Early Years Practitioner

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Career Staff: Early Years Practitioner

The Role

Sheffield Students’ Union Nursery is an inclusive, caring and professional team of educators who are passionate about the early years. We are looking for an enthusiastic Level 3 Early Years Practitioner to join our experienced and supportive team. We believe that early year’s education lays the foundations for a lifetime of learning, confidence, and happiness. If you do, then you could be exactly who we’re looking for.

Key duties in this role include:

  • Creating fun, engaging, and inspiring experiences for children every day

  • Supporting children’s development, and wellbeing through play-based learning

  • Working closely as part of a caring and collaborative team

  • Building positive relationships with children, parents, and colleagues

  • Helping to create a safe, nurturing, and exciting environment where every child can thrive

  • Building a sense of community and belonging for all our families


This role is advertised as a full time position, however, we are open to discussions around hours and working patterns with the successful candidate and we are also keen to hear from any individuals who would be interested in joining our “Flex” team on a zero hours basis to provide ad hoc cover where required.


Application process

Please review our Job Description

doc-pdf.png View/Download Early Years Practitioner 2026 - Job Description & Personal Specification

You can submit your application by clicking apply, completing our application form outlining and relevant skills, experience and why you are interested in the role. Following the closing date stated on our job adverts, applications will be shortlisted against the criteria outlined in the person specification and job description.

We will contact you by email to let you know whether or not you have been shortlisted to participate in the next stage of the selection process.

If you have any questions about the role, application process or working for Students' Union then please don't hesitate to get touch su-people@sheffield.ac.uk 

Your Benefits
You will work in an exciting and progressive environment and enjoy great staff benefits:
As part of the Nursery team:
- Excellent rate of pay
- 30 days annual leave per year + Bank holidays
- Enhanced sick pay
- In house and external training and CPD opportunities
- To be part of an experienced and supportive team
- Considerate and supportive management

As part of the wider Students’ Union organisation:
- Cycle to work scheme and cycle hub
- The opportunity to buy annual leave
- Generous workplace pension scheme
- Well being Programme
- Opportunity to purchase an Totum card
- Enhanced Maternity / Paternity and Shared Parental Leave pay

Working at the Students’ Union
We exist to represent, support and enhance the lives of our members. We’ve done so since 1906. We are an independent charity and work closely with the University to achieve a world-class student experience. We’ve got a fantastic modern building featuring cafes, shops, bars, an advice centre, an activities and sports zone, where students can join over 400 sports clubs and societies. There’s something different happening in the SU every day: from club nights to film screenings, live music, theatrical performances and fascinating talks. We offer a relaxed space for students to take time out. We also have a nursery and offer childcare.

Creating a more diverse team
Sheffield Students’ Union is committed to creating a fair and inclusive workforce for all. Some of the actions that we have taken/ are taking to ensure this include:
- Inclusive policies and procedures
- Flexible and hybrid working arrangements (where roles allow)
- Inclusive recruitment practices
- Training and development in ED&I
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion working group and staff network

We want to support you to do your best during the application process, so please do get in touch at su-people@sheffield.ac.uk if you have any questions or would like to request any reasonable adjustments.

Use of AI in applications
At the Students’ Union we recognise the potential benefits of AI during the recruitment process, however we encourage candidates to consider how they use AI to support them, should they choose to do so. The recruitment process is designed for both parties to assess whether the role is a good fit. It is therefore important that candidates are providing personalised applications based on their own knowledge, skills and experiences rather than copying and pasting answers generated by AI tools or relying on automated personalisation. AI tools can help to structure your thoughts, improve clarity in responses and may help you to do some generic preparation in terms of things like types of interview questions that you may be asked. Over-reliance on AI tools, however, may lead to additional challenges during the recruitment process or being hired into a role that you don’t enjoy and/or feel that you can’t perform your best in



Location: The University of Sheffield Students' Union

Contract Type: Permanent

Salary: £24,852 - £26,649
(based on £23,195 - £24,873 1FTE)

Specific Hours: 37.5hrs per week

Closing Date: Wednesday 24th June 2026 (11:59pm)

In-person Interviews/Assessments:
Week Commencing Monday 6th July 2026

Start Date: September 2026


Details
£24,852.00 - £26,649.00 per year
Location: Sheffield, S102TG, GB
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