School Programmes Practitioner
Role Description
Reports to: Head of West Midlands
Start date: September 2026
Location: West Midlands
Hours: Full Time
Salary: £25,500 - £30,158 (experience depending)
Deadline: Friday 17th July, 5pm
We are looking for a passionate individual to deliver our intervention in schools. Our model puts young people’s passions and strengths at the heart of their development to help them thrive in school. We need someone who is deeply committed to young people and is energetic, empathetic and adaptable.
You will be highly motivated, with high standards for yourself and others. We’re seeking someone caring, ambitious and keen to learn who loves working with young people. You will have a strong moral compass, experience working with young people and a proven commitment to really make a difference to young people’s lives.
Before you skim the job description, please remember you don’t have to tick all the boxes for the role to apply. We all experience a bit of imposter syndrome, including the staff here at Football Beyond Borders. If this role pulls you and you believe you could make a difference then apply anyway or reach out to us to discuss more!
Who are we? VIDEO HERE
FBB is one of the leading educational charities and youth brands in the UK. Established in 2014, we have undergone impressive growth in the past couple of years and are now at an exciting stage of our journey. We currently work with 2000 students across 130 Secondary School programmes in Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Lancashire, Yorkshire, London, Kent and Essex. Alongside this, we have built strong partnerships with a host of brands such as Nike. In the next stage of our journey FBB aims to become the leading specialist charity for disengaged young people and the best place to work with young people in the UK.
Young people are at the heart of everything we do. From decisions made at Senior Leadership and our Board, to how we design activations with partners to ensure young people get the most out of them. We’re working in a system that has been designed to limit the potential of many young people, and we know that to make real change, we need to work hard and differently. FBB can be fast-paced and intensive at times, but our focus on working culture and support is prioritised to ensure staff are in a position to ‘Go Beyond’ for young people.
We place relationships at the heart of what we do. That’s not only about our work with young people, but equally important with our colleagues. We strive to do things differently at FBB. We don’t believe that work should be the thing you dread on a Sunday evening. If you’re keen to throw yourself into new environments and develop meaningful relationships with people from all walks of life, then FBB is the workplace for you.
We’re also BIG on learning. This means that we dedicate a full day of everyone’s week to learning and development, during this day practitioners take part in our innovative training programme which includes chances to receive training from external experts, connect with colleagues and reflect. As a young and ambitious team, we are constantly finding the next opportunities to develop. We like to throw our hat in the ring for things we’ve never tried before. FBB is a place where you can be introduced to multiple different aspects of work: our focus on cross-team collaboration means you'll have the opportunity to work on projects in Brand, Comms, Operations, Culture and Programmes. We also don’t mind the conventional stuff: there’s an FBB reading list, opportunities for reflection and external training budgets too!
FBB is recognised in the sector as innovative and thought-leading. We are always on the hunt for talented and ambitious people to join the team and contribute to our vision of becoming a leader in supporting young people to thrive and become the best versions of themselves.
Key Responsibilities:
Role Overview
The School Programme Practitioner will deliver the FBB Schools Programme in partner Secondary Schools across London. This will involve delivering programmes across up to 4 schools. This person will be based in schools facilitating FBB sessions and supporting FBB participants outside of sessions with additional pastoral support including 1:1s and parental engagement.
Main Duties:
1. Lead on the delivery of up to 5 FBB Schools programmes at our partner schools managing a caseload of 80 students. This will involve delivery of FBB sessions as well as additional pastoral support outside of sessions including 1:1s, parental engagement and working with staff within the school.
2. Lead on the ongoing evaluation and monitoring of individual sessions, participant performance and programme outcomes.
3. Track, draft and submit progress reports on the students contained in your FBB Schools programmes.
4. Manage the team of staff members on each of your FBB Schools programmes
5. Manage relationships with partner teachers and SLT at our partner schools and with participants’ parents
6. Working closely with our specialist therapeutic team to design and develop specific interventions for at risk students on your programme
WHO WILL BE WORKING WITH:
The beauty of this role is that you will be working closely with young people on a day to day basis as well as staff across various FBB partner schools.
Your key relationships within FBB will be with:
- School Programme Practitioners. On each of your programmes you will have an another practitioner to work with you throughout the day
- Head of Region. These people are the leaders of the team with a wealth of experience within schools who will support your development.
DEVELOPMENT IN THE ROLE:
In 2022/23 academic year we launched a unique frontline development programme which aims to give the best possible training for our practitioners. Every Wednesday practitioners will not be in schools, instead this day is reserved for training. Depending on a practitioner's experience and previous qualifications they will receive formal training in counselling, supporting young people with SEN, Mental Health, group facilitation, football coaching and much more. There will be the opportunity for our practitioners to identify a specialist area that they wish to train in so they can lead the organisation in this area. This is a brilliant opportunity to build your skills and expertise in supporting young people. FBB is an ambitious charity with plans for continued growth over the coming years and with that comes opportunities to grow with the organisation and take on more responsibility.
What development could look like…
Title: Junior Practitioner
Salary: £28,500
Role: As a lead the staff members will hold responsibility for the programme. They will have responsibility for the relationship with the school, running therapeutic mentoring for those students with higher needs and managing the more junior practitioners they have working with them.
Training: Either the Base-level training in counselling SEN, Mental Health, Group facilitation, football coaching and more OR specialising in a teaching/learning or counselling pathway.
Title: Lead Practitioner
Salary: £31,000
Role: Advanced Lead practitioners have responsibility for supporting the development of more junior staff and managing school relationships will be part of the responsibilities. They will also begin to contribute to FBB in their area of specialism (impact team, policy, delivery training).
Training: Staff will get the opportunity to choose a specialism to pursue at this point.
Title: Specialist / Expert Practitioner
Salary: £33,000
Role: At this point as a ‘specialist’ in their chosen field they will take on some FBB wide responsibility for that area.
Training: During this year practitioners are encouraged to scale their impact by taking their specialism and contributing to the area of FBB from curriculum design to training to brand to fundraising.
PERKS OF THE JOB:
FBB has a significant Learning & Development Budget each year for training opportunities and qualifications
FBB has a generous wellbeing budget for staff which they can access for out of work activities that support their wellbeing.
Access to exclusive events and merch through our partnerships with Nike and others
Generous annual leave policy with a minimum of 35 days leave per year including a Christmas shutdown
Mintago Financial Wellbeing Platform
Personalised financial wellbeing support
Pension guidance and planning tools
Budgeting and savings resources
Access to our pension salary sacrifice scheme, helping many employees increase their take-home pay
Practical support to help you feel more confident about your finances
Staff away days and regular team bonding days
Working for a recognised and respected name in the sector which acts as a springboard to future roles
Person Specification:
EXPERIENCE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
Important things about you...
You will be committed to supporting the most at risk young people in our schools and willing to go beyond for them
You have experience of delivering sessions to 10-16 year olds
You will be someone who loves working in a team
You will have excellent interpersonal skills, empathy and emotional intelligence
You enjoy working in fast paced environments and have a hunger to learn
You have an understanding of the challenges and different learning needs of adolescents
You will be able to build strong relationships with young people built on their assets and passions
You can develop strong working relationships with colleagues and teachers within schools
You will be able to problem solve independently and adapt to new situations
You are keen to learn and develop and relish taking on feedback and learning from mistakes
And also consider applying if any of the following apply to you...
You have worked in schools supporting young people
You have been a teacher with QTS
Have qualifications in counselling/mental health support for young people
You have experience of delivering interventions to young people with SEN or and SEMH
You have experience in youth work
Recruitment process
Football Beyond Borders aims to be representative of the community we are working with. We recognise that having the strongest workforce possible means hiring and developing the best people across all races, ethnicities, religions, age groups, sexual orientations, gender identities and abilities.
We’re not just committed to being an equal opportunity employer, we actively celebrate diversity in all its forms. Let us know if we can do anything to make the application or interview process more accessible. If you are invited to interview, we will at that point ask you for any accessibility requirements or preferences.
FBB is committed to adopting a safe recruitment process and follows the NSPCC safer recruitment procedures that have safeguarding at their heart. The appointment will undergo an enhanced DBS check.
Shortlisting, interviews and reference checking
All applications will be taken seriously and contacted regarding the outcome of their application.
Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed. There will be 3 stages to the interview process:
Stage 1: A 30 minute online call to get to know candidates and talk more about the role
Stage 2: A selection day which focuses on candidates fit with FBB’s Culture
Stage 3: Delivery of one of our sessions to an FBB group in one of our Partner Schools
References from the previous and current employer may be taken up for shortlisted candidates. Please let us know about the sensitivity of taking up references prior to an interview.
To apply:
Deadline for the receipt of applications is 5pm on
Please complete the application form.
Principles of our FBB Schools programme:
Our FBB Schools programme exists to transform the behaviour for learning and attitude to learning of students who love football but are disengaged at school. Our work builds on the strengths and potential of our young people through putting their passion for football at the heart of their learning.
Our programme is built on the following four theoretical foundations:
Attachment Theory
Adolescent Neuroscience
Developmental Trauma
Humanistic Therapy
FBB works with young people for four years, through weekly interventions and holiday programmes delivered in partnership with secondary schools across London, the West Midlands and the North West. The programme is targeted at Key Stage 3 students who are disengaged at school and come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. We know from the evidence that Key Stage 3 is the crucial time to work with disengaged boys and girls in order to prevent them from being excluded.
We believe real change can only be sustained through an embedded and holistic approach to our young people’s development. We work to become deeply embedded in the lives of our participants and in the communities we are based in. Our integrated approach is supported through intensive parental and teacher engagement achieved through parents’ evenings, teacher showcases and weekly text and phone updates.
Key aspects of the FBB Schools programme:
There are four parts to our FBB Schools programme:
Classroom: Our football-themed curriculum aims to tap into young people’s passions to create transformative learning experiences and develop key social and emotional competencies. We deliver project based classroom learning sessions often with external partners such as Nike, Gillette and the FA, and these complete with a public showcase at the end of each project. We see this as a key part in young people developing a more positive attitude towards learning.
Pitch: We provide a constraints led, game-based football coaching curriculum. Our students learn to overcome challenges, learn from mistakes and support their team mates, improving their social and emotional competencies. We believe that the football pitch is a safe space where young people can experience, reflect on and learn from both positive and negative emotions.
Trips: We reward participants with visits and end of year tours built around exciting events involving inspiring people from the world of football and media. Our students broaden their horizons and develop positive habits.
Interventions: Weekly one to one session for our most At Risk students to work through the traumatic experiences which may be contributing to their challenging behaviour, parental engagement and support for our young people in their wider school life.
