For early years educators
Work with us
A small building, rooms that do not get combined to save an adult, and nobody asking you to tell a family their child is ready when they are not. That is the offer, and here is what it costs.
The honest version of the offer
Early years pay in this city is poor and we are not going to pretend otherwise on a careers page. What a small centre can offer instead is specific: you lead one room rather than covering three, you keep the same children for a year, and the ratio you are given is the ratio you actually have at four in the afternoon.
We do not combine rooms at five o’clock to release an adult, which means the last hour is properly staffed and you are not alone with eleven tired children. It costs us money and it is the last thing we would cut.
What we would want from you
Willingness to write down what you observed and show it to a family, including the parts that are awkward. Comfort telling a parent their child bit somebody today, or did not eat, or had a hard fortnight — on the day, in plain words, without softening it into nothing.
And a settled view that under-fives learn through play, because you will be asked to defend that to families roughly once a month and we will back you every time.
What we are not
We are not large and there is no career ladder. There are six of us. There is no enrichment programme to deliver and no premium tier to upsell, which some people find liberating and others find limiting, and it is better established at the first conversation than the third.
The checks, which are absolute
A criminal history check, a search of the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment, and a check against the Justice Center Staff Exclusion List — all completed and cleared before any unsupervised contact with a child. There is no grace period in the law and there is no provisional start here. Every member of staff is also a mandated reporter.
How it works here
The things that would be different from your last job
One room, one age band
You lead it rather than cover it, and you keep the same children for a year.
Rooms not merged at five
The last hour is properly staffed. You are not alone with eleven tired children while the ratio technically holds.
Nothing to upsell
No enrichment tier, no external provider, no accelerated track. One curriculum and you deliver it.
Backed on the awkward conversation
When you tell a family something they did not want to hear, the director's position is behind you rather than beside them.
This is a demonstration site for a fictional nursery. There is no vacancy, there is nobody to write to, and the telephone number is a placeholder. It is here because a real nursery’s careers page is part of what a website has to do.
Tuesday and Thursday mornings, while the children are here
Come and see the room
A tour here happens during a session, in the room your child would actually be in, at the time of day they would be in it. You meet the person who leads that room rather than only the director, and you see the noise and the mess that are genuinely there. It takes an hour. If your child is three or four we will ask whether you have applied for free 3-K or Pre-K for All before we quote you a rate, because a good many families should not be paying us at all.