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Learning and Progress Assistant

Heanor Gate Spencer Academy

Derbyshire

  • £21,290 - £22,670 per year
  • Expired
Salary:
NJC 3-7 (£21,290-£22,670 per annum)
Job type:
Full Time, Permanent
Start date:
06 October 2025
Apply by:
1 September 2025

Job overview

Learning and Progress Assistant
Full Time, Permanent
NJC 3-7 (£21,290-£22,670 per annum)


We are looking to appoint an enthusiastic, committed and reliable individual to work within our successful, forward thinking and highly skilled Inclusion & Well-being team. The role will involve working with a range of students including those with SEND or who may have arrived at secondary school with lower than expected levels of learning.

We are looking to appoint an enthusiastic, committed and reliable individual to work within a successful, forward thinking Inclusion and Well-being Team. The role will involve working with a range of students including those with SEND or who may have arrived at secondary school with lower than expected levels of learning.
The main responsibilities of the successful candidate will include:

  • Assisting the class teacher in the planning of teaching and learning activities.
  • Providing support to individuals and groups on teacher planned activities.
  • Contributing to the implementation of an effective behaviour management strategy.
  • Developing positive relationships with parents, carers and families by taking a partnership approach, maintaining and sharing accurate information where appropriate.
  • Contributing to the health and well-being of pupils through the support of safeguarding for pupils by ensuring a safe environment, and following policies & procedures at all times.
  • Working alongside the class teacher to ensure that learning resources and materials are ready for use in activities whilst recognising and minimising potential hazards and making adjustments where necessary.
  • Supporting pupils in activities to develop their literacy and numeracy skills by having an awareness of individual needs, learning targets, and the relevant support required to assist pupils’ development, offering encouragement and feedback where appropriate.
The successful candidate will be an enthusiastic individual who shares our ethos of supporting all learners to achieve their full potential and raises aspiration. A high level of competency is essential. The candidate will be required to have previous experience of supporting students with SEND within education.

Heanor Gate Spencer Academy is an ‘Outstanding’ secondary school and sixth form (Ofsted, June 2023) which is oversubscribed in Year 7 for the second successive year. We are extremely proud of our inspection report which is a testament to 7 years of school improvement. It states that ”teachers are subject experts”, “pupils are ambitious about their future”, “classrooms are calm places, where pupils focus on their learning” and “leaders are relentless in their desire to provide the absolute best education for all pupils and to serve the local community”. 

Over the past 8 years we have developed an inclusive, disciplined culture which has culminated in a student body full of aspiration, commitment and success. The staff buy into #TeamHeanor and this ethos of collegiality, team values and moral compass is what makes the unique working environment at Heanor Gate so enjoyable and fulfilling.

As well as the staff being united by the concept of #TeamHeanor, to ensure that our students succeed at school and in life, all students work towards demonstrating the following values in all aspects of school life:
  • Respect
  • Pride
  • Unity
  • Resilience
  • Integrity
  • Organisation
Through an ethos of ‘Aspire, Learn and Achieve’, we believe that all of our students will achieve their very best educational outcomes. This ethos is at the heart of everything that we do. We want our students to believe that they can achieve whatever they want to with hard work, resilience and self-motivation.
We deliver a challenging yet inspiring curriculum and an unrivalled level of academic and pastoral support, and believe that what we offer students will support them to achieve success in the classroom and beyond; academically, personally and socially. Through our curriculum and extra-curricular offer, we aim to instil students with a love of learning as well as helping them to become responsible, independent members of the community who go on to a range of destinations including Russell Group universities, higher level apprenticeship and local industry.

We have a strong culture of professional development for teachers and support staff at all stages of their careers. Our ECT development plan is extensive with bespoke in-house training, closely aligned with the Spencer Academies Trust ECT programme. For experienced staff, our in-house CPD programme is bespoke to need. All of this is complemented by access to opportunities to pursue NPQ qualifications, alongside CPD provided by Spencer Alliance for Leadership and Teaching. We also have a close working partnership with the Chartered College of Teaching, providing routes into obtaining Chartered status.

Alongside the wealth of CPD opportunities, we also recognise the importance of staff wellbeing. We offer a broad wellbeing package ranging from free access to our on-site gym, staff support groups and weekly wellbeing breakfast.

Spencer Academies Trust is an educational charity, Multi-Academy Trust and Sponsor of Academies. We have approaching 18000 children and young people in our academies and employ more than 2800 teachers, leaders and educational support professionals across the East Midlands. We aspire to be a leading regional high performing Trust, with a national reputation for excellence.

We currently have 18 primary academies, 8 secondary academies and one primary aged special school in our family of schools. All of our schools benefit from the collaboration and added value that being a member of our Trust offers, and share our values and beliefs. Spencer Trust academies share an ambition to deliver results that compete with the very highest performing schools in the country and deliver a curriculum for students that is underpinned by breadth, opportunity and quality: one that seeks to give young people the opportunity to develop into well rounded global citizens that believe they can influence positive change in the world.

Mission
Our Mission is to deliver the best possible outcomes for children and young people.

Vision
Spencer Academies Trust is an exceptional Trust, providing an outstanding education for local children.

We Believe:
  • All children have a right to a quality education regardless of background or ability, and have an entitlement to the opportunity of a secure progression route in their learning and development.
  • Schools are stronger when they work in collaboration with each other, operate within a ‘family’ and are open to a true sense of partnership.
  • We grow the effectiveness and sustainability of our schools by developing the people within them, and that through shared and equitable responsibility for quality and outcomes; we achieve more.
Applicants would be expected to share the Trust’s high aspirations and expectations for pupils and staff.

If you would like to discuss the role, or have any queries, please contact Megan Britton (Assistant Principal & SENCO) at mbritton@heanorgatespencer.org.uk or on 01773716396

The Spencer Academies Trust Safer recruitment policy requires applications for this post must be submitted through our recruitment portal. CV’s cannot be accepted. We are also required to request references prior to interview.

Closing date for applications - Wednesday 3 September 2025
Interviews will take place the week beginning Monday 8 September 2025

Early application is strongly encouraged as we reserve the right to interview and close the advert ahead of the closing date.

How to Apply
Applications are submitted through our Every Candidate Portal. If you are a new user to our portal, you can click on ‘Register’ to complete your candidate profile. If you already have a candidate profile with us, click on ‘Sign In’. Both of these routes allow you to feed your candidate information into any of our vacancies and view the status of your application.


We have added a video to help guide you through our portal, please visit https://vimeo.com/737845492/c1b8e43656

Spencer Academies Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all our children and young people. Therefore, we expect everyone to share this commitment. All appointments are subject to satisfactory pre- employment checks, including a satisfactory Enhanced criminal records with Barred List Check through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and the completion of Level 2 Safeguarding training. It is an offence to apply for the role if an applicant is barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children (where the role involves this type of regulated activity).

The Trust and its member academies are committed to promoting equality and diversity in both employment and education provision. We aim to ensure that students, parents, governors, employees, contractors, partners, clients and other stakeholders within the Trust community are treated fairly, and with dignity and respect regardless of Protected Characteristics.

Spencer Academies Trust is a Disability Confident Committed Employer





























Attached documents

About Heanor Gate Spencer Academy

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+44 1773 716396

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Heanor is a small town, situated on the edge of the Peak District National Park and the Derwent Valley World Heritage site within easy reach of Derby, Nottingham and the M1. The school is located in the south-west of the town and its catchment area includes most of Heanor and nearby Loscoe, along with the rural parishes of Smalley, Shipley, Horsley Woodhouse and Morley. The school is popular, with a number of our students coming from outside the catchment area.

At Heanor Gate Spencer Academy, we are very proud of our strong reputation in the community. We will endeavour to continually improve in all aspects of the education we provide and become an outstanding school that everyone can be proud of. Our new school ethos of ‘Aspire, Learn and Achieve’ will permeate throughout everything we do and is a shared vision that every member of the school community can buy into. We will insist on the very highest standards for all of the students in our care.

Our aims for the school are to DEVELOP ALL LEARNERS TO ACHIEVE THEIR FULL POTENTIAL and to CREATE A CULTURE OF ASPIRATION. This is what we all firmly believe in and strive to achieve at all times.

Heanor Gate Spencer Academy has a genuinely comprehensive intake. The eclectic mix of backgrounds makes for a lively, friendly and engaging atmosphere. Parents, visitors, supply teachers and student teachers regularly comment on the calm, purposeful and welcoming environment. Staff and students enjoy working here and as a consequence low staff turnover and a low permanent exclusion rate are defining features of the school.

Teaching and learning is fundamental to our success. We aim to offer the highest quality opportunities for teaching and learning and to develop our staff as outstanding practitioners. We have a clear structure to support teaching and learning in school and robust systems of monitoring and reviewing the success of each curriculum team.

As one of the first converter Academies in the country, a Leading Edge and a co-founder of Challenge Partners we are at the forefront of innovation, individualised learning and teaching excellence. Our designations as an approved Academy Sponsor, National Support School, Teaching School and licensee of the National College’s leadership development programmes reflects the extent of our contribution to system-wide improvement and builds on our excellent reputation for the training and development of teachers and leaders.

A key component of our everyday work is, of course, ensuring that high quality learning is experienced every day within the school; by every student, in every subject and in every lesson. Alongside this we recognise that all students have a range of social, emotional and personal needs that may require support. To this end, Heanor Gate School also gives great weight to the importance of an effective induction programme and on-going guidance for each student in order to try to ensure that each young person is both happy and successful with an Achievement team and tutors that will challenge and support every student to reach their potential.

We value our staff as an essential part of our success and are committed therefore to providing outstanding opportunities for staff development, not only through high quality Inset days, but also within curriculum and pastoral teams and through the Teaching and Learning Coaching Team. All middle and senior leaders are offered the opportunity to take part in NCSL initiatives. There is a dedicated programme of support and continuing professional development for NQTs. In addition, we work in partnership with a number of local universities for Initial Teacher Training and are committed to supporting these beginning teachers in their career.

The success of any school is of course dependent on the contribution made by everyone connected with the school.  We are very lucky to have staff who are hard working, committed and willing to go that extra mile, parents who are very supportive and work with the school to ensure their children strive to achieve their best, governors who have the best interests of the school at heart and are actively involved with the school and students who are proud of the school. All of these are a major factor in the school’s success.

We are looking to appoint a talented, committed and hard-working individual who will make a difference to the lives of young people. You will be expected to get involved in all aspects of school life and establish yourself as a valued colleague in the school community.  If you are up to the challenge then we look forward to receiving your application.

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Applications closed