeful action to ensure equal opportunity to all groups.
Male staff are often under-represented within this sector, and we would like to encourage more male applicants for our roles.
We are committed to safer recruitment practices to protect our service users; therefore, all applicants are expected to have an understanding of and commitment to safeguarding best-practice.
Don't meet every single requirement?
If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with the job description, we'd love you to apply anyway. You might just be the perfect person for this role, or another role within the Action for Children family.
Application Process
Please note we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
There are 5 sections for you to complete - Personal Details, CV, Supporting Statement & Information, Equality & Diversity, Submission & Declaration – please refer to the Job Description when applying.
We also want to know what unique qualities you can bring to help us reach our vision for children and families.
Talent Pool: We're sure you've got what it takes to join our ambitious team. If you're unsuccessful this time around, we'd like to hold your details in case similar jobs come up that you might be better suited for. But feel free to let us know if you'd rather we didn't do that.
Want to know more about Spring and Oscars?
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See below for further information about working with us:
Job Description
Employee Reward Booklet
Spring Early Years Career Pathway