Hatching Dragons is one of the UK’s leading bilingual early years educational brands. Having built its reputation around Chinese and English immersion, we're now branching out to new languages like Spanish and are looking to fill the team with positive thinkers who want to challenge the status quo in pre-k education and do something differently.

We're looking for a Deputy Dynamo - a passionate educationalist who specialises in the early years to oversee our entire floor team. Your job will be to train, mentor, guide and oversee the teaching team across both preschool and toddlers, working with both, flowing between rooms to deliver best practice to deliver an outstanding provision within our schools.

Deputy Managers are managers in waiting, working in numbers but deployed across two rooms (open plan) you will be deployed out of numbers and oversee the school as a whole when the Manager is not on rota .You will be tasked to deliver on our policies and procedures in regards to the EYFS (what we deliver) and the educational approach (bilingual and bicultural learning) we provide:

• Early years education - we're looking for demonstrable experience and skill sets - we want people who are excited by education, passionate about children and can prove that their knowledge is more than just the 7 areas of learning. We want practice, passion and purpose and you will have to demonstrate at least 2 years as a Room Leader or as a Deputy Manager in the baby room at your previous setting, achieving Good to Outstanding gradings from Ofsted in inspections or clear evidence that your room was second to none.
• Leadership & Management - All Room Leaders are man-management roles. You will be responsible for all within your room, managing your team and undertaking Peer on Peer observations and room inspection audits to make your team game ready for an Ofsted inspection as soon as possible. By extension, as Deputy manager, you are responsible for supporting the manager in his / her execution of our policies throughout the setting, so will be integral to ensuring best practice on the floor, getting the best from your team by overseeing, nudging, mentoring, role-modelling, advising, teaching and tutoring as you go. You will be central to Parent Teacher Association meetings, planning and devising curricula plans and routines that are magical and stimulating and will be central to the promotion of our school to the wider community.
• Administration / Organisation - Nurseries succeed and fail based on the quality of the above and of the administrative diligence the manager and deputy has in ensuring that things are done on time, to standard and without fault (think record keeping and how important it is to engender the culture of diligence when it comes to record keeping on risk assessments, outings, nappy changes, allergies, nap changes, sleep times (every 10 minutes a check please!) and more. Working with your team to ensure that workflow is established, reporting lines and internal communication are established and everyone knows who is doing what, when and why leads to purposeful organisational discipline. We do NOT want deputy managers who think they are the people who can and will do everything- we want organised leaders who can delegate tasks and deploy staff against those staff to ensure that they are maximising their own productivity
• Customer relations - Nursery's are nothing without the community we serve and your job is to ensure that our families are happy, engaged and part of our wider community. We throw events, parties and will be undertaking weekend schools (delegated as they may be) but you need to ensure that our community sees our schools as a central locus of fun, happiness and vibrancy for them to want to come back to again and again. Customer relations are key - you will be empathetic, firm but fair and critically fun for people to want to work with

Required Qualifications& Certificates:

Relevant childcare qualification to level 3 or above; Up to date DBS; Paediatric first aid;Safeguarding training; Food Hygiene; SEND; Fire Safety; A positive approach to gaining further qualifications and training and at least 2 years working in senior capacities in baby rooms.

Skills:

• Good organisational, record keeping and planning skills
• Excellent communication skills, with children, colleagues, advisors and parents/carers
• A good understanding of the EYFS
• Good written and verbal skills for report writing, maintaining child records and providing feedback to parents/carers and colleagues
• A positive approach to learning and gaining new skills through teamwork and training opportunities
• The ability to model, motivate and support staff
• Problem-solving skills
• Basic IT skills
• Able to plan and manage own and others workload
• Desired – Mandarin

Experience

• Experience working with Babies for 2 years
• 2 years experience as Room Leader / Deputy Manager
• Good knowledge of Ofsted requirements for the provision of safe care to children aged 6 months to 5 years.
• Knowledge of health & safety requirements for the environment in which children aged 6 months to 5 years are cared for
• Experience of working in small team, supporting colleagues with peer on peer observations.
• A commitment to the provision of high-quality childcare.
• Being able to deliver a tough message in a fair way
• Supporting nursery marketing events experience

Person Specification

• Punctuality
• Patience
• Reliability and trustworthiness
• A positive approach to inclusive practice with children, parents and colleagues
• Enthusiasm for working with young children
• Flexibility – occasionally working hours might be changed, e.g. if the the setting host marketing events

For the full job description click here

Hatching Dragons is committed to employing the most rigorous vetting procedures to ensure that its staff are the most qualified to care for its children. For full guidance, see our application form online (http://hatching-dragons.com/nursery-jobs). To Apply for this role, please submit your CV and one our recruitment team will be in touch for a telephone screening.