Are you passionate about ensuring children from all backgrounds have a fair chance to reach their full potential?
Are you committed to removing barriers to learning and supporting children and young people from all backgrounds to make excellent progress?
Can you communicate sensitively with a wide range of people?
Do you have great attention to detail?
If so, a role in the Virtual School as an Education Support Worker, may be of interest to you!
Interviews to be held: To be confirmed
There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Sam Wilson (Head of the Virtual School) on 07787697696 or email
[email protected].
About the role
As an Education Support Worker, you will be joining a supportive team who support a range of children and young people in their school, college or other alternative provision. The Education Support Worker supports the work of Virtual School Advisers and the Virtual School Head Teacher, schools, social workers, carers and other professionals.
You will ensure each child or young person is provided with an educational placement in a timely manner, you will then monitor the placement via the school, looking at progress; educational targets; attendance and any support requirements.
You will hold a caseload of children and young people based in different educational settings across a range of phases. As you will be required to manage the child’s needs on a day-to-day basis it will be necessary to be well organised and able to prioritise individual requirements as they arise. You may be required to travel throughout Brighton & Hove to visit educational settings.
You will facilitate and support personal education plans which are held three times each year; this is a regular opportunity for the school; social workers; carers and educational professionals to discuss how the young person is progressing; pick up any issues and work out possible solutions; help to set targets and agree how Pupil Premium can be used to meet individual needs.
You will have a detailed knowledge of effective interventions that impact on children’s progress; an excellent understanding of teacher assessment and the importance of setting appropriate attainment targets to ensure good progress, as well as an ability to effectively track outcomes. Having previously worked within an educational setting is recommended.
An ability to lead and promote open discussion and to develop shared ownership and commitment to change is required. You will be required to deal sensitively with people, resolve conflict; and to inspire confidence.
Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.
Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).
Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
- be connected
- be confident
- be innovative and creative
- be diverse and inclusive
- be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.
How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.
As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.
AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.
We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.
All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.
Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.
Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.
We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.
