Learning Support Teacher (part time: 2 days)

The Croft Preparatory School is an independent co-educational day school for children from 3 to 11 years old, situated in a beautiful 30-acre site, in the heart of the Warwickshire countryside, on the outskirts of Stratford upon Avon.

At The Croft we have a ‘small school attitude within a big school’.  Our mission is to provide each child with academic challenge and the opportunity to succeed and develop a sense of self-worth, whilst nurturing a lifelong love of learning in a happy and secure environment.  Here, every child is educated as an individual, and fully supported, to challenge themselves to fulfil their potential, adopting a Growth Mindset along the way.  All of this is achieved through a wonderfully compassionate and motivational Staff, who deliver the highest standards of pastoral care and academic excellence.

The 25-acres and 5 acre wood provides an extensive sports field and multiple outdoor learning areas with Forest School sessions incorporated into the curriculum for all Early Years and some Pre-Prep pupils.  Class sizes are traditionally limited to 20 pupils.

An exciting part time opportunity to ensure that the special educational needs of our children are supported.  We firmly believe that every child brings a unique pattern of strengths and areas of need to our community and the school aims to fulfil the potential of all students.

This is a permanent, part time role from September 2021 onwards.  The successful candidate will be a confident practitioner in both key stage areas of the school.

We have designed our staffing structure to improve educational outcomes for children through a progressive dynamic curriculum, with clear communication lines between home and school, as well as providing improved career progression opportunities for teaching staff. There are five faculties, namely Language, STEM, Humanities, Emotional and Physical Development and Creative Arts.

Interviews: w/c 17 May 2021

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Respond to Concern Forms/discussions with teacher colleagues by conducting the appropriate assessments or lesson observations, discussing with colleagues, making recommendations and communicating these to parents

• Provide advice and support to teaching colleagues and other staff on all SEND matters in line with the SEND Code of Practice (2015)

• Teach lessons to individual pupils or groups, as required

• Oversee the “assess-plan-do-review” cycle and liaise with Class Teachers to monitor progress of pupils (we use IEPs and pupil profiles for this)

• Meet and liaise with parents of SEND pupils, where appropriate

• Assess pupils as required, providing appropriate advice and guidance to colleagues

• Write reports for use internally and externally as required, ensuring that appropriate records are maintained

• Enter wholeheartedly into the life of the School, supporting colleagues and parents for the benefit of our pupils

• To  assess, monitor, review and record each child’s progress using appropriate methods, as required

• To devise IEPs with realistic targets, as required, liaising with colleagues and parents, and involving the children in evaluating their own progress

• To use a variety of teaching methods appropriate to different learning styles, to ensure that each child progresses at a reasonable rate in accordance with their planned programme of work.

• Work with others to plan and co-ordinate work, as appropriate

• Keep up to date with changes and developments in the structure of the curriculum; attend relevant courses and disseminate information to colleagues

• Take part in school events and activities which may take place at weekends or in the evening, as required

• Attend Parents Evenings, meetings, training and external courses, as required

• Contribute to, and be supportive of the school’s development plan and take accountability for identified areas of development

This list of responsibilities is not exhaustive and the employee may be required to perform duties outside of this brief as is operationally required and at the discretion of the Headteacher.

Tour of the School

We would usually welcome applicants to have a tour of the school and grounds as part of the pre application process.  However, as I am sure you will understand, we are being highly vigilant with our COVID-19 procedures and therefore are limiting the number of people on site.  This is for the safety of our whole school community; pupils, staff and parents.  Therefore it is not possible to give every potential applicant a tour and we want to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently.  We are sorry to disappoint you but we hope that you will understand that the current environment prohibits us from offering this to our applicants.

Although it is not the same as looking around the school, please have a look at our website.  Hopefully you will be able to get a feel for our ethos and learning environment.

We understand that the fit of the school has to be right and it is just as much a decision for you to make as it is us.  Therefore if you are successfully shortlisted you will be offered a tour of the school as part of the selection process.