What are the responsibilities and job description for the Campus Early School - Early Childhood Teacher position at Carolina Friends School?
Start Date: August, 2025
The Opportunity:
The Campus Early School is seeking a full-time classroom co-teacher to join our staff for the 2025-2026 school year. This position will include working with four other in-house teachers, 20 children, their families, and the entire CFS school community. This teaching position will be primarily responsible for the five and young six-year-old children in our multi-age unit, which includes children three through six years of age.
In our early childhood unit of Carolina Friends School, we are first and foremost driven by our school’s Quaker mission and philosophy. Staff members are co-collaborators in developing and implementing an integrated, emergent curriculum. Our curriculum is driven by a constructivist approach, manifesting our belief that children construct their own knowledge through active play. Teachers understand the value of a strong partnership with families and work daily to enhance these partnerships with frequent communication and a visible presence. As a strong teaching team, we are committed to creating a low-stress, nurturing, joyful, safe, and healthy learning environment for our youngest students.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Planning and implementing an integrated, emergent curriculum
- Helping to build and nurture community among families, teachers, and the wider CFS community
- Observing, assessing, and documenting the children and their work
- Maintaining a professional relationship and effectively communicating with parents/guardians and other teachers
- Working collaboratively with teaching staff, which includes the Head Teacher
- Researching best practices for early childhood programs
- Attending continuing educational opportunities throughout the school year
- Creating and maintaining aesthetically pleasing and organized indoor and outdoor classroom environments
- Participate in at least one all-school committee after the first of employment and, for the first two years of employment, an extensive staff orientation
- Participate in the Campus Early School weekly staff meetings, and all other all-school professional development days
Traits and Requirements:
- Degree in Early Childhood Education/Child Development or a combination of relevant education/experience
- In-depth experience as an early childhood educator with both preschool and kindergarten-aged children
- A respect and love of young children, with a view of children as being competent and capable
- A commitment to support an early childhood program that embraces a culturally responsive, anti-bias curriculum that is developmentally appropriate for young children
- Keen observational skills and experience in planning for an integrated, emergent curriculum
- A deep commitment and understanding of a variety of early childhood educational theories, practices, and approaches, especially the research/practices from the High Scope Educational Research Foundation, Reggio Emilia, investigative/project-based, along with current best practices in early childhood education
- Demonstrated interest in and affinity for Quaker philosophy, the School’s mission, and a strong connection with the spirituality of life
- Demonstrated commitment to understanding how power and inequality, influenced by race, class, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence, and differing physical abilities, impact our students, families and colleagues
- An understanding of the role that stillness, silence, solitude, and living mindfully holds in oneself and all members of our community
- A deep commitment and understanding of a team approach to teaching and learning
- An effective spoken and written communicator
- Strong intra/interpersonal skills, which include the desire for continual professional growth, possessing the ability to give and receive constructive feedback within an atmosphere of trust, support and transparency with one’s colleagues, leaning on a team approach
- Strong organizational time management skills and a working knowledge of technology
- At home with the outdoors and all that nature provides in a learning environment
- Must be energetic, creative, and flexible, with a commitment to co-creating a positive, engaging, nurturing, joyful classroom environment for all with a sense of humor
- Certification in Infant/Child CPR/AED, Basic First Aid
Carolina Friends School’s Early School
As early childhood educators, we strive to align our thinking and teaching with a research-based understanding of how children learn and grow. We foster social-emotional development and healthy relationships by knowing each student well and attending carefully to their needs and interests: we enable meaningful inquiry through class projects and experiences in the natural world; we build community through collaborative work and shared decision-making; and we empower student autonomy through structured and unstructured play to enable the development of self-esteem, creativity, problem-solving, and cognitive development. Ours is a pedagogy of joy, in a culture of belonging and perpetual learning.
How to Apply:
Interested candidates should submit, when possible in one complete PDF file, the following:
- Cover Letter
- Resume
- Statement of Educational Philosophy
- List of three professional references and their contact information
Please compile all these documents into one complete packet and submit to jobopenings@cfsnc.org. Please indicate Campus Early School - Early Childhood Teacher in the email subject line.
Review of resumes will begin immediately and continue through Friday, March 21, 2025. CFS reserves the right to close the recruitment at any time. Candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as all materials can be compiled.
APPLICANTS: Please review the Who We Are, Commitment to Diversity and Inclusivity, and Important Information for All Applicants sections on the CFS Employment Opportunities page.
Carolina Friends School actively strives to be a community of staff, students and families of diverse backgrounds. CFS does not discriminate based on age, race, color, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, socio-economic background, family structure, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, or military service in the administration of its policies and programs.
Candidates from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.