Early Years Assistant
Craigroyston Primary School

Salary: £25,905 - £26,111 (pro-rata for sessional)
Hours: 36 per week, 39 weeks sessional

Working Pattern: 7:30am-15:45pm Monday to Thursday (30 min break )and Friday 8am - 13:00pm

MAJOR TASKS/JOB ACTIVITIES 

Under the direction and supervision of teaching or nominated staff, support children in the playrooms and throughout the learning environment through organised activities, providing support, assistance and encouragement to help each individual child achieve the best learning and development outcomes possible.

Providing support to teachers, early years staff and children in all learning environments e.g. supporting all aspects of early learning and development including early language, mathematics, health and well being and other general early years activities. 

Assisting in supporting young children’s creativity and skills for life and learning through play and through implementation of planned programmes. 

Providing help to children in organising their day and to follow instructions. 

Assisting in the provision of a high level of individual and personal care to children with additional support needs e.g. feeding, toileting, changing, dressing, applying medical aids, assisting children with specialist apparatus by means of an agreed individualised care plan; whilst encouraging independence and ensuring safety and comfort.

Assisting in providing relevant information through record keeping, attendance at appropriate meetings as designated by the head teacher/Head of Centre or nominated staff member and contributing to the ongoing review of child programmes. 

Assisting in supporting record keeping by e.g. contributing towards the individual child’s personal learning profile. 

Within an agreed framework, assisting in implementing the School or Early Years improving relationships and behaviour management policy. 

Working as part of the school/early years setting staff team, ensuring the ongoing health, safety and welfare of the children including liaising with parents, professional agencies and individuals and bringing any matters concerning child protection to the attention of the teaching/senior early years staff in accordance with school/early years setting procedures and guidelines. 

Administrative elements of child welfare requirements, e.g. routine documentation and information dispersal, providing comfort and care for minor accidents, upsets or ailments e.g. cuts and bruises (reporting to teaching/early years staff if considered serious); 

Following standard procedures for risk assessment within and out with the playrooms environment when required. 

Assisting in programmes for children moving into mainstream schools/early years setting and other specialist provision e.g. supervising and escorting the child to the receiving school/establishments, assisting with allocated tasks, encouraging the child to participate in group activities. 

Participating in appropriate professional staff development opportunities, in service, refresher training as deemed appropriate.

This post is regulated work with children and/or protected adults under the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007. The preferred candidate will be required to join the PVG Scheme or undergo a PVG Scheme update check.  Where an individual has spent a continuous period of 3 months or more out with the UK in the last 5 years, an Overseas Criminal Record Check will be required. You will be required to provide this check. An unconditional offer of employment and commencement in the post will be subject to the outcome of both these pre-employment checks being deemed satisfactory.

We're committed to creating a workplace culture where all our people feel valued, included and able to be their best at work, and we recognise the benefits that a diverse workforce with different values, beliefs, experience, and backgrounds brings to us as an organisation.

As part of our goal to improve our organisational culture and create a great place to work together for the people of Edinburgh, we want to make sure that we’re bringing the best people into our roles, not just in their skills and experience but also in their approach to work.

To help achieve this, we’re changing the way we interview and assess candidates by moving from a competency-based interview approach to a behavioural and technical (skills for the job) based approach. This new way of interviewing will allow us to assess how you think and how you would bring Our Behaviours of Respect, Integrity and Flexibility into your ways of working.

You can find out more on Our Behaviours web page Our Behaviours – The City of Edinburgh Council

Our salary range typically reflects the initial starting salary and annually increases until it reaches the top of the range.

Happy to talk flexible working.

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View Early Years Assistant job pack

View Sessional Working information

THE CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCIL

About Us:

Are you keen to shape the future of Scotland’s capital city? The City of Edinburgh Council is looking for dedicated and enthusiastic individuals to work with us and deliver key services across our capital city. We’re the second largest local authority in Scotland with a workforce of over 19,000 who all play a crucial role in maintaining and supporting vital services to over 500,000 residents. We offer an incredible variety of career opportunities across a broad range of sectors. Join us and you’ll find a role where you can make a difference and grow your career.

Our Culture:

Our Behaviours, respect, integrity, and flexibility guide everything that we do, and we strive to make sure all colleagues feel valued and have a sense of belonging in the workplace. We want to make sure that we bring people into our roles who demonstrate Our Behaviours and are dedicated and committed to our purpose of serving our community. We are focused on delivering excellent customer service to meet citizens needs and make the city a better place.

You can find out more on Our Behaviours web page Our Behaviours – The City of Edinburgh Council.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

We recognise the benefits that diverse perspectives, experiences and backgrounds bring to our organisation, and we’re committed to employing a workforce that represents the population of the city we serve. We particularly encourage applicants from under-represented groups including women, LGBT+ people, racially minoritised groups, people with disabilities and people who are neurodivergent.

As part of our commitment to inclusive recruitment, we're delighted to announce that we have extended our guaranteed interview scheme to include all applicants who are or have been care experienced, and who meet the essential criteria for the post. This extends our current arrangements of being a Disability Confident Employer, that guarantee an interview to applicants who meet the criteria for the post and who declare a disability.

Happy to talk flexible working.

Colleague Support and Wellbeing

As outlined in our People Strategy 2024-27, we aim to nurture a healthy workforce where we can all thrive. We offer regular events, initiatives and learning opportunities covering a range of different health and wellbeing topics.

We’re committed to supporting employees to achieve a healthy work life balance. There are several policies in place to support this ranging from flexible work options to career breaks. Our full suite of employment policies can be found here.

We have a range of support options available including access to counselling, a mental health support service, an occupational health service, speak up supporters and a colleague listening service.

Reasonable Adjustments:

We’re committed to providing an inclusive and accessible experience at work for all our colleagues and we’ll work hard to ensure that we meet the changing needs of colleagues throughout their time with us. We’re also geared up to support all candidates who may require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process. Candidates invited for interview, should let the hiring manager know what they need, and they will do everything they can to accommodate your request.