Vice Principal (Early Years)

Early Years

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead the planning, delivery, and continuous improvement of learning and care across the full Early Years range, ensuring developmentally appropriate practice at every stage.
• Champion play-based, inquiry-led, and child-centred pedagogy across the department, including attachment-based caregiving and a key person approach for infants and toddlers in the baby class.
• Ensure faithful delivery of the Cambridge Early Years Programme in Nursery, KG1, and KG2 across the six areas of early learning: communication and language, physical development, personal/social/emotional development, literacy, numeracy, and understandi
• Champion sensory exploration, treasure-basket and heuristic play, gross-motor movement, and emerging language for infants and toddlers; and rich indoor and outdoor learning environments with continuous provision and well-planned learning centres for old
• Embed observation-based assessment and learning journeys to track each child's progress from baby class through KG2 and inform next steps.
• Foster a warm, secure, and inclusive environment where every child – from babies to KG2 – feels seen, safe, and valued.
• Oversee health, hygiene, nutrition, supervision, sleep, and safety routines appropriate to each age band, with intensified standards for infants and toddlers.
• Ensure all Early Years staff are trained in paediatric and infant first aid, safe sleep, allergen management, and emergency response.
• Champion social-emotional learning, attachment-based care, positive behaviour guidance, and age-appropriate self-regulation strategies.
• Recruit, induct, mentor, and retain high-calibre Early Years teachers, teaching assistants, and baby class caregivers.
• Lead regular learning walks, lesson observations, and reflective coaching conversations grounded in early childhood and infant-care best practice.
• Plan and deliver targeted professional development on infant/toddler care, early childhood pedagogy, safeguarding, inclusive practice, and curriculum design.
• Build strong, trusting partnerships with parents as a child's first and most important educators.
• Lead clear, warm, and timely communication with families on children's progress, well-being, and daily life at school.
• Oversee day-to-day operations of the Early Years Department, including timetabling, staffing rotas, supervision ratios, and resource allocation.
• Ensure all classrooms, sleep areas, outdoor spaces, and equipment meet safety, hygiene, and quality standards for infants, toddlers, and young children.
• Cultivate a joyful, respectful, and high-trust Early Years culture that reflects the Cambridge learner attributes – confident, responsible, reflective, innovative, and engaged, at an age-appropriate level.
• Build a strong sense of community within the Early Years team and across the wider school.
• Champion the thoughtful, age-appropriate use of digital tools to enrich, never replace, hands-on early learning.
• Support staff proficiency in digital platforms used for planning, observation, assessment, and parent communication.
• Encourage innovation in early literacy, numeracy, STEAM exploration, and creative expression.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in Early Childhood Education, Education, Educational Leadership, or a closely related field. (A Bachelor's degree with substantial Early Years leadership experience may be considered.)
• Recognised teaching qualification or licence.
• Specialist training or certification in Early Childhood Education, Cambridge Early Years, Montessori, Reggio Emilia, or equivalent is highly desirable.
• Training or experience in infant and toddler care is highly desirable.
• Current safeguarding/child protection training (or willingness to complete on appointment).
• Paediatric and infant first aid certification (or willingness to obtain on appointment).
• Minimum of 10 years' experience in early childhood education, with significant time across the full Early Years range (infants and toddlers through age 6).
• At least 5 years in a leadership role within an Early Years or primary setting, ideally including oversight of an infant/toddler programme.
• Proven experience implementing the Cambridge Early Years Programme or a comparable internationally benchmarked early childhood curriculum.
• Demonstrated success in safeguarding, infant/toddler welfare, child wellbeing, and parent partnership.

Skills and Competencies

• Deep knowledge of child development from infancy through age 6, and of play-based, inquiry-led pedagogy.
• Warm, child-centred leadership style combined with strong strategic thinking.
• Excellent verbal and written communication, especially with young children and their families.
• Strong skills in observation-based assessment and using evidence to drive learning.
• Calm, empathetic approach to behaviour guidance and conflict resolution.
• Highly organised, with sound judgement on safety, supervision, and operational detail.
• Confident, age-appropriate use of ICT for teaching, assessment, and communication.
• Inclusive mindset that celebrates diversity and supports every child's unique needs.