JOB TITLE: Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA)
START DATE: As Soon As Possible
CLOSING DATE: Monday 20th July 2026
INTERVIEW DATE: Tuesday 28th July 2026
SALARY: Range SCP 18 to 22 (£29,860- £32,147) + LGPS Pension Scheme
LOCATION: Oasis Restore secure school in Rochester, Medway, Kent.
Are you a qualified or aspiring Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) driven by a purpose to transform the lives of the most vulnerable children?
Do you have a keen interest in developing your knowledge, skills and practice to support with learning across the school?
Do you see relationships as fundamental to your work with children, families, and the wider community?
Do you want to be a part of an innovative and courageous team developing the UK’s first secure school?
We are offering an exciting opportunity for qualified or aspiring HLTAs to join the team in contributing to and supporting teachers and Head of Departments with delivering an outstanding curriculum and high-quality learning opportunities at the UK’s first secure school.
Oasis Restore represents a revolution in youth justice: an opportunity for children within the criminal justice system to experience a truly restorative environment, that creates the potential for them to thrive in the future. You will be key to delivering a curriculum that provides nurturing, therapeutic and educational community that embeds hope, stability, and opportunity for children in our care. Come and develop your career within an organisation dedicated to transforming lives.
Your role as a HLTA will be integral to supporting the progress of all children at Oasis Restore, to help them to achieve their individual educational outcomes. You will be responsible for supporting the delivery of a bespoke, skills-based curriculum; and working with individual children and small groups within the classroom to facilitate a personalised and aspirational education for all. You will work as part of an education team within departments and contribute to the regular assessment of the children you are working with as well as forming part of a core team around the child and feeding into formulation meetings to report on progress and next steps.
You will be responsible for working with teachers to deliver lessons that develop curious and dedicated learners and meet their individual needs and interests. You will have the opportunity to feed into and continuously contribute to a creative curriculum underpinned by progressive pedagogies, in line with the national curriculum, setting a true gold standard for learning.
You will be an integral part of a passionate, committed, and ground-breaking multidisciplinary team, working integratively towards improving the outcomes for children so often overlooked. Together, we will devise strategies to empower children to take ownership of their own learning journeys, so preparing them for successful transitions into the next phase of their journey.
As a champion of restorative practice, you will place relational connection at the heart of everything you do. Your work will be the driving force that enables children to transition out of Oasis Restore with the support in place for them to succeed in the next step of their journeys.
Oasis Restore is the UK’s first secure school that is a proof-of-concept policy initiative funded by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Youth Custody Service. Oasis Restore’s mission is to transform the life chances of children aged 12-18 years in the criminal justice system through delivering psychologically informed, integrated practice that centres on trusted, safe relationships between staff and children. Oasis Restore is a learning community that embeds hope, stability, and opportunity for children beyond the secure school. To read more about us please visit our website www.oasisrestore.org.
As a newly established subsidiary of the Oasis Charitable Trust, you enjoy the benefit of being part of a national organisation that aims to support all staff to reach their full potential and a once in a lifetime opportunity to create, develop and grow a new collaborative and innovative values-based organisation.
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A mixture of one to one and group reflective practise, coaching & supervision sessions as well as regular line management.
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Experience an Appraisal policy that decouples pay and performance.
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An elected staff forum to listen to, and act on, staff feedback
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Access to a competitive defined benefit pension scheme (either the Teachers Pensions Scheme or Local Government Pension Scheme subject to individual scheme rules).
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40 days annual leave including bank holidays (see application pack for staff working pattern)
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Subject to meeting basic eligibility criteria, be entitled to up to 8 weeks full-pay and 18 weeks half-pay paid maternity/adoption/shared parental leave (based broadly on the NHS Employers scheme).
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Subject to meeting basic eligibility criteria be entitled to up to 3 weeks fully paid paternity leave.
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Paid time off to attend antenatal appointments (those staff who are either pregnant or whose partner is pregnant)
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Have a structured and bespoke induction training plan plus a probation period of 6 months as well as a training offer bespoke to our context leading to a level 4 qualification in the therapeutic care of adolescents.
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Receive the same offer of sick leave pay (based broadly on the length of service in the national ‘Green Book’ framework) from Day 1 of employment.
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Up to 5 days discretionary paid compassionate/emergency/general leave plus further discretionary unpaid leave
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Up to 4 weeks paid parental bereavement leave plus up to 5 days paid bereavement leave for the death of other specified close relatives.
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Expenses and travel costs incurred as part of the working day (as appropriate, not including travel to work)
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Access to an eye care vouchers scheme, season Ticket Loans, a cycle to work scheme and free car parking.
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We are in the process of setting up a new employee health care cash plan and employee discount scheme
For more information or an informal discussion about this role please email [email protected] to arrange a confidential phone call.
Safeguarding and Pre-Employment Checks
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff to share this commitment. All successful candidates will be subject to Disclosure and Barring Service checks along with other relevant employment checks including references and right to work checks. This post is also covered by Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) and therefore the ability to speak fluent and spoken English is an essential requirement for this role.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
At Oasis Restore we recognise that our team is strengthened by the knowledge, experience and insights people from a wide range of backgrounds can bring. These beliefs and values are underpinned by decades of work and experience that Oasis has had in a wide range of sectors including education, housing and youth-work supported further by a wide range of independent research and studies elsewhere which evidence that creating teams with diverse experience and perspectives, and encouraging healthy debate, reduces the risk of ‘blind spots’ that often form barriers to success.
Oasis Restore aim is to attract and retain the very best diverse talent and role models to help create an innovative, caring and extraordinary working environment for our staff, that enables us to deliver exceptional, caring and psychologically informed learning experience for our students. We would therefore like to encourage applications from people with varied skillsets, life experiences, and from different backgrounds and sectors to help shape Oasis Restore. If you can demonstrate some of the criteria and believe you have what it takes, then we’d love to hear from you.
Given the nature of our work we also welcome applications from candidates with the following lived experience:
- Experience of working successfully with challenging people who have multiple and complex needs
- Personal experience of the criminal justice system, or lived experience of the issues facing this client group (i.e. involved in gangs or knife crime).
- Knowledge of the issues facing this client group, such as gangs, knife crime, social exclusion and isolation, child criminal exploitation, adverse childhood experiences and trauma.
- Ability to actively listen and motivate young people.
- Ability to be a positive role model, demonstrating the virtues of a crime-free life to young people.
We’re also very happy to answer any questions you may have so please don’t hesitate to get in touch at [email protected].
- The Equal Opportunities Form will not be shared with anyone involved in processing your application. Please complete this as part of the application process. Please note that if you have a disability and you require this form or submitting the information with regard to this form in another format, such as in larger print, please contact the People Services team
Our aim is for children to value their time at Oasis Restore, to enjoy learning, and to leave ready to contribute to society. We acknowledge that traumatic early life experiences, adversity and exploitation negatively affect the children we serve and those around them, including the victims of their crimes. Young people placed at the secure school will need to come to terms with the consequences of their criminal behaviour: the sentence is their punishment.
Our job is to listen and understand the stories behind those actions, to support them to start making amends in whatever ways they can, and to help them build the skills they need for a positive future.
Oasis Restore, Sir Evelyn Road, Rochester, Kent ME1 3YB
