Summary

If you want to be part of a team who feels passionate about providing a welcoming, engaging, and attractive garden for children and their families to visit, this role would be perfect for you. 

This role includes regular weekend and school holiday working. 

What it's like to work here

The Children’s Country House at Sudbury will be a brand-new visitor offer for children and families, offering a playful heritage day out. Opening early in 2022, we’re recruiting a team to help us reimagine, reinvent and reinvigorate our programme, approach and relationship with visitors. Over the past few years, Sudbury’s family audience has grown substantially, and children are vitally important to our future. We’ve been working alongside children to design a heritage attraction that works for them and makes them feel engaged and empowered. Every member of our team will be focused on the key goal of engaging children with heritage and making our work as playful, accessible and inclusive as possible. We have the highest standards of conservation and care for our collections and buildings and we carry out this purpose with and for the children who visit us. Our offer is unique, deeply authentic and profoundly impactful as is the team that work here. 

What you'll be doing

You’ll assist with day-to-day maintenance and development of the outdoor spaces at The Children’s Country House. You’ll continually develop your skills and knowledge and help ensure that the highest standards of horticulture are met alongside our nature and conservation principles.

You’ll take ownership of small projects and activities, which will be crucial in supporting the Children’s Country House Garden project. The gardens team will play a crucial visitor-facing role for children to engage with, by delivering practical day-to-day maintenance work alongside children, as well as planned fun and inspiring activities.

Please read the role profile attached to this advert. 

Who we're looking for

To be successful you should be able to demonstrate the below:  

• RHS Level 2 or equivalent
• A good level of practical experience
• Confidence to engage with children during gardening tasks and planned activities 
• Flexible approach to working, showing an understanding of children’s needs
• Competence with relevant machinery use and maintenance 
• Knowledge of Health and Safety and compliance requirements 
• Ability to work well independently/as a team/supervising a small team

The package

The National Trust has the motto ‘For everyone, for ever’ at its heart. We’re working hard to create an inclusive culture, where everyone feels they belong. It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too.

Wherever you’re from, and whatever your background, we want to hear from you – and it doesn’t matter if you’re jam first, cream first, or even if you don’t like scones at all. Everyone is welcome.

Benefits for working at the National Trust include:

• Flexible working whenever possible
• Free parking at most locations
• Free entry to our properties for you, a guest and your children (under 18)
• Substantial pension scheme of up to 10% basic salary