Standards and Excellence Officer

2 posts

37 hours per week

SCC Ref: 2104

A great opportunity to join Suffolk County Council's Standards and Excellence Team as a Standards and Excellence Officer, working from locations across the county, with your office based in Ipswich.

• Are you passionate about the difference education can make to future life chances?
• Do you expect the best from yourself and others?
• Are you committed to championing children and young people, especially the most vulnerable?

Your role

• You will join the Standards and Excellence Team and be at the forefront of managing change through your work with school leaders, including governors.
• Your role will involve working with school leaders from a range of settings including nursery, primary, special, PRUs, secondary and sixth form colleges.
• Your work will be at a strategic level, providing support and challenge for school improvement through high-quality dialogue based on skilled interpretation of a range of information.
• You will support school leaders to make the best choices about effective ways of working and managing resources or projects to achieve the highest standards, as good as the best, for all Suffolk Children and Young People today and for their futures.
• You will be based at Endeavour House, Ipswich, although you will be working at various locations across Suffolk. Frequent and regular travel around the county is a feature of this role. 

Your responsibilities

You will use your well-developed communication skills, emotional intelligence and political awareness whilst:

• communicating and engaging with school leadership teams and governors
• taking a leading role in promoting and positively encouraging best practice, school to school support, and effective ways of working, facilitating improved attainment, progress and inclusion for children and young people
• effectively using robust national and local assessment and other data to monitor and review school level performance to inform timely intervention as well as sharing best practice
• taking a leading role in initiating, developing and encouraging sustainable partnership working through the building of mutually supportive relationships between colleagues and partners
• challenging school leaders to deploy significant delegated resources effectively to ensure the most vulnerable children access high quality educational entitlement.

You will undertake these, and your other responsibilities, in line with the vision and values of the team.

You will need

• a proven track record of achieving sustained school improvement at the middle or senior leader level
• to be able to demonstrate how you would apply your experience to a diverse range of situations, working with school and setting leaders to improve outcomes for all pupils
• to have open, honest, evidence-based conversations with school and setting leaders.

If you think you have what it takes to be successful in this role, even if you don't meet all the requirements, please apply. We'd appreciate the opportunity to consider your application.

The Standards and Excellence Team - Why we do what we do:

We believe in the transformative power of education and the right of every Suffolk child and young person to have an education that meets their current and future needs, to enable them to engage successfully and confidently in the next stage in their learning. You will enable them to make choices about their futures and preparing them for a successful, happy and fulfilled adult life. 

Vision    

The highest standards, as good as the best, for all Suffolk children and young people today and for their futures.

Mission

Working with Suffolk school and setting leaders, we champion Suffolk's Children and Young People. We use evidence to inform evaluation and action to secure continuous improvement in the quality of education so that it meets all pupils' current and future needs.

You will have the privilege of working with school and setting leaders as they strive to continually improve the quality of education for all pupils in their schools.

We will offer you:

• a bespoke induction and an opportunity to further develop your skills within a political environment
• access to a range of internal CPD and career development opportunities, through shadowing and guesting at meetings within the Children and Young People Directorate
• support through regular 1:1 meetings, supervision and team meetings
• experience of working with a wide range of schools and school and setting leaders from a range of backgrounds and contexts, building your knowledge of the wider education system
• experiences that mean you will be well-placed to return to schools or settings in a senior leadership role or to take on other senior roles within the public sector and beyond in the future.

Travelling requirements for your role

Frequent Travel Essential - We positively encourage the use of technology to communicate and engage, but in this role, you will need to travel, so you must either hold a full and current driving licence and have access to personal transport or meet the mobility requirements of the role through other reasonable and suitable means. If you require a reasonable adjustment due to a disability to meet the travel requirements of this role, please speak with the contact detailed below.

For an informal discussion about this role, please contact Nymone DaCosta Jones on 07920 466309 or Nathan Lowe on 07922 381160.

Due to the continued situation relating to COVID-19 and reduced occupancy in our buildings we are starting to explore and trial new hybrid and remote working practices. If you wish to discuss how that might impact your working arrangements, please contact the recruiting manager listed above.

If you are considering applying for a secondment, please read the secondment policy and ensure you have sought permission to apply before completing your application.

To apply and for more information, please follow this link and take note of the application instructions.

Link: https://www.suffolkjobsdirect.org/#en/sites/CX_1004/job/2104

Closing date: 7 January 2022

This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. DBS checks or police vetting will be required for relevant posts.