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Our Staff

In addition to their qualifications and experience, our staff are chosen for their temperament, personality and love of children. They encourage children to take part in activities and are positive about children’s achievements. Staff will ensure that children treat each other with kindness, consideration and respect.

Each nursery’s supernumerary manager is assisted by a deputy manager. Practical support and planning is also provided by our full time Early Years Professionals, both of whom work across all three settings to enable the sharing of the best ideas.

Each age-group has their own Room Leader, Senior Nursery Practitioner and Nursery Practitioners. We offer apprenticeships to a select few trainees, most of whom continue on into full time employment at Young Sussex. Click here to see our Staff Structure.

At each nursery we have nominated SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) and Equal Opportunities representatives.

Young Sussex provides a professional and supportive environment for staff, which contributes to a low staff turnover. This allows us to maintain consistently high standards of care and continuity for your children.

Our full time caretaker ensures that all our sites are kept clean and tidy, and are well maintained and cared for.

Qualifications

Young Sussex Nursery is very proud of it's high level of qualified staff. Whilst the national standards require the nursery manager to hold a level 3 qualification in childcare, ours are each level 4 or 5.

Half of all care staff must be qualified to level 2, whereas at Young Sussex, over 90% of our staff are level 2 or above, with as many as 80% at each setting qualified to at least level 3. Those not yet qualified to level 3 are currently training towards it. Click here for guidance on qualification levels.

We actively encourage and support staff with further training - offering direct financial reward to our staff for enhancing their level of qualification, whatever their current role.

At Young Sussex Nursery, we aim for all staff to hold a Paediatric First Aid certificate, which is regularly updated, along with training in Child Protection, Health & Safety, Food Hygiene and Manual Handling. We hold ‘in-house’ training sessions led by senior staff or outside trainers, and staff regularly attend training courses outside the nursery to enhance their professional development.

Ratios

Ofsted and the EYFS Framework require child to staff ratios as follows:

Who are they?

Key Person

From the start, your child will be assigned a Key Person. This practitioner will be your child’s main carer in their room, getting to know you, your family and learning all that they can about your child’s interests, abilities, likes and dislikes.

This will help to ensure that your child’s care and learning is tailored to meet their individual needs, and their progress monitored in their Online Learning Journal, ParentZone

Your Key Person will also make suggestions on how you can support your child’s development at home.

EYT

Our Early Years Teachers are educated to degree level and have an in-depth knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Their responsibility is to maintain and improve the quality of our early years provision.

Through mentoring, coaching and continual support of all staff, they ensure that the experiences on offer to every child allow them to meet or exceed expectations.

Their reflective approach ensures that practice is continually reviewed and tailored to meet children’s individual needs.

SENCO

At each nursery, we have a trained Special Educational Needs Coordinator. Their role is to support your child with any disabilities or difficulties in learning.

Whether your child is hard of hearing or speaks English as an additional language, the SENCO, through regular observations, is able to work alongside you and the relevant outside agencies to provide the best possible care and encouragement for your child.

Please click here for details of our West Sussex SEND Local Offer

Age of Child

Staff:Child Ratio

Under 2 years

1:3

2-3 years

1:5

Over 3 years

1:8

At Young Sussex, these ratios are exceeded at all times. Although we aim not to be profligate with staff, we recognise that the daily realities of childcare and the logistics of the environment mean that a surplus of staff, over and above the minimum requirements, allows us to offer the optimum experience for our children and maintain high levels of staff satisfaction.

Ensuring sufficient staffing levels not only allows for effective childcare, planning and observations, but also enables us to cover all sickness and holidays without resorting to using unfamiliar agency workers. All staff are rotaed to have time out of their rooms to carry out their administrative tasks. As such, they are not expected to care for the children and focus on planning activities at the same time - compromising both responsibilities.

Join Our Team!

Click here for information on any current job opportunities