Higher Level Teaching Assistant - SEND

Welcome to Springwell Community College, a member of The Two Counties Trust

There are many reasons to choose our school, and the Trust, as a great place to start or develop your career. We recognise the importance of happy, rewarded, and motivated employees and as such we have developed our HR and Professional Learning strategies to invest in people.

We are fully committed to supporting your career and professional growth through a range of routes both within the school, externally, and across the Trust, offering extensive professional learning for all employees.

We have removed appraisal and appraisal related progression, recognising the limitations and changed the focus from proving to improving through professional growth which is focused on individual ambitions, enabling everyone to get a little bit better all the time.

We are committed to your welfare as an employee and alongside our own wellbeing and workload management arrangements we have signed up to the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter. If you need additional support on a range of matters, an Employee Assistance Programme is available to you from day one of employment.

We offer highly competitive pay, including some points above national rate, an array of employee benefits including extensive high street retail discounts, gym membership and discounted healthcare.

There are an array of centralised systems which are designed to save you time and avoid duplication of effort, these are based on the work of experts across the Trust, meaning that your time can be focused where you need it to be.

We hope you will join us in a great environment where you can work with a team of dedicated and like-minded professionals.

Welcome from the Headteacher

Thank you for your interest in Springwell Community College.  I am pleased that you would like to know more about our college and I hope that this introduction gives you a sense of our values and priorities.

Springwell Community College is an 11-16 secondary school in Staveley, North East Derbyshire with 900 students on roll and 107 employees.  The quality of education has improved considerably in recent years and this improvement was accelerated when the college joined The Two Counties Trust in March 2020.

The college is proud of its reputation as a safe, caring and welcoming place to study.  Every student is known and supported through their five years with us and the college ensures that any needs which would otherwise hinder students from succeeding in the classroom are met.

Our aim at Springwell is a simple one; to deliver a great education to our students.  We expect our students to set ambitious goals, to work hard every day towards these and to be kind to each other, themselves and their community.

We are very proud of our students.  They behave well, wear their uniforms with pride and treat each other with kindness. Students will often tell us that the college has a family feel. They are proud to be Springwell students and enjoy coming to college.  Students work hard and learn well in calm, purposeful classrooms.  As Ofsted reported in 2022, “Pupils know that teachers at this school have high expectations of them".

The college’s anti-bullying programme has been recognised nationally, including by the Diana Award.  Students and employees buy in to the idea of the “Springwell Family” and say that the positive relationships between staff and students are a real strength of the college.

Ofsted reported in 2022 that leaders have ‘made the curriculum more ambitious and ensured their pupils study a range of subjects’. The broad and balanced curriculum is taught by teachers who actively want ‘to help pupils know and remember more.’ Ofsted also praised the college for being a place where students ‘value the positive relationships they have with caring staff’ and are given "clubs and extra-curricular activities which broaden their horizons and develop talents and interests“.

In order to build on the improvements we have secured in recent years we recognise the need to recruit and retain the very best people.  Colleagues report that Springwell is a great place to work.  They ensure strong and very positive relationships with colleagues, students and their families.  Our “people first” approach ensures that all employees receive the high-quality research informed professional learning they need to improve in their roles and to develop their careers.

The college has a specialism in the arts and this enables students to develop their music, dance and drama performance skills and their confidence.  Many of them remain involved in the arts after leaving the college.

A further strength of the college is its modern well-equipped site.  Built in 2011 and maintained exceptionally well since, the college boasts first class specialist facilities in technology, art, hospitality & catering, dance, drama, music and sport.

Springwell is located on the eastern edge of the Peak District, within easy reach of Matlock and Bakewell, and numerous attractive villages, beautiful countryside, and dramatic dales.  It is close to the market town of Chesterfield and to the city of Sheffield.  Proximity to the M1 gives access to a large range of housing which is wide in both style and price.

If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to visit us to see the college in action.  We are always happy to meet prospective candidates to discuss the post and the college in more detail.

Ian Wingfield

The Two Counties Trust

With secondary schools across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, we are an ambitious Trust with a strong reputation. We have nine secondary schools, over 11,000 students and 1,500 employees.

We exist to provide our students with opportunities and experiences to enhance their life choices, making a positive contribution to the world we share. Collectively we serve our communities by educating and preparing our students for the next steps in their lives.

Leaders across the Trust are fully committed to striving for excellence in all that we do. We understand that families trust us each day with their most prized possession i.e their child, and we all are here to serve the students in our care.

Our values are:

Ambition:   We maximise our potential through striving for excellence.

Teamwork: We give 100% effort, displaying kindness and humility for the benefit of all.

Honesty:    We are respectfully open about our successes and areas for growth.

To find out more about us, please go to The Two Counties Trust website.

We look forward to welcoming you to our Trust in the near future

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Please note that it is an offence to apply for this role if you are barred from engaging in Regulated Activity relevant to children.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. Any offer of employment will be subject to the receipt of a satisfactory Enhanced DBS disclosure with a children's barred list check, receipt of references and successful completion of vetting procedures.

In accordance with the statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), an online search will be conducted as part of due diligence on shortlisted candidates to identify incidents or issues that may have happened, and which are publicly available online, which we may need to explore with shortlisted candidates.

The school's child protection policy can be located at: www.Springwell.ttct.co.uk/our-school/policies.

The Trust's policy on the employment of ex-offenders can be located at: www.ttct.co.uk/our-trust/policies.

We are a Disability Confident Employer and as such we are committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce. Candidates with a disability who meet the minimum job criteria will be given an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at interview.