21st November 2007

We currently have the following vacancy;

Play Leader

Person specification

We need someone who will lead our friendly team in running our community playschool.  The most important criteria are your enthusiasm and a commitment to enabling small children to have fun learning through play in a stimulating environment.  You will need to have excellent organisational, planning and leadership skills.  In addition to leading a small team of staff you will need to be able to communicate well with children and their parents and have an approachable personality.  You will need to be good at short, medium and long term planning as well as recording the children’s progress in accordance with Wiltshire Early Years and Ofsted guidance.  You will need to have some I.T. skills and preferably access to e-mail.  This is a part-time position (currently three mornings and two afternoons per week, plus paid planning time) with the opportunity to increase sessions worked as the playschool grows.  You will be qualified to at least NVQ3 or equivalent and ideally you will have experience of working in a playschool setting.  You must be willing to undertake ongoing training as required by the post.  A current First Aid training certificate is also desirable.  You will need to complete a medical health declaration and undergo CRB clearance through Ofsted.

Job Description

Reports to:  Committee, usually represented by Chairperson
Hours of work:  Currently 0830-1515 on Tues and Fri and 0830 – 1230 on Weds, plus 2 hours planning time per week, during term time (usually 33 weeks per year).   Four weeks paid annual leave pro-rata, given as one week during Christmas and Easter breaks, and two weeks during the summer break.

The job will include the following roles and responsibilities:

1.  Supervising pre-school practitioners and volunteers and ensuring that enough staff are present at each session to fulfill staff:child ratios. 

2. Maintaining a safe environment for children and adults in the group by ensuring that:

- Equipment is well maintained and safe to use
- The play room is set up appropriately and tidied and cleaned at the beginning and end of sessions
- Good hygiene standards are maintained
- Safety procedures are followed and reviewed regularly
- The first aid box is regularly replenished

3.  Providing high quality care and education for under 5s by:

- Planning a wide variety of activities and selecting equipment in the long and short term that will stimulate and support children’s intellectual, physical, social, linguistic and emotional development, in consultation with other staff members.
- Deploying the time and skills of staff appropriately to ensure that the needs of individual children are catered for as effectively as possible.
- Encouraging and supporting family involvement in children’s learning and in pre-school life as a whole.
- Ensuring that activities reflect positively the linguistic, religious and cultural diversity of individual families and of the wider community.

4.  Facilitating regular staff meetings and carrying out support and supervision sessions with individual staff members.

5.  Record-keeping including:

Daily attendance registers
Weekly staff time sheets
Key-worker sheets
Accident book
Curriculum planning
Updating policies and procedures in conjunction with the
management committee
Any records required by Ofsted
Developmental and observation records of children

6.  Liaising with parents, the management committee and other agencies as appropriate, including Broad Chalke Primary School

7.  Undertaking appropriate training and to co-ordinate training for the staff.

8.  Attending meetings, including providing a Play Leader’s report at committee meetings.

9.  Carrying out any other duties as deemed appropriate by the Chair and in line with the position of Playschool Leader.

10.  Keeping confidential information regarding children, their families, or staff, with the exception of child protection concerns with may need to be shared with the appropriate agencies but with no-one else.

11.  This job involves heavy lifting (e.g. of boxes of toys) and requires you to access toys and equipment in the loft via a ladder.

If you are interested in this position, please e-mail us at;

or phone Alice Bennett on 01722 780730