SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator)

About the role:  The Leigh UTC and Inspiration Academy has a rare and exciting opportunity for a SENCO to join our academy family for September 2019 and make a huge contribution to transforming the learning and lives of our students.  This is a pivotal leadership role within our academy with responsibility for leading, developing and supporting effective practice for students with SEND.  The SENCO is an integral role with whole-school leadership across the academy, working closely with the Head of College and Directors of Learning. The SENCO will lead a team of dedicated staff in establishing and implementing a range of support and interventions for our SEND students across the academy.  We offer you the chance to join a very well-established and highly skilled leadership team within our academy, support with your own professional development and engaging children who are keen to learn!  This role with suit an experienced SENCO looking for a new adventure and to enhance their career by working in our unique setting, or an experienced teacher currently completing the National SENCO Award with previous leadership experience.  

As an academy who have fully adopted the International Baccalaureate programme, the IB Continuum Guidelines are particularly important to us at The Leigh UTC with a view to “developing a positive classroom climate conducive to supporting the learning of all students requires that students are appropriately challenged by their learning, that expectations of them are high but realistic, where students belong to the community and feel cared for, trusted, understood, valued and safe. Students need to be listened to, have their opinions sought, and be provided with opportunities to succeed. It is important that all students are included in decisions about their learning, have the opportunity to develop the attributes of the learner profile and to understand themselves as learners.”

Our ideal candidate will work synonymously with this approach to SEND. 

Please note that this post has a small teaching commitment, approx. 0.4fte based on your subject specialism, and the successful candidate would be expected to model and advise on outstanding classroom practice particularly in terms of inclusion.  

What are we looking for in you?  To be successful you need to be a qualified teacher with experience of SEN related responsibilities, policy and practice.  The successful candidate will be passionate about inclusion, a champion for all students with SEND and an advocate for some of our most vulnerable.  Whether you are at the start of your SENCO career or have a wealth of experience, we are interested in talking with you about how you will help us to create outstanding inclusive provision and life-changing opportunities and outcomes for our students. As a Trust we feel it is important to hire for the right attitude which is why we look for teachers that are enthusiastic, focused and resilient to the day to day pressures that teaching brings.

Our ideal candidate will;

- align with and actively promote our shared values and vision

- have the highest of expectations and aspirations for themselves and others

- consistently strive for excellence in order to ensure that all students are challenged to be the very best they can be

- lead, motivate and inspire others within a culture of respect, dignity and celebration

- be an innovative, creative and strategic thinker

- demonstrate a proactive and collaborative approach to working with others

- be highly efficient and effective

- use data to identify and track the progress of vulnerable groups/students

- have excellent leadership and management skills

- have the knowledge, skills and commitment to transform the lives of our students

Responsibilities will include;

- taking a strategic overview of the curriculum design and implementation for students with SEND

- ensuring the needs of all students with SEND are met and that they are supported to make good progress

- advising, supporting and training class teachers, learning support assistants and mentors, enabling them to offer high quality provision to SEND students

- co-ordinating the academy’s responsibilities during the statutory assessment process, with a view to ensuring that students with a high level of need obtain an EHCP

- advising and supporting the parents/carers of students on our SEND register

Working with us: Having opened in September 2014 with state-of-the-art facilities originally for Key Stage 4 and 5, The Leigh UTC provides an exciting, innovative, business-led, problem-solving curriculum, enabling students to achieve relevant work-related qualifications and transferable skills for future training or employment. The most unique feature of The Leigh UTC is its business ethos that are emphasised by our students' behaviours and supported by our sponsors.

In September 2017, following the request of the Department for Education due to our continued success, The Leigh UTC marked history by expanding its student intake to incorporate Key Stage 3 – the first UTC in the UK to do this.  Furthermore, being the first UTC to have IB world schools status has enabled us to develop strong links in Germany and Qatar.  Having IB status will enable us to further develop the mid years programme (MYP) for our Key Stage 3 students and thus providing a joined up pathway from ages 11 to 19. 

Recent Ofsted success!  We have recently been judged as Good with Outstanding Leadership in our first inspection since opening.  Our key successes and features that our successful candidate can be part of are as follows; 

- The promotion of pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding

- Pupils, including the disadvantaged and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, catch upprevious underachievement and make strong and often rapid progress in a range of subjects and disciplines

- Application to learning is often exemplary

- The Leigh UTC makes a real difference for its pupils andsurrounding area. Pupils become motivated to find and follow their passions. They leave well equipped to succeed in engineering and related technical and design careers and contribute to the economy.

- The Principal, with his leaders and staff team, model a high-quality working environment. This rubs off on pupils, who value the supportive ethos, work-like atmosphere.from

Working for Leigh Academies Trust:  As of 1st January 2019, our Trust is comprised of 23 geographically organised academies (11 secondaries, 11 primaries and 1 special) educating over 15,000 students, and employing over 2,500 talented staff.  We also have three further academies in development phase, due to open in September 2020. 

Diversity at our core:  As a Trust, we are passionate about diversity and recognise that as individuals we all bring something unique to the role regardless of age, gender, race, beliefs or disabilities which is why we treat all of our people equally, without compromise.

The academy is committed to safeguarding children and successful candidates will be subject to an Enhanced DBS check.  Our commitment to safeguarding is underpinned by robust processes and checks which are in place across the Trust.