Description
Early Years Practitioner
Location: Kinloss, Moray
Salary: £26,499 per annum
Contract/Hours: Permanent/Part Time – 37 hours & 20 hours per week
Closing date: Midnight on the 5th of January 2026
Interviews: to be held on the 12th & 13th of January 2026
Benefits:
* 34 days leave per year
* 60% discount on childcare within our nurseries and clubs
* Lift share from Forres and Elgin available
* Dedicated time out of rooms for supervision, CPD and care planning
* Gain professional qualifications and excellent training/development opportunities and support
* Flexible maternity, adoption, and paternity packages
* Pension with up to 7% employer contribution with included life assurance cover
* Staff discount portal and Blue Light Card eligibility with 15,000 national retailers' discounts
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
About Spring
Spring offers award-winning childcare services, as part of the national charity Action for Children. It's our mission to be the best provider of outstanding quality early education to children throughout the UK, that is accessible to all. We are focused on enabling young people to learn, have fun and make friends in our bright, engaging settings. That starts with creating a happy environment for our team. Join us and you can look forward to:
* A kind, caring culture with an emphasis on wellbeing, both physical and mental.
* Flexible working – wherever possible we offer flexibility on hours and/or hybrid working.
* Lots of opportunities for training, learning, development, including gaining qualifications.
* Excellent benefits that compare favourably to other employers in our sector.
About the role:
As an Early Years Practitioner (Level 3), you'll provide high quality care and meaningful learning experiences for children ages zero to five years. Will support children's development, well-being and curiosity through play, working in partnership with colleagues and families to create a safe, inspiring environment where every child can thrive. We currently have two unique opportunities available one within our baby room and one supporting our expanding 2-year-old provision offering the chance to be part of something special that is rare to find locally.
About the nursery
Spring Kinloss is a friendly and welcoming nursery providing high-quality care within a supportive and well managed setting on a military base. We are proud of our strong, dedicated team who work closely together to create a calm, nurturing environment for our children. Our setting is growing, with exciting developments ahead including an extension to our large outdoor space and the opening of a new tweenies room, making this a fantastic time to join us and grow your career.
In the role of Early Years Practitioner (Level 3), you'll be:
* Supervising children and keeping our active, flexible nursery environment safe and suited to their needs.
* Giving children a wide range of stimulating, safe and well-planned activities.
* Creating engaging, fun and informative learning opportunities, to help children make excellent progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage.
* Building solid relationships with parents / carers, families and professionals involved with the children.
* Meeting each of the children's individual needs, keeping accurate records and regularly communicating with parents / carers.
* Having a positive attitude, making every single day count for the children in our care.
What we need from you
In the role of Early Years Practitioner (Level 3), we're ideally looking for someone who has:
* A SCQF level 7 Early Years qualification e.g. HNC Early Education & Childcare, NNEB, SCCEB, SVQ 3 Children's Care Learning & Development or equivalent qualification recognised by the SSSC (refer to SSSC website for further information).
* A passion to learn and develop whether you are newly qualified or an experienced practitioner.
* Full understanding of children's emotional, physical, psychological and educational developmental needs from 0 to 5 years.
* A positive attitude with an unwavering commitment to service excellence to allow us to maintain our high standards.
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 Oscars 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?
Check out our socials on Linkedin, Facebook or Youtube.
See below for further information about working with us:
Employee Reward Booklet
Spring Early Years Career Pathway
Job Description