House Parent
DLD College London
Westminster
- Expired
- Job type:
- Full Time, Permanent
- Apply by:
- 28 May 2021
Job overview
The school is looking to invite candidates to apply for a Houseparent role in this unique and exciting central London day and boarding School. As a member of the Boarding Team, you will lead one of our boarding ‘huddles’, looking after the welfare of students within boarding. This requires the postholder to:
• help maintain a boarding ethos and identity
• provide a presence in the boarding areas of the College
• support and embody the values of the College
• be available to support students reactively and proactively
Houseparents are expected to work in a collegiate way with other members of the pastoral team, including the Head of Boarding, Housemaster/mistresses, Head of Wellbeing and other key staff to monitor the boarders, ensuring that they are maximising their potential and develop into caring, thoughtful, confident members of society. Ambitious and confident yet not arrogant, generous in spirit, interesting, interested and able to respect and communicate effectively with people of all backgrounds.
The role is residential and as such a single-bed studio flat on site is linked to the role.
All staff are expected to be active in promoting the College’s aims and supporting an ethos that encourages achievement and high standards for all students.
DLD College London is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our students and Houseparents are expected to undergo advanced safeguarding (Child Protection) training.
Knowledge, skills and traits
• Strong pastoral care
• The ability to keep calm under pressure
• Proven track record of working with young people.
• Excellent communication and IT skills
• Effective judgement and decision-making abilities
• Effective problem-solving skills
• First aid trained
• Calm and diplomatic
• Well-presented and professional attire
• Good health record
• Punctual time-keeper
• Flexibility and willingness to accept additional responsibilities
• Good interpersonal skills
• Team player, but also able to work autonomously
• Ability to use initiative
• Good English language written and verbal skills
Line management
Houseparents are line managed by the Head of Boarding.
Key qualities
• Experience of working within a boarding or residential environment
• Working knowledge of Child Protection (Safeguarding), the National Minimum Standards for Boarding and ISI regulations and guidelines
• Certified at the enhanced DBS level (check undertaken prior to employment)
• High quality written and verbal communication skills, including public speaking
• Strong organisational skills, including use of educational MIS
• Experience of effectively managing teams
Desirable
• Level 3 Safeguarding Trained
• BSA Accredited Boarding Practitioner Level 2
• BSA Advanced Certificate
• Undertaken Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) training
• Mental Health First Aid Youth champion
• Experience or qualification in coaching
• Experience of working in a boarding school context
• Current First Aid certificate (Training to be provided)
General responsibilities
• To aim at providing “the gold standard experience” for all students
• To build and maintain positive and constructive relationships with students, in order to provide them with the best possible care and support.
• To play an active role in ensuring the students welfare and personal development, building and maintaining strong relationships with parents, guardians and agents
• To promote and safeguard the welfare of young people and young persons by adhering to and ensuring compliance with the School’s Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy at all times.
Role specific
• To actively promote the key values of the school: respect; tolerance and kindness
• To work collaboratively as part of the boarding team and the wider college body.
• To work according to the boarding house rota including a combination of days, weekends and nights as required.
• To implement college policies including those pertaining to Safeguarding (Child Protection) & behaviour.
• To ensure the highest standards of supervision, support and care for boarders.
• To work within and to apply the National Minimum Standards (NMS) for Boarding together with ISI guidance.
• Provide medical assistance for minor illnesses & first aid, maintain accurate medical records for students and liaise with the Nurse and local medical services where necessary
• Maintain student files to a high degree of accuracy including records of behaviour, sanctions, rewards, medical history, medical assistance given, etc.
• Record any significant instances of sanctions.
We reserve the right to withdraw the advert before the closing date.
Attached documents
About DLD College London
About DLD College London
DLD College London, affectionately known as DLD, is a multi-award-winning boarding and day school in the heart of London opposite the Houses of Parliament and close to Waterloo and South Bank. Its mission is to ‘Develop the next generation of Leaders to take their place in a challenging and Diverse world’; from now on, that is what DLD now means to us – Development, Leadership, and Diversity.
DLD was founded in 1931 by Davies, Laing & Dick to provide tutoring for Oxbridge and the Colonial Service entrance exams. After the Second World War, the college specialised in ‘A’ and ‘O’ Level teaching. Over some fifty years, there has been a gradual transformation so that DLD now is a school for 13-19 year-olds providing full-time education for some four hundred children.
Our pupils come to us from all over the world. They are attracted by our enviable location, wide range of subjects, high academic achievement, outstanding pastoral care and our award-winning boarding in the heart of London. Our focus is first and foremost on the wellbeing of our students (and staff) and removing any barriers to learning, which will help them be happy and achieve their potential both in and out of the classroom.
In September 2015, DLD College London relocated to brand new, purpose-built premises by Waterloo station, overlooking Westminster and the River Thames. It focuses on each student as an individual, offering each child the best teaching and educational resources. It aims to build confidence, enabling them to accessvarious degree courses at top universities in the UK and worldwide. DLD is a school noted for its friendliness, warmth and informality – our award-winning Wellbeing Centre is the beating heart of the school.
As part of the Abbey DLD Group of Colleges, DLD aims to maintain a ‘gold standard’ of educational quality. Our pupils follow a number of academic pathways, from our ground-breaking Year 9 curriculum, GCSEs and A Levels, to BTECs and our popular International Foundation Programmes (IFP). Classes are small, enabling students and teachers to focus on the most effective ways of learning. We stretch and challenge our students, motivating them and raising their expectations of themselves. Moreover, our learning community is supported by e-learning platforms and a desire to develop core skills necessary for the future of work.
Theschool offers superb, modern teaching facilities and resources in one of London’s safest and most accessible areas, a stone’s throw from Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. While the school is strong in all academic areas, our creative arts continue to flourish, and our theatre, art and design, music and photography studios are scintillating and inspiring places. Our boarding provides some 250 rooms in our purpose-built boarding house directly above our school premises.
DLD recently won the Special Judges’ Independent School of the Year Award and the ‘Boarding School of the Year’ Award in 2020 and again in 2023. DLD has also recently won the Independent Schools’ Association award for ‘Innovation in Pupil Voice’ and Talk Education’s ‘Innovation in Education’ in 2023. It was one of the finalists in the 2020 TES Awards for Boarding School of the Year and has been listed in the prestigious Tatler’s Schools guide in 2022, 2023 and 2024. In addition, DLD is the only school in the UK to receive the Gold Award for ‘Mental Health in Boarding’ from the Carnegie School of Education.
DLD is a thriving boarding and day school with an enviable range of co-curricular activities, including sporting, cultural and social opportunities using ‘London as its Classroom’. The Good School’s Guide recently said, “It is one of the most unique and exciting schools in Britain: urban, modern, forward-looking and undeniably cool”.
We look forward to welcoming you to DLD College London soon.
Child Protection
Each college’s Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy can be accessed the colleges website Policies | Independent College, London | DLD College London
Checks and Training
• Enhanced DBS checks to ascertain your suitability to work with children will be carried out. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and therefore all convictions, cautions and bindovers, including those regarded as ‘spent’ must be declared.
• Online searches will be carried out on candidates for any unsuitable content by or about candidates.
• Two written & verbal references from previous employers and a personal reference will be sought. Your referees will be asked about your suitability to work with children and whether you know of any disciplinary offences relating to children or young persons and whether you have been the subject of any child protection allegations or concerns and if so the outcome of any enquiry or disciplinary procedure.
• Your full employment history will be checked, any significant gaps will require explanation and proof of any relevant qualifications will need to be provided.
• You will be required to complete Child Protection Training via e-learning prior to commencing employment.
• Pre-employment health screening will be carried out.
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