Early Years Practitioner

St Anthony’s is a Catholic Preparatory School (IAPS) for boys aged 2.5 – 13. It is Roman Catholic but welcomes boys of other faiths. The majority of boys transfer to leading Independent schools.

We have an exciting opportunity for two enthusiastic and dedicated Early Years Practitioners to join our team at St Anthony’s Boys.

The Early Years Practitioner must have an understanding of the principles and content of the Early Years Foundation Stage and know how to put them into practice. They must support other practitioners in acknowledging the various influences and transitions experienced by a child.

Key responsiblities:

• To be a highly motivated early years’ practitioner role modelling excellent practice to children as identified in the Early Years Inspection Handbook.
• To stay abreast of current Early Years initiatives and legislation and ensure that this informs your practice.
• To have consistently high expectations of what children can achieve and support their learning.
• To have a secure understanding of child development of the age group they are working with and have relevant subject knowledge that is detailed and communicated to the children.
• To gather assessment information looking at what children already know, understand, and can do and share this with parents or other professionals.
• To use assessment information to plan appropriate teaching and learning strategies that identify able or talented children or children who are falling behind in their learning and need additional support, enabling children to make good progress.
• To support children, understand how to develop as a result of regular interaction and encouragement from staff, and support parents understand how their children should progress and how they can contribute to this.
• To develop strong working relationships with parents by providing information that helps them to understand how children can progress.
• To be a reflective practitioner using evaluative tools to monitor and improve practice.
• To write accurate reports and document on children’s developmental progress using the Early Years Outcomes document and other relevant documents.

The ideal candidate will have:

Qualifications

• The post holder must hold level 3 qualification in Early Years Education – Essential.
• This post would suit someone with experience of working in an Early Years setting or an ambitious and committed graduate starting out on their profession – Essential.
• The post holder should have at least 3 years of experience of working with young children, particularly 2–5-year-olds – Desirable.
• Experience of working with children and families, identifying support for developing children’ learning.
• Experience of working as part of a team.
• Experience of teaching and delivering planned learning experiences

Knowledge & Understanding

• A good knowledge and understanding of the EYFS, Ofsted Education Inspection Framework and relevant current legislation.
• A good understanding of the developmental needs of young children, particularly 2- to 5-year-olds.
• A good understanding of what constitutes a quality early education environment.

Skills & Abilities

• Good observational and assessment skills and the experience of maintaining accurate learning records for children.
• Ability to communicate effectively with parents and colleagues.
• Good teaching skills including scaffolding, demonstrating and role modelling, positive interactions with children.