Behaviour Assistant

February 2025

Welcome from the Chief Executive Officer  

Thank you for your interest in joining the team at Sawston Village College, part of Anglian Learning.

We are an ambitious, outward looking school trust consisting of six secondary schools and ten primary schools, the latest to join our community being the new Wimbish Primary Academy in September 2023. While each of our academies retains very clearly their own identity and ethos, we are collectively passionate in our belief that all young people deserve to have access to an outstanding education, and which crucially enables them to thrive in the local, national, and global communities in which they live.

Anglian Learning has been founded on strong collaborative and trusting relationships, where everybody is committed to sharing their successes, but equally open to innovative ideas and alternative perspectives. We also passionately believe that our most important resource is our people, and if you apply and are successful in your application, we promise to develop and support you in your career, as well as providing a caring, friendly environment in which to work.

For an informal discussion regarding this role, please contact HR team via email at recruitment@sawstonvc.org.

I hope that you find the following information useful. If you wish to visit our school or make an application for this vacancy, please see the contact information within.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Jonathan Culpin

Chief Executive Officer

Anglian Learning

Our mission is to build an innovative partnership of academies that excites, inspires, and empowers our people – pupils, staff, and the community in which we work – to be the very best they can be, to have the confidence to think creatively, and embrace new challenges. Through this we will seek to support and inspire our young people to be dynamic learners who will live, grow and thrive in the local, national and global community in which they live and will work.

Currently, the Trust educates more than 8000 pupils and employs over 1000 members of staff in 16 schools across three counties, with a 17th school due to open in the near future. Several of our schools provide adult education opportunities, reflecting our commitment to lifelong learning and we also operate our own sports centres, under the banner of Anglian Leisure.

We are recent winners of the NGA Outstanding Governance Award; have a unique partnership with Arts Council England, reflecting our commitment to arts education, and are one of the eight National Creativity Collaborative pilot hubs. We are strategic partners in the local teaching school hub, working closely with other trusts to provide professional qualifications in addition to our own very extensive professional learning programmes.

We provide school improvement support to our schools, alongside finance, human resources, ICT, and estates support. Many of our leaders, teachers, and professional services staff are involved in networks across the Trust to share best practice and build skills and knowledge, with some taking on cross-trust leadership positions.

Our most recent staff survey indicated that a high proportion of staff:

Feel as though they belong within Anglian Learning

Agree that they are provided with relevant opportunities for professional development

Feel that there is a positive culture of psychological safety within their school

Have high levels of job satisfaction and happiness at work

Would recommend our organisation as a great place to work

Almost all staff who responded to the survey feel part a team within their school and can rely on colleagues for support when needed.

Sawston Village College

Thank you very much for your interest in a position at Sawston Village College. We sincerely hope that the information below and enclosed within this pack will encourage you to apply to our friendly and vibrant school.

We are a very welcoming and highly successful school, one in which all staff are valued, and all contribute to our strong caring ethos. The College is named the State 11-16 Secondary School of the Year in The Sunday Times Parent Power list (The Sunday Times, 8 December 2024). Pupils are at the centre of all that we do but we can only succeed when all professionals work together, collaboratively and supportively, to ensure a positive, safe and calm learning environment in which all pupils can thrive. We ensure our staff have the resources, development and opportunities to fulfil their roles and responsibilities. Staff wellbeing is vital to our success, and we consider workload and the working environment very carefully. We want staff to feel happy, secure and enjoy their work.

Sawston Village College is an inclusive, comprehensive 11-16 academy, set on a picturesque open campus, a few miles south of the culturally iconic and aspirational city of Cambridge. It was the first purpose-built Village College in England, and we are proud of the fact that it is still heralded as a model for community education and remains true to Henry Morris’ founding principles. Many members of the local community visit each week to participate in learning, sporting or leisure activities. We are proud to be a member of Anglian Learning, a family of like-minded schools serving over 8000 pupils from ages 3-19 in this region.

Our focus is the achievement and wellbeing of our 1180 pupils within a school culture based on community, ambition, respect and endeavour. In 2024, the College achieved above national averages at all levels including 73% gaining grade 5+ in English and Maths, 47% at grade 7 or above across all subjects and a very positive P8 score. Pupils secure their preferred post-16 pathway having achieved grades significantly well above average. Academic success, of course, is only one measure and, as an Artsmark Platinum accredited school, we are equally proud of our extensive extra-curricular offer as well as our aim to help all pupils leave with confidence, enriched experiences and hope for the future. Our code of conduct demands that our pupils also understand and appreciate the need for kindness, humility, politeness and good grace.

This success is based upon the following key principles. Firstly, a firm commitment to the belief that all pupils, regardless of ability or background, are able to achieve their potential and have the best opportunities to succeed in education, employment and life. Secondly, a determination to recruit, develop and retain the very best staff, by providing varied and exciting personalised opportunities for professional development, and a caring, supportive environment with an emphasis on teamwork, collaboration and staff well-being. Thirdly, a firm conviction that teaching and learning can only flourish where pupils are well behaved and respectful. Therefore, we have very high expectations and set exacting standards enabling staff and pupils to feel safe and happy. We provide outstanding pastoral care of our young people. Each pupil is a member of a vertical tutor group and a House. Non-teaching pastoral leads work very closely with our inclusion team, safeguarding team and SLT, to ensure that all pupils are known, valued, cared for and encouraged to do and be the best they can. We pride ourselves on the professionalism of our staff and our commitment to ethical leadership; as role models for the young, how we behave as leaders is as important as what we do.

Sawston Village College, as noted by our recent Ofsted report in May 2023, is a highly professional and exceptionally friendly, caring and enjoyable place in which to work and teach. Our staff surveys are highly positive and reflect the care and attention we pay to looking after staff and making the College the success it is for staff and pupils alike. During these turbulent times, we are keen to recruit people with resilience, adaptability and optimism for a better future. Above all, we are looking for staff who take pride in their work, enjoy the company of children and can harness the power of education to transform lives and inspire our future generation.

Thank you, in anticipation, for the time you will give to your application.

Mr J Russell

Principal