Early Years Practitioner (Unqualified)
Location: Leiston
Salary: £25,510 per annum (pro rata) - £12.71 per hourly equivalent
Contract/Hours: Permanent/Part Time – 25 hours per week
Closing date: Midnight on the 7th of August 2026
Benefits:
- Time off to recharge – 25 days per year plus bank holidays
- Gain professional qualifications and excellent training/development opportunities.
- Treat yourself: Staff discounts portal and blue light card with 15,000 + retailers.
- Enhanced Well-being: 8 sessions In-Person, Phone, or Online Counselling or CBT
- Salary Finance – access to financial advice and the ability to manage savings or loans directly from your salary.
- Childcare Discount – A whopping 60% off childcare within our nurseries and out of school clubs
- Up to 3 Days Dependency Leave – to care for dependents in an emergency.
- Paid maternity, adoption, and paternity leave.
- Secure your future: Pension with up to 7% employer contribution with included life assurance cover.
- 24/7 Confidential Helpline speak to trained counsellors any time, 365 days a year, for emotional, wellbeing or mental health support.
About the role:
As an unqualified early years practitioner, you'll play an important role in creating a safe, happy and stimulating environment where children can learn, play and thrive. Working alongside experienced colleagues, you'll support children's daily routines, help deliver fun and engaging activities, encourage learning through play, and build positive relationships with children and their families.
We’ll support you every step of the way, with opportunities to develop your skills and work towards a recognized Level 3 Early Years qualification.
How you’ll help create brighter futures
- Work as part of a team to create a safe and stimulating environment for our children
- Support and participate in planning exciting preschool activities that spark creativity and curiosity
- Preparing children for the next big adventure: School
- Build strong relationships with parents/carers and families
- Meet each child's unique needs with love and attention
- Bring a positive attitude and make every day magical
- Support and contribute to planning exciting, play-based activities that spark creativity and curiosity.
Let’s talk about you
In the role of Early Years Practitioner (Unqualified), we're ideally looking for someone who has:
- A passion for learning and developing - whether you're new to the sector or already have experience.
- Experience working with children in an Early Years or childcare environment.
- An understanding of children’s developmental needs from birth to five years.
- A positive attitude and a commitment to delivering high-quality care and experiences.
About the Nursery:
Located in the heart of Leiston, Spring Leiston Nursery offers a warm calm and a safe and stimulating environment for children aged 3 months to five years.
A setting within a vibrant children centre, who are passionate about nurturing curiosity, confidence and creativity through play-based learning.
You’ll join our dynamic team, working together to support each child’s learning to ensure each day is fun and engaging.
Why Spring Nurseries
Imagine a place where laughter echoes, imaginations run wild, and every day is a new adventure. That's Spring Nursery! We're not just a nursery; we are a family dedicated to creating a joyful and nurturing environment where children thrive. As part of Action for Children, we're on a mission to provide outstanding early education that's accessible to all.
At Spring, we are committed to supporting your career growth! Check out our Spring Career Progression Map attached to this advert, which highlights the options for progression into a specialist role.
Ready to make a difference in the lives of children? Whether you're looking for a career change or the next step in your journey, we'd love to hear from you!
Apply now and help us give children a healthy start in life!
Interviews will take place the 11th, 12th and 14th of August 2026.
Contact: If you need support with your application, please contact our Recruitment Team at RecruitmentService@actionforchildren.org.uk quoting reference 13462.
We'll be happy to give you any support you require.
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion
At Spring we're dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. We actively encourage applications from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic and disabled candidates as they are under-represented within the organisation. We want to take deliberate and purposeful action to ensure equal opportunity for all groups.
Male staff are often under-represented within this sector, and we would like to encourage more male applicants for our roles.
We are committed to safer recruitment practices to protect our service users; therefore, all applicants are expected to have an understanding of and commitment to safeguarding best practice.
Application Process please note we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
There are 5 sections for you to complete - Personal Details, CV, Supporting Statement & Information, Equality & Diversity, Submission & Declaration – please refer to the Job Description when applying.
We also want to know what unique qualities you can bring to help us reach our vision for children and families.
Talent Pool: We're sure you've got what it takes to join our ambitious team. If you're unsuccessful this time around, we'd like to hold your details in case similar jobs come up that you might be better suited for. But feel free to let us know if you'd rather, we didn't do that.
Want to know more about Spring and Oscars?
Check out our socials on Linkedin, Facebook or Youtube.
See below for further information about working with us:
Spring Early Years Career Pathway