Early Years Practitioner

**JOB DESCRIPTION**

**Section 1: General Information**

**Position Title**

Early Years Practitioner/ Nursery Staff

**Section/Department**

Nursery

**Reports To**

Head

**Date of Review**

October 2020

**Location/Site**

School

**Employment Status**

Full Time, Permanent

**Section 2: Job Description**

**Position Purpose**

You will work to inspire, excite and nurture children through a crucial stage of their development. Your aim is to motivate children and use resources imaginatively to help them learn. You will provide a safe and secure environment for them to develop their social and communication skills, while recording observations and summarising their achievements.

**Key Responsibilities**

**A) Planning learning**
- Plan rich and stimulating learning activities that achieve good progression in pupils’ understanding by:

- Setting exciting and intriguing tasks for whole class learning, small group learning and self-initiated, exploratory learning.
- Setting clear targets for pupils’ learning that build on prior attainment
- Identifying pupils who: - have special educational needs - are high attainers - are not yet fluent in English Ensure that learning is appropriately differentiated so that the learning is well pitched and all pupils are challenged at their current level of understanding.
- Create a high quality, rich, stimulating and enabling learning environment containing items that will capture pupils’ attention and lead to independent exploration.
- Make effective use of assessment information on pupils’ attainment and progress when teaching and in planning future learning.
- Plan opportunities to develop pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

**B) Teaching and classroom management**
- Ensure effective teaching of the whole class, and of groups and individuals within the whole class setting, so that learning objectives are met, and pupils’ learning time is used efficiently.
- Establish and maintain a purposeful learning atmosphere.
- Set high expectations for pupils’ behaviors, establishing, and maintaining a good standard of discipline through well focused, engaging teaching and through positive and productive relationships.
- Establish a safe, clean and secure learning environment which promotes pupils’ confidence.
- Use teaching methods which capture pupils’ interest and maintain their engagement through: offering rich, captivating learning activities, setting the highest expectations for all pupils
- Clearly establishing a purpose for learning, placing it within a context
- Effective questioning that includes open and closed questions, together with the use of probing, supplementary questions
- Providing frequent opportunities for pupils to learn through talk and interaction
- Stimulating intellectual curiosity and communicating enthusiasm for learning
- Matching the teaching approaches used to the learning and development area of the curriculum and the age of the pupils being taught
- Modelling good language use to children
- Modelling good social skills to children
- Clear instruction, effective modelling and accurate explanation
- listening carefully to pupils, analysing their responses and responding constructively in order to take their learning forward
- Selecting and making good use of ICT and other learning resources which enable learning objectives to be met
- Providing opportunities to develop pupils’ wider understanding by relating their learning to ‘real life’.
- Be familiar with the Code of Practice on the identification and assessment of special educational needs and, as part of the responsibilities under the Code, create and review One Plans for pupils with identified special educational needs.
- Evaluate your own teaching critically and use this to improve your effectiveness.

**C) Monitoring, assessment, recording, reporting and accountability**
- Assess how well learning objectives have been achieved and use this information to improve specific aspects of teaching.
- Maintain good organisation and accurate assessments so that they offer a clear record of pupils’ progress and complete an EYFS profile for each child.
- Be familiar with the statutory assessment and reporting requirements and know how to prepare and present informative reports to parents.
- Understand the expected demands of pupils in relation to the expectations of the Framework for the Early Foundation Stage.

**D) Management and administration**
- Be responsible for the line management of teaching assistants in the Nursery including their performance management.
- Participate in administrative and organisational tasks related to the responsibilities described above.
- Support students on placement in Early Years Foundation Stage classes.
- Foster close relationships with parents/carers and the wider community. Assist them to support their child’s learning at home. Present a positive image of the school to all other stakeholders. The Governing Body is