Nursery: Ickle Pickles Nursery School, 1 School Mews, Iwade, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME9 8UW Hours: Full Time, Monday - Friday Salary: Up to £40,000 per annum (depending on experience and qualifications) Benefits: Performance related bonus, 50% childcare discount, wellness day and much much more £1000 Welcome bonus At Ickle Pickles, we pride ourselves on providing a nurturing and inclusive environment where everyone of our children is supported to learn and grow at their own pace. Our experienced team brings a wealth of early years knowledge and insight, and we know that each child has their own unique journey. We’re proud to have our own Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) who works closely with both families and practitioners to identify and support additional needs. This personalised approach is supported further by our parent forum committee, ensuring open communication, shared celebrations, and meaningful partnerships with families. Our children spend dedicated time outdoors, engaging with nature through a variety of rich and inspiring activities. Mealtimes are a special part of the day—children enjoy healthy, nutritious meals together in our warm, central dining space. We also embrace cultural celebrations through themed menus, offering new flavours and learning opportunities. As part of the Kingsferry Collaboration, we share best practices, solve challenges together, and support each other to continually deliver the highest standards of care and education. Who & What is Storal? It’s our collective group of Nurseries that we are happily a part of here at Ickle Pickles. Storal stands for high quality outcomes for children and are passionate about Early Years. Bringing your whole self is a must if that’s pink hair, being Neurospicy or having a unique pastime, we encourage it all. Your unique self is what makes our Nursery even better. Check out our website to learn about our leaders and the expertise they bring to our Storal community. About the role: Day to day as a Nursery Manager you will be an intrinsic part of the nursery management team ensuring the setting has the right staff, culture, policies and resources to deliver the highest possible standards of childcare and early years education. You will offer solutions where you identify areas for improvements whether that relates to learning and teaching techniques or, creating more stimulating experiences and environments for the children and their educators. You will embrace inclusivity to ensure the individual needs of all those within your care are achieved. You will encourage a love of learning through high quality teaching under the EYFS framework, ensuring that all children are kept safe and have rich stimulating experiences. You'll do this by leading, motivating and inspiring the educators, managing ratios through the staff rotas, attracting new hires and providing learning and developing opportunities to the team. You will also deputise for the Nursery Manager during their absence. About you A true love for child development and care Able and willing to work in a team Ability to communicate effectively with management, your peers and parents High levels of care and empathy that every opportunity can be a learning opportunity Knowledge of the EYFS framework Must haves: A full and relevant Early Years Education qualification Level 3 or above or equivalent Experience in a managerial role including nursery administration or similar A strong knowledge and understanding EYFS framework Reflecting the Storal values around responsibility, openness and working together and experienced in providing staff training and support Demonstrable leadership qualities (ideally within Early Years) Excellent communication skills with both children and adults Why work for us: Benefits at a glance For you - We get the basics right Holidays, sick pay & personal Wellness Day £1,000 Welcome Bonus Enhanced DBS check and subscription to the DBS Update Service Family matters - Balance starts at home Childcare Discount Funding, compassionate leave & enhanced maternity (and more) Health & wellness - Nourishing body & mind Discounted gym memberships, spa days, fertility support & so much more. Development - Investing in your future Micro-learning, financial stability tools & Storal Support Fund Our community - Growing together Termly inset days, team app & Storal Awards gathering. We partner with world-leading third parties such as Pay Captain, Vitality, and Peppy. Curious to know more? We’d love to tell you more about what makes Ickle Pickles House so special. Storal is the highest of standards when it coming to safeguarding, the welfare of children and creating a work environment the encourages feedback-discussion-resilience. We take our role in the safety of children, our families and our team extremely seriously. As governed by the EYFS, we have a designated safeguarding lead in each setting and all staff (and volunteers) complete a through compliance checks prior to employment including employment references & DBS. INDMAN