Room Leader

Mission Specialist (Room Leader)

Job title: Mission Specialist – Shining Stars / Super Stars (Pre-School)

Purpose of post

• To ensure a high standard of physical, emotional, social, and intellectual care for all children in their care
• To ensure all children are safeguarded and their welfare and safety is promoted
• To give support to other team members within their immediate room and within the wider nursery
• To work as part of a team in order to provide an enabling environment in which all individual children can play, learn, and develop.

Responsible to

Mission Commander (Operations Director) and Pre-School Deputy Manager (or the Early Years Deputy Manager in their absence).

Main duties

• To follow the nursery safeguarding procedure to ensure all children are kept safe, well, and secure and ensure all team members can do the same
• To support your team members to have the specific knowledge and skills required to work effectively with children of this age (working with the other Pre-School room as both rooms make up the Pre-School Unit)
• To implement the nursery curriculum within your room and ensure that all staff working within your room have an adequate knowledge and understanding of the nursery curriculum
• Formulate and operate a programme of activities that meet the individual needs and interests of children in your room in conjunction with other team members and the Pre-School Deputy Manager
• To keep records of your key children’s development, share this with parents/carers and include parents in their child’s learning journey
• Support all team members with the early identification and intervention for children with possible additional needs (liaising with nursery SENDCo)
• Undertake appropriate supervision meetings/processes for all members in your team in conjunction with the nursery management approach
• Feed into appraisals, target settings and nursery operations as deemed appropriate by the Pre-School Deputy Manager and Operations Director
• Attend Mission Specialist (Room Leader) huddles as and when they occur and feed appropriate information back to your team
• Support all staff to engage in good team work and act as role models for the children within your care (fulfilling the nursery values)
• Complete all relevant and mandatory training courses to help you fulfil your role and responsibilities, keeping these up to date to keep your knowledge refreshed
• Support team members to seek out any training or support they may require to fulfil their roles and responsibilities
• Support new team members through their induction processes in partnership with the Pre-school Deputy Manager and Operations Director
• Ensure all record keeping is accurate and up to date within your room, including learning journeys (OP&L spotlights) of all children in your room, sleep charts, accident forms, daily record sheets and any other forms/records required for the child’s welfare, learning and development. Support your team members to ensure that they also keep all their paperwork up to date
• Ensure room checks and outdoor checks (risk assessments) are conducted in line with nursery procedures
• Liaise with, and support, parents and other family members as appropriate
• Liaise with the local authority and other professionals associated with the nursery
• To be involved in out of working hours activities, eg. training, staff meetings, parents evenings, fundraising events etc., as and when they occur
• Undertake certain domestic jobs within the nursery, eg. preparation of snack, meals, cleansing of equipment and such other duties and responsibilities of an equivalent nature as may be determined from time to time by the Pre-School Deputy Manager and Operations Director
• Participate in training programmes with a wide variety of apprentices and students (i.e., placements and volunteers), by giving guidance and support
• Work alongside the Pre-School Deputy Manager and staff team to ensure that the nursery philosophy and values are fulfilled
• Read, understand, and adhere to all policies and procedures relevant to your role as deemed appropriate by the Pre-School Deputy Manager and Operations Director. Support team members to do the same and ensure all policies and procedures are followed at all times
• To ensure good standards of safety, hygiene and cleanliness are always maintained and be responsible for the health and safety standards appropriate for the needs of young children
• To ensure the confidentiality of all information received by all team members within your room
• To be aware of the high profile of the nursery and ensure all staff always uphold its standards, both within work hours and outside
• To undertake such other duties and responsibilities of an equivalent nature as may be determined from time-to-time by the Operations Director.

Specific childcare tasks

• To ensure that every child’s individual needs are met and they are safe, happy and have formed secure attachments.
• To ensure the provision of a high-quality environment to meet the needs of individual children regardless of any disabilities, family backgrounds or medical history
• To support and facilitate the preparation and completion of activities to suit each individual child's stage of development and current interests
• To support all staff to develop their role within the team, especially as a key person
• To develop and maintain strong partnerships and communications with parents/carers to facilitate day-to-day caring and early learning needs
• To ensure that mealtimes are a time of pleasant social sharing
• Ensuring a poorly child is kept calm and warm, and parents are notified immediately for the child to be collected.