Educational Lead – Baby Room
Ryehills Farm Day Nursery, West Haddon
Location: West Haddon, Northamptonshire
Position: Early Years Educational Lead – Baby Room
Job Type: Full-time
Salary: £32,000 - £34,000
Hours: 42.5
An exceptional room needs an exceptional early years leader
We are looking for an outstanding Early Years Educational Lead to take the lead within the Baby Room at Ryehills Farm Day Nursery in West Haddon.
Our Baby Room is the largest room across the Climbing High Nurseries group, making this a particularly important leadership position within our business.
We need someone with exceptional early years knowledge, a deep understanding of babies’ development and an ability to lead, inspire and develop a large team of practitioners.
This is an opportunity for an experienced early years professional who is passionate about what exceptional practice for babies really looks like, from attachment, communication and emotional security to physical development, sensory exploration, play and the quality of every interaction throughout the day.
You will be a visible leader in the room: coaching your team, modelling excellent practice and ensuring that every baby receives responsive, individualised care and rich opportunities to learn, explore and develop.
The role
As Educational Lead for our Baby Room, you will lead the educational practice and day-to-day quality of provision within the room.
Working alongside the Nursery Manager, Curriculum Lead and wider Ryehills team, you will ensure that our curriculum, environments, interactions and routines consistently reflect the very highest standards of early years practice.
You will:
- Provide strong, confident leadership to a large team of early years practitioners.
- Model exceptional practice and be actively involved in children's learning, care and experiences.
- Coach, mentor and develop practitioners, providing constructive feedback and helping colleagues continually strengthen their practice.
- Ensure our youngest children experience warm, secure and responsive relationships throughout their nursery day.
- Champion the importance of attachment, emotional security and effective co-regulation.
- Lead high-quality, child-centred learning through play.
- Ensure the Baby Room environment is rich, engaging, developmentally appropriate and responsive to children's interests and individual needs.
- Support practitioners to understand child development deeply rather than simply follow activities or routines.
- Ensure planning and the Educational Development Cycle are meaningful and genuinely improve children's experiences and outcomes.
- Monitor children's development, identifying where additional support may be required and working with colleagues, families and other professionals as appropriate.
- Ensure children's individual care routines are respected while supporting their growing independence, development and wellbeing.
- Lead effective transitions both into the Baby Room and as children progress through the nursery.
- Build strong, professional relationships with parents and carers, creating genuine partnerships around children's development.
- Maintain consistently high standards of safeguarding, welfare, health, safety and hygiene.
- Support your team to understand the EYFS and confidently explain the intent behind their practice.
- Help create a culture of professional curiosity where practitioners reflect, ask questions, learn from one another and continuously improve.
Who we are looking for
This is a substantial Educational Lead position, so we are looking for someone with excellent early years knowledge and proven leadership capability.
You should be able to walk into a busy room, understand what excellent provision should look and feel like, and confidently support a team to achieve it.
You will ideally bring:
- A strong early years qualification appropriate to the role.
- Significant experience working within an early years setting.
- Excellent knowledge of babies' development and the particular needs of children in the first years of life.
- A thorough understanding of the EYFS and high-quality play-based practice.
- Strong knowledge of attachment, co-regulation, communication and language, physical development and children's emotional wellbeing.
- Experience leading, mentoring or developing other practitioners.
- The confidence to challenge practice constructively where standards need to improve.
- Excellent organisation and communication skills.
- A strong understanding of safeguarding and children's welfare.
- The ability to build positive, respectful relationships with children, colleagues and families.
- High expectations of yourself and the people you lead.
Most importantly, you will understand that outstanding early years practice is found in the detail, the quality of an interaction, the responsiveness of a practitioner, the environment children experience, the way routines are handled and how well adults understand the individual child in front of them.
Our approach at Climbing High Nurseries
At Climbing High, children are at the centre of everything we do.
We believe in:
- Child-Centred Practice – recognising every child as a unique and capable individual.
- Nurturing Emotional Development – using secure relationships and co-regulation to help children feel safe and supported.
- Commitment to Excellence – continually raising the quality of care, education and environments.
- Collaborative Social Learning – building relationships, empathy and learning together.
- Curiosity and Creativity – creating environments where children can explore, experiment and discover.
- Sustainability and Responsibility – helping children develop meaningful relationships with the natural world.
- Inclusive Communities – ensuring every child and family feels welcomed, respected and able to belong.
Why Ryehills?
Ryehills Farm Day Nursery is a busy and ambitious setting, and our Baby Room plays an incredibly important part in the nursery.
Leading our largest room will give you the opportunity to make a significant impact — not only on the babies in your care, but on the professional development of a large early years team.
You will also work as part of the wider Climbing High Nurseries team, with access to support and collaboration from nursery leadership, curriculum colleagues and educational leaders across the business.
For the right person, this is an opportunity to become a highly influential early years leader within one of our most important rooms.
If you have the knowledge, leadership ability and passion to create an exceptional experience for babies and the practitioners who care for them, we would love to hear from you.
Apply today to join Ryehills Farm Day Nursery as our Baby Room Educational Lead.
Safeguarding
Climbing High Nurseries is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The successful applicant will be expected to share this commitment and comply with all safeguarding, suitability and safer recruitment requirements applicable to the role.
Pay: £32,000.00-£34,000.00 per year
Work Location: In person
