Learning Support Assistant
Ark Greenwich Free School
Greenwich
- New
- Quick apply
- Salary:
- Competitive
- Job type:
- Full Time, Permanent
- Start date:
- September / October 2024
- Apply by:
- 2 September 2024
Job overview
The school reserves the right to close this advert early and interviews may take place before the advertised closing date. Applicants are strongly encouraged to apply early to avoid disappointment.
Ark Greenwich
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This is a rare and exciting opportunity to work at one of the highest performing schools in the country. If you are committed to making a lasting difference in our local community and want to work in a seriously ambitious, respectful and high performing school, this could be the job for you.
Ark Greenwich is a new, ambitious school model based on what we know excellent schools do. We have created a highly respectful and disciplined environment where our staff and scholars can fulfil their potential. We are one of the highest performing schools in the UK. Progress 8: +1.2, Attainment 8: 6.3, EM5 +: 81%, EBacc entry rate: 90%. Academic achievements of SEND scholars are broadly in line with their non-SEND peers and are significantly above their SEND peers nationally. In 2023, the SEND progress score was +0.5.
How is Ark Greenwich different?
● We are part of the Ark family of schools and benefit accordingly from outstanding networking and career opportunities and first-class CPD.
● Staff wellbeing is one of our main priorities. We provide breakfast for staff each morning, lunch for early careers staff and have a 6pm/weekend work-related communication cut off. We do not do knee jerk reactions, fads or last-minute deadlines. Our systems and processes for communication, marking and feedback and assessment are streamlined and the approaches we take are research led and based on our local context. Our full approach to staff wellbeing/workload can be found here.
● This is a small school model (600 scholars aged 11-16) because we believe that our close-knit family community provides the optimum conditions for success.
● Scholar behaviour is exceptional with clearly defined and embedded routines. This means our teachers can focus their time on the things that matter – planning and delivering brilliant lessons for our scholars.
● This is a strict no excuses, no mobile phone school. Phones are not permitted onsite at all. Scholars wear business dress to prepare them for a professional career.
● Our curriculum is traditional and academic, and we do not take shortcuts to seek to boost our position in school league tables – we do not, for example, offer equivalencies such as Btecs or Vcerts. >90% Ebacc entry rate.
● We put high-quality teaching at the heart of what we do. We are committed to providing staff with weekly high-quality training. We run coaching for staff who want to see rapid progress in their discipline. Live coaching and current best practice in the field of education is central to our approach.
● We don’t grade individual lessons or ask for lesson plans but we do place a primacy on curriculum design, independent learning and formative assessment.
● Our scholars enjoy a compulsory co-curricular program on a Wednesday afternoon which includes a strong focus on community volunteering and we facilitate 12 drop-down days per academic year ensuring scholars benefit from a range of life-enriching experiences.
If you are ready to add further value to our SEND department and to become part of an organisation at the forefront of best practice in the field, then this could be the job for you.
Alignment with the school’s vision, values and approach to education is essential.
The Role
We are seeking to appoint an exceptional Learning Support Assistant who will be fully committed to all aspects of our school vision and our core values of Ambition, Growth, Fellowship, and Scholarship. You will be joining a team of dedicated staff who are committed to going the extra mile to help make a real difference to the children in our care.
Our ideal candidate will be a driven and passionate person with the ability to learn from feedback and a hunger to constantly improve and develop. We are looking for someone who can work as part of a team, roll their sleeves up and excel at what they do. You will be passionate about academic excellence, have an unrelenting obsession to be the best you can be, and in turn motivate the scholars in your care to excel. You will need to be calm, well organised, and self-confident, with excellent communication and interpersonal skills. The post requires close collaboration with colleagues but will also involve working on your own initiative to find the best approaches to supporting scholars with SEND, and particularly those with English as an additional language, to achieve their potential. You will need to be a cheerful and organised self-starter, flexible and adaptable, with a helpful, friendly and inclusive approach.
The post provides a unique opportunity for the successful candidate to excel across a range of areas, including classroom support for scholars with special needs and disabilities and the delivery of high-quality interventions. The successful applicant will take a lead on developing the in class support provision for our scholars by supporting scholars, classroom teachers, and the SENDCo on a daily basis in the classroom and around the school, through academic and pastoral support sessions, some light medical care, and some routine administrative duties. LSAs at AGFS participate in regular scholar observations to help support the development of inclusive provision and also engage in regular peer-observation and coaching, offering you the chance to grow and develop in your role.
About Ark Schools
Ark is a network of high-achieving, non-selective schools and one of the country’s top-performing academy groups. We run 38 academies in London, Birmingham, Hastings and Portsmouth educating more than 26,000 scholars. 83% of Ark schools are now rated as good or outstanding by Ofsted.
Our aim is to create outstanding schools that give every scholar, regardless of their background, the opportunity to go to university or pursue the career of their choice.
To find out more about Ark Greenwich, please visit our website via www.arkgreenwichfreeschool.org
Closing Date: Monday 2nd September 2024 at 9am. The school reserves the right to close this advert early should the right candidate be found. Interviews may take place before the advertised closing date. Applicants are strongly encouraged to apply early for this role to avoid disappointment.
Ark value diversity and are committed to safeguarding and promoting child welfare. The successful candidate will be subject to DBS and any other relevant employment checks.
Attached documents
Recruiter contact:
About Ark Greenwich Free School
- Ark Greenwich Free School
- Adair House, 403 Shooters Hill Road, Woolwich
- London
- SE18 4LH
- United Kingdom
We opened in September 2012 as a new Free School - a four-form entry, state-funded, mixed, non-denominational, 11-18 comprehensive school for the children of Greenwich. We are now full at 11-16. The School is extremely popular and is 6 times oversubscribed and staff are hard-working and committed to the school’s vision.
We have some very clear ‘givens’ and below is set out what we think are the most important features of our model. The school's ethos runs in line with our core values of Ambition, Growth, Fellowship & Scholarship. Underpinning this is a clear focus on Behaviour and we have exceptionally high expectations of our students.
We invest heavily in the curriculum and believe that the design and implementation of the curriculum is at the heart of school life. It creates an atmosphere for learning and sets the tone and philosophy for teachers.
Alongside being a school that values the importance of subject disciplines we also invest in high-quality weekly training and have access to world-class development opportunities through our partnerships with a wide range of schools, universities and sector-leading organisations. We are an accredited CPD provider through the Teacher Development Trust, many of our departments have won external awards in History and Computer Science, and we work closely with well-regarded curriculum providers. This means that we can help all staff at the school grow and develop.
We run a compulsory enrichment programme every Wednesday afternoon to ensure all our pupils receive a more holistic education. All of the AGFS staff commit to delivering elements of this. We also run a series of 12 ‘Drop Down Days’ throughout the year where the timetable is collapsed, enabling all pupils to undertake day-long programmes and activities – for example, university visits and trips to museums and theatres - as well as providing space for more intensive subject-led learning and extended academic projects.
AGFS has been described by The Economist as providing “plenty of hope for British education” and was selected by the Evening Standard as one of five “new model schools” in London.
Additionally we have received the following comments:
“Fantastic and extraordinary…Quiet lessons, happy students, nuclear focus, masses of support for students” Tom Bennett, founder of Research Ed and behaviour adviser to the Department for Education
“Amongst the highest performing schools in London” Evening Standard
“It was a real pleasure to visit AGFS. You are absolutely focusing on the right things and should be extremely proud of your school” Rebecca Boomer-Clark (Former Regional Schools Commissioner)
'Every child deserves the best possible start in life - and nothing is more important to them than a good education. The teachers and staff at Greenwich Free School are passionate about the importance of education, and they combine their passion with great professionalism and skill. They will do their very best for your child.'
Lord Adonis, former Schools Minister
'GFS is one of the country's most impressive and forward-thinking Free Schools, attracting considerable national attention and setting an exceptionally high quality bar for future Free Schools. I'm confident that its superb team will provide an outstanding education for the children of Greenwich.'
Rachel Wolf, Director, New Schools' Network
We warmly invite you to come and visit GFS and see for yourself all that we are doing to provide outstanding teaching and pastoral care to all our pupils.
Life in the Greenwich Free School is hard work, but it is also truly engaging, exciting and fun. It is a school of which our pupils are proud – and we are proud of each and every one of them.
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