Looking after children is a very physically and emotionally demanding occupation and one that requires commitment and co-operation from everyone involved.  We want staff who work for us to be recognised as industry professionals whether its as early years practitioners in our Day Nursery or playwork professionals in our afterschools facilities.  Each of our facilities is managed by a Senior, and sometimes Assistant Manager but other than their role in day to day management we rank all of our staff as equals so you wont be joining a hierarchy of assistants or room supervisors when you work for us.  We believe that everyone working in a room or in a facility has a joint responsibility in the service delivery in their room or unit and in order to recognise the high level of work required in running our services we believe all of our staff need to be recognised as practitioners or professionals.  We also feel that communication between staff and management is fundamental and that is why we establish a culture of investing in our most valuable asset, our staff.  We hold regular staff meetings, staff supervisions and appraisals as well as opportunities for social events.

We understand that the role working with children is very challenging in terms of the physical, mental and emotional demands placed on you. Our overriding aim as an employer is to establish an environment which promotes staff loyalty, harmonious team work but also 100% commitment from everyone who works for us.  Our ethos and our brand is extremely important to us.  We expect our staff to fully embrace our curriculums and our unique brand of childcare known as ‘sleepyhollowinspired’.

In the senior management team many of us belong to industry and sector committees such as Early Years Organisation, Playwork Education and Training Council NI,  International Play Association NI, Day Care Forum, Reggio NI Community to name but a few.  Through these involvments we are ensuring that we keep ourselves abreast of not only best practice but of new and innovative practice.  We therefore see Continued Professional Development (CPD) as being one of the key components for staff who work for us – this starts with our own Level 1 qualification called ‘Sleepy Hollow Inspired’ to ensure all staff who join us have an understanding of our ethos from the outset.  We also have our own database of qualifications which all staff will undertake as part of their induction programme such as basic food hygiene, health and safety, data protection etc.  We also ensure that all staff attend Safeguarding training annually as well as Paediatric First Aid on a three yearly cycle.  Some of our staff training has involved some team members going on conferences to Italy, England and across Ireland.

We have our own trainee management programme which staff can apply to join after completing level 3 qualifications – this is to allow staff to progress to level 5 in either CCLD or Playwork whilst gaining managerial experience with us.  We normally open this programme up at least once a year – quite often twice.

Current Vacancies

We only accept CV’s when we have vacancies arising.  See the current vacancies list below (if there are none at present check back in regularly – we are a growing company with over 100 staff so we normally have openings on a monthly or bi-monthly basis)