Programme Developer, Little Wandle

Programme Developer

Location: Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised – Battersea, London.

Working pattern: Full time, all year round.

Contract: Permanent support staff contract.

Salary: The salary for this post starts at £73,345.

Little Wandle is the fastest-growing Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) programme in England with over 5,000 member schools. The programme was validated as a complete Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) programme by the DfE in June 2021. It is one of 45 validated programmes and is a market-leading SSP programme. 

Little Wandle is a not-for-profit organisation with a commitment to invest any profits in the development of the programme and in the infrastructure required to ensure high-quality implementation across member schools. We draw on the latest research into how children learn best; how to ensure learning stays in children’s long-term memory and how best to enable children to apply their learning to become highly competent readers. We are committed to ensuring every child has the opportunity to develop strong reading skills and achieve.

Our mission is to enable every child to read regardless of their starting points or learning needs. We strive to support teachers to have the confidence and expertise to teach reading so that all children gain enough fluency and accuracy to access the curriculum in class. Our ambition is for all children to read with understanding and proficiency, and inspire them to develop a genuine love of reading.  

This is an exciting time for Little Wandle! Alongside the ongoing development of our core programme, we are developing a number of additional groundbreaking programmes, including:

·       SEND programme – a programme based on the latest research for children with a SEND need to access learning to read

·       Little Wandle Fluency – a programme that supports the teaching of the Big Cat for Little Wandle Fluency books to build fluency and create confident readers

·       Code – an innovative intervention programme, which has been developed to support Key Stage 3 students to learn and consolidate their knowledge of the alphabetic code

·       Little Wandle Foundations – a programme developed to support children in nursery settings, which aims to get children off to a flying start with phonics

·       Little Wandle Spelling – a programme that supports children to build the alphabetic code and spell confidently

In order for us to achieve everything that we set out to do, we want to add capacity to our team. We are recruiting to a number of roles within our Programme Development Team. Recruitment is also underway for five roles within our CPD and School Improvement Team and two within our Operations Team.

We are seeking an experienced Programme Developer who can further develop our vision and ensure that we continue to create and develop exceptional programme content, resources and guidance. The successful candidate will be a strong leader who will bring to the role expert knowledge of reading and phonics, and use this to shape the Little Wandle programme to ensure it continues to be a market-leading phonics programme. They will also have deep knowledge and understanding of the teaching of reading, be a model of the Little Wandle approach, and be able to exemplify and articulate pedagogy with conviction and enthusiasm.

In this role, you will lead our Programme Development Team and will drive forward the design, delivery and evaluation of content, resources and guidance for the programme (including in the development of new programmes). You will be supported by a wonderful administrative team and the Little Wandle Leadership team, all of whom are passionate about Little Wandle and changing lives by creating readers in our schools. You will work in collaboration with our CPD and School Improvement Team to ensure that we continue to provide our member schools with clear support for their delivery of all aspects of our programmes.

Closing date: 23rd February 2025 at 23:59

CVs are not accepted.

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised is part of Wandle Learning Trust, an exciting and expanding Multi-Academy Trust based in South London. For further information about working for Wandle Learning Trust please visit our website http://wandlelearningtrust.org.uk/work-with-us. 

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check and a Children’s Barred List check. 

Wandle Learning Trust values the diversity of our students and is proud to inspire them through representative teaching and support staff. We aim to select all staff on merit, irrespective of race, sex, disability, age, gender reassignment, sexuality or other protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.  

The Trust welcomes applications from disabled candidates. If you have a disability, please indicate any adjustments we might make when applying in order to ensure that the shortlisting process is fair and meets your needs.