Pre-school Practitioner

**Job title: Pre-School Practitioner**

**Reports to**: Setting Manager, Room Leader/Deputy Manager

**Location**: Ladywood.

**Hours**:30 hours per week, term time only

**Salary**: £9.50 per hour (+ pro rata benefits in terms of leave entitlement, sick pay, pension contributions)

**A brief introduction to West Smethwick Enterprise**:
Our vision

Young children and their families in our communities leading confident, capable and caring lives.

Our purpose

To provide excellent learning and wider development opportunities that support achievement and success for children & families, colleagues & students and the communities we serve.

What we provide

This is an innovative, dynamic, ambitious and growing organisation based in Smethwick and Ladywood, West Midlands. We operate through 5 nursery and pre-school settings. 4 of our pre-schools are rated as OFSTED **‘Good’**. Our new Ladywood site is yet to be rated.

We also provide many innovative, ‘value adding’ services and interventions, which extend beyond the children we work with in our pre-schools, to also support their wider families to thrive.

Our uniqueness comes more from the innovative partnerships, skills and knowledge we have built over four decades, which enable us to deliver these family-based services in addition to our high calibre pre-schools and nurseries: services that can make important contributions to building successful and rewarding futures for families living in seldom heard communities and in areas of social and economic deprivation.

At the same time, we are also building local professional capability for the Early Years sector itself through unique and pioneering partnerships with Higher Education providers. This initiative is primarily driven through our Centre of Excellence[CW1], based in Ladywood, Birmingham.

**Overview of the Pre-School Practitioner role**

To work as part of the Pre-School team under the direction of the Setting Manager to provide safe, high quality education and care for young children which meets the individual needs of children attending the setting. Pre-School practitioners will carry out individual planning, observations and support for key children and will work with parents and other agencies to ensure the needs of each individual child are met.

Values and Attitude

All West Smethwick Enterprise employees are expected to demonstrate the organisations values by working positively as part of a team delivering vital high-quality services to children and their families to create a working culture where all are valued and encouraged.

**Benefits of working for West Smethwick Enterprise**
- Uniform provided
- Additional days annual leave after 2 years
- Ongoing professional development and training opportunities
- Generous holiday (non-term time only)
- Hours (8.30am-3.00pm)
- Pension scheme
- Discounted childcare for parents
- Years of service awards
- Employee of the term

**Main duties**
- To model good practice to students and volunteers.
- To provide safety and well-being of all children, including key children, taking into account their social, emotional and individual development needs and understand how to evidence this.
- To ensure all policies recommended by WSE are adhered to by yourself and all students/ volunteers.
- To work as part as a team to ensure the delivery of nurturing/ recreational activities for all children attending the setting.
- Assessing, recording, reporting on the development, progress and attainment of children and providing support to students/volunteers through this process when necessary.
- Look upon the Setting as a “whole” where can your help be most utilised, be constantly aware of the needs of all children
- To respect the confidentiality of information received.
- Ensure all children are collected by someone known to the setting.
- Establish and sustain a safe, welcoming, purposeful, stimulating and encouraging environment where children feel confident and secure and are able to learn and develop.
- Plan and provide safe, appropriate, child-led, adult-led and adult initiated experiences, activities, and play opportunities in indoor, outdoor and out of setting contexts, which enable children to develop and learn.
- Select, prepare and use a range of resources suitable for children’s ages, interests and abilities, taking into account of diversity and promoting equality and inclusion.
- To work alongside parents and other agencies to ensure the individual needs of children are met.

**Specific duties**
- To promote positive relationships and interactions between all children, staff, students and volunteers within the setting.
- To attend and participate in meetings that may be relevant and refer this information, if necessary, back to all students/volunteers who attend the setting.
- Liaise with other staff members to provide children with nutritious and satisfying meals.
- To encourage the active participation of all children.
- To provide a warm, caring