A nursery manager reading your CV is asking one quiet question: can I put this person in a room with eight toddlers on Monday and stop worrying? Everything on a nursery practitioner CV should answer that. Qualifications, age groups, ratios, the way you talk about parents: each line either settles the manager's nerves or raises a new doubt.
Lead with your qualification and its level
In early years, the qualification is not a nice-to-have. It decides which roles you can legally fill and whether you count towards staffing numbers. So put it near the top, with its full name and its level, not buried under education at the bottom of page two.
The naming varies a lot by country, so write it the way your local employers recognise it. In England, for example, a manager will look for a full and relevant Level 2 or Level 3 qualification, such as the Level 3 Early Years Educator. In the US, an early years educator resume might lead with a state credential or a Child Development Associate. Check the rules where you work, because what counts as "relevant" is decided locally, not by you.
A clean way to write it:
- Level 3 Diploma for the Early Years Workforce (Early Years Educator), awarded 2023
- Paediatric First Aid, full 12-hour course, renewed 2025
- Food hygiene, Level 2
If you are still studying, say so plainly and give the expected completion month. "Level 3 Early Years Educator, in progress, completion expected June 2027" tells a manager exactly how to count you on the rota. Vague phrases like "currently training in childcare" make them guess, and they usually guess low.
Say once that you are cleared to work with children
Safeguarding matters in every nursery, and your CV should show you understand that without turning it into a lecture. One line is enough. Something like "Enhanced DBS on the Update Service" in the UK, or the local equivalent where you live, placed near your qualifications.
Do not list the details of the check, and do not repeat it in three sections. The nursery will run its own process anyway; if you want to know what that usually involves, our guide to what employment background checks actually cover walks through it. Where safeguarding belongs again is in your experience, as practice: "completed designated safeguarding lead briefings each term" or "logged and reported a concern following setting procedure". That reads as someone who acts on training, not someone who ticks a box.
Show the age groups and ratios you have actually covered
"Experienced with children" means nothing to a nursery manager. Babies, toddlers and preschoolers are three different jobs. A practitioner who has only worked with four-year-olds will need real support in a baby room, and the manager knows it.
So be specific about rooms and numbers:
- Baby room, 0 to 2, key person for 3 babies within a 1:3 ratio
- Toddler room, 2 to 3, worked in a team of 4 covering 16 children
- Preschool, 3 to 5, led small-group phonics and early maths sessions
Ratios differ by country and change over time, so state what you did rather than what the law says. The point is to show you have held a room at full capacity, not that you can quote regulation. If you have covered breakfast club, late shifts or a holiday scheme, mention it. Flexibility across rooms is something managers struggle to find.
The key-person role and observation work
Most of a practitioner's day is invisible on a typical CV: settling a child who cries at drop-off, noticing that a two-year-old has stopped pointing, writing it down so the next person sees it. This is the part that separates you from someone who "helped out".
If you have been a key person, say how many children you held and what that involved. Then talk about observations and learning journals, because that is the professional core of the job. Name the platform or the method if it is common in your sector, and describe what you did with what you saw.
Compare two lines:
Wrote observations for my key children.
Recorded weekly observations for 5 key children in the online learning journal and used them to plan next steps; flagged a speech delay that led to an early referral with the family's agreement.
The second line shows judgement. It also proves you understand that observation is for planning and early support, not paperwork for its own sake. If your setting follows a framework, such as the EYFS in England, mention how your planning linked to it in one clause.
Working with parents is a skill, so write it like one
Parents are half of the job. Handovers at the door, the difficult conversation about biting, the father who wants a daily report on every nap. Managers want to see that you can hold those moments calmly and keep the relationship intact.
Useful things to write about:
- Daily handovers and written feedback, and how you kept them short and useful
- Settling-in sessions you ran with new families
- A parent workshop, stay-and-play morning or newsletter you contributed to
- Supporting families who speak another language at home
Keep the tone factual. "Ran settling-in for 6 new families in September intake" is stronger than "excellent communication skills with parents". If you speak a second language that families in your area use, put it here and in your skills section, because that is a real advantage at the door.
From babysitting or au pair work to a regulated setting
A lot of people arrive in nurseries from babysitting, nannying or a year as an au pair. That experience is valuable, but it is not the same job, and your CV should acknowledge the difference rather than inflate it.
Babysitting is one-to-few, informal, and answers to one family. A nursery is a regulated team setting with ratios, policies, records and inspection. So translate what you did into the vocabulary of a setting. Instead of "looked after two children", try "sole carer for siblings aged 1 and 4, three days a week for 14 months: meals, naps, outdoor play, and a daily written note for the parents". That shows routine, responsibility and record-keeping.
Then show you are closing the gap. Your qualification in progress, a placement in a nursery, a first aid course you paid for yourself: put them right next to the babysitting entry, so the reader sees the direction of travel. If your path leads towards a classroom rather than a nursery, a primary school teacher CV is built quite differently, and that guide covers it.
Before you send it
Read your CV once as a nursery manager filling a gap on next month's rota. Can they see your qualification and level in the first few lines? Do they know which rooms you can cover, and at what ratio? Is there one clear safeguarding line, and at least one example of observation work and one of working with parents?
If your LinkedIn profile already lists your placements and courses, Postulit can turn it into a first draft of the CV, which you then sharpen with the age groups and examples above. Whichever way you start, put the qualification on line three, name the rooms you have held, and send it before the next intake opens.