Bright Horizons

Bright Horizons is one of the words leading early childhood providers, with a network of over 300 nurseries and preschools across the UK, and thousands more globally.  Our nurseries range is size. For example, Springfield Lodge nursery in Kent is our biggest nursery with 175 places, while Beacon Road nursery in London is our smallest nursery with 30 places. 

We look after over 30,000 children aged from three-months to five-years old at our centres, and 95% of our nurseries are rated either ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted. We have over 7,000 early-education staff across our nurseries and preschools with a further 500 support office staff in finance, marketing, HR, and our IT teams, who are based at our headquarters in Northampton, and our offices in Manchester, and London.  

Bright Horizons also have our own charity called the ‘Foundation for Children’ which creates ‘Bright Spaces’ in communities across the UK. These are places where vulnerable children who have been impacted by domestic violence, abuse, homelessness, parental imprisonment, or ill health, can play, relax, and receive the support that they need. 

Our nurseries are typically open between 7.30am and 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, with a variety of different shift patterns. Our nurseries need lots of team members to help them operate, including nursery assistants, room leaders, chefs, and Early Years teachers. But our most common role is nursery practitioner. The types of activity a nursery practitioner delivers changes depending on each child’s age, as well as their individual milestone stage, working closely with parents and carers to provide support and advice when needed.

Our most common entry level role is our Early Years Apprenticeship. In this role, you’ll be working as part of a nursery team looking after babies and children up to the age of five, and you’ll be running activities related to interactive play, arts and crafts, cooking, and reading. Upon completion of the programme, you’ll receive a Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification which is the most common qualification for nursery practitioners in the UK. This takes typically about 18 months to complete, and the qualification is delivered through a combination of classroom-based learning and on-the-job training. 

To join our Early Years Apprenticeship programme, you need GCSEs in maths and English at grade 4/C or above or equivalent. If you don’t have these, we can support you to complete a Functional Skills qualification alongside your apprenticeship. 

Along with this you will need to have genuine interest in children’s education and wellbeing. We’re looking for people that want to make a real difference in children’s lives along with being a good communicator, empathetic, understanding, and having a desire to get stuck in and learn.  

Contact

Kirstie O’Neill, Early Careers Manager

apprenticeshiprecruitment@brighthorizons.com