Inclusion Manager / SENDCo

Employer: The Gordon Children’s Academy

Salary: £25,750 - £39,964 + SEN allowance

Location: Strood, Medway, Kent

Start Date: September 2019

Closing Date of Position: Thursday 4th April 2019

Interviews to be held week commencing Monday 22nd April 2019

An exciting opportunity for a motivated and experienced Inclusion Manager / SENCo to join a large three form entry Ofsted rated ‘Good’ School (February 2017).

Your new role:

• You will promote high standards of teaching and learning, pupil
 development and pupil achievement through effective inclusion for
 pupils with SEN

• You will develop inclusive practice to promote the highest standards of
 pupil achievement for all, and develop effective methods of overcoming
 barriers to learning

• The successful candidate will identify, and monitor the effectiveness of,
 appropriate resources to support the teaching of vulnerable pupils

• You will work alongside experienced and new teams, and will be
supported in the first year from an experienced Inclusion Manager /
SENDCo within the Thinking Schools Academy Trust

• This role will be non-class based, with some cover duties

• You will hold, or be willing to undertake, the National Award for Special
 Educational Needs Co-ordination (if you do not hold this, the Academy
 will pay for you to take this qualification)

The Gordon’s Children’s Academy is a newly federated academy based in the Strood area.  Our Junior and Infant school work closely together to ensure that all staff and children work together as one.  We are lucky enough have a passionate workforce at our school who all care for and respect the fantastic children of our school. We are dedicated to school improvement and we all aim to provide a happy, safe and fun school environment for the children, and our staff too.  We have high expectations of behaviour and we recognise that it is our responsibility to listen to the children verbally or by interpreting their behaviour. 

Pupils of Gordon’s Children’s Academy are proud of their school and have an exciting environment around them to learn in, we encourage use of a creative curriculum and all children enjoy decorating their classroom whilst they focus on a particular topic across the curriculum.  

Our school is set in a large Victorian building, with high ceilings and plenty of space for intervention and breakout sessions. We have three large halls, three playgrounds, we have a fantastic Early Years outdoor play area, a remembrance garden and a small stage built into one of our playgrounds too. Our location provides excellent links to the M2 and A2. 

As part of the Thinking Schools Academy Trust, we benefit from working cohesively as a family of schools for the benefit of our children, and for the adults who work here too. The Trust supports with planning, trips, events, CPD and much more to ensure that all of our teachers are fully supported, enabling them to ensure that they can deliver the best learning that we can offer. 

Our mission is to “transform life chances”; at The Thinking Schools Academy Trust - we believe education has the power to change lives and children only have one chance to get this right. To ensure all our academies focus on our mission school leaders translated our mission to core values that would be demonstrated and evident in all our Academies:

Child First, Aspire, Challenge, Achieve

What you will need to succeed:

• QTS and recent experience of working within a Primary setting

• Dedicated to ensure that all of our children achieve their very best

• Passionate about teaching and learning and improving the life chances
 of our children

• Positive outlook and excellent interpersonal skills

• A proven track record of excellent outcomes and ability to support
  vulnerable pupils

• We want to employ practitioners who have Good or Outstanding
  practice, along with high expectations for yourself and the children

• Aspiring leader of learning

• Happy to grasp exciting opportunities and contribute to the values,
 ethos and the development of our new school

What you will get in return from The Gordon’s Children’s Academy:

• The opportunity to work with happy children who come into school
  ready and excited to learn each morning. 

• Support from a vast network of senior leaders and other teachers
 within the school and our trust, our teachers regularly get the
 opportunity to meet and share best practice with the relevant year
 group teachers of the other 4 Medway Primary Schools within our trust.

• As a teacher at The Thinking Schools Academy Trust you can also
 benefit from an internationally accredited pedagogy approach to
 thinking and learning, which has been proven to enhance classroom
 practice. 

• We can offer excellent CPD opportunities, particularly through the New
 Horizons Teaching School’s alliance, which also offers a great support
 network for our staff. 

Our Primary Academy offers lots of space and intervention and breakout areas.

Teachers who join our happy and friendly academy can also benefit from a discounted price of £10 a month for a membership of the Thinking Fitness gym, which is located on site at New Horizons Children’s Academy in Chatham. 

Our school can also offer you an employee benefit and childcare voucher scheme.

What you need to do now:

If you are interested in working in a large Primary academy, benefiting from a large support network and you are keen to progress your career, then please apply today!

We strongly encourage any teachers who may be interested in working at our school to call our office manager, Kerry Masters, at 03333 602110, to book a no-pressure tour of the school and to meet some of our staff.

We also encourage any early applications and we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if we suitable candidate is found. 

If this position at Gordon’s Children’s Academy is not quite right for you, but you would be interested for any other positions within our Trust please contact our Recruitment team at recruitment@tsatrust.org.uk to ensure that you are added to our talent pool and considered for any future positions.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check