Project Coordinator - Education Outreach in Newcastle upon Tyne

Location: Newcastle, GB

Contract Type: Fixed Term

Working Pattern: Full Time

Posted Date: 19 May 2026

Salary: £32,080 to £33,002 with progression to £34,610 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

The Role

This role offers an exciting opportunity to join the Library Education Outreach team, and to play a pivotal role in delivering an innovative and impactful National Lottery Heritage Fund funded project entitled Hope: Learning from Nature. The project will celebrate the natural heritage of the North East through a creative lens, delivering 3 projects to local secondary schools based around different themes of celebrating and protecting our natural heritage. You will help in planning and implementing a Festival of Hope, showcasing the students' work from the projects, hosted by our project partner, the National Trust, at Wallington.

We are looking for someone keen to expand their experience of outreach work with schools, with an interest in natural heritage and climate. Communication and organisational skills will be key to the success of this role, which offers excellent opportunities to further develop teaching, project management and administrative skills. A full driving licence would be beneficial for this role as meetings and delivery of the project will occur in various venues across the North East. A DBS check will be required of the successful applicant. This post is a fixed term contract until 31 December 2027. This role is suitable for blended working with a minimum of 60% (3 days) to be worked on campus.

Key Accountabilities

• To work with the project lead to develop and deliver a plan of work for Hope with input from key stakeholders.
• To support the project lead in the creation of a cross-sector multi-disciplinary network who will form an Advisory Group for Hope.
• To co-ordinate the presentation and dissemination of regular update reports, tailored to suit a range of audiences.
• To act as the main administrative contact for the Hope project.
• To work with the project lead and the appointed project evaluator to agree an evaluation plan and to support the evaluator in evidence collection and the creation of an evaluation and impact report.
• To work with a range of colleagues to design and deliver promotional materials for the project, to include resources in a range of formats, both print and multi-media.
• To engage effectively with a range of internal and external stakeholders, identifying opportunities and, where appropriate, to work with the project lead to prepare and deliver presentations to raise awareness of Hope and its outputs.
• Any other duties within the scope and general nature of the grade which may be required.

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Recent and relevant experience of working with and teaching secondary age school students.
• Recent and relevant experience of coordinating and/or providing high quality administrative support for projects.
• Ability to collate and analyse data from diverse sources to support project reporting.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills, as well as the ability to engage colleagues at all levels and respond sensitively to a range of views.
• Evidence of drawing together a range of materials to promote a project or service.
• Excellent organisational and time management skills, ability to manage own workload, recognise priorities, and work to deadlines whilst maintaining a high degree of accuracy.
• Ability to work independently with minimum supervision.
• Excellent IT skills including MS Office software, in particular Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and Outlook.

Attributes and Behaviour

• Team-working: works collaboratively with others, plays a positive role in teams and establishes and grows relationships across the organisation where different skills, expertise and opinions are valued.
• Communicating: uses clear, concise and accurate communication, tailoring the approach accordingly and encourages a two-way communication process.
• Planning and Organising: manages time and resources by prioritising and organising effectively.
• Finding Solutions: generates a range of viable options and decides on an appropriate course of action that best fits organisational and area goals.
• Understanding Others: understands colleagues, students and other stakeholders.
• Embracing Change: recognises the need for change and is forward looking. Promotes the benefits of change to others and regularly comes up with new ideas. Has the willingness to adopt new ways of working and to make improvements.

Qualifications

An undergraduate degree, or relevant professional experience.

About Newcastle University Library Education Outreach

Newcastle University Library Education Outreach team deliver bespoke projects, workshops and online resources to secondary schools. Using Newcastle University’s library’s collections they work with schools and local creative, heritage and conservation partners to deliver engaging and impactful learning opportunities for children and young people. Incorporating Newcastle University’s core values of excellence, creativity and impact, they aspire to widen horizons, raise aspirations, and help students make informed decisions about their futures.

About Hope: Learning from Nature

Hope is an exciting National Lottery Heritage Fund funded project celebrating the rich and diverse natural heritage of the North East through a creative lens. Uniquely combining heritage and climate to identify positive action, this project will offer young people in the North East the opportunity to meet academics from Newcastle University as well as experts from cultural organisations such as the National Trust and Northumberland National Park. They will learn how their natural heritage provides context and inspiration for us all to work together around the global issue of climate change. They will transform their learning into creative responses, inspired by their local natural heritage, which will be exhibited for the public, encouraging everyone to take part in the collective effort to protect our natural heritage from climate change for future generations.

Hope will deliberately offer opportunities for young people to be able to make informed choices about how they can volunteer, train, learn and work in areas around heritage, conservation and climate change. Hope will involve the delivery of 3 projects to 120 Year 9 students (20 per school with two schools taking part in each project) as listed below. This will culminate in the Festival of Hope hosted at our partner National Trust organisation, Wallington.

The creative exhibitions from all 3 projects will be showcased for a further 10 schools and the public over the summer.

Nocturnal Nature: September 2026 – February 2027. The detailed drawings of Thomas Bewick and nature books at Newcastle University Special Collections will provide inspiration for learning how we study and protect our nocturnal nature and the vital role that the dark skies of Northumberland National Park play. They will work with academics from the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences as well as staff from Northumberland National Park to learn the science of studying our environment before working with a glass artist to make glass work to be displayed at the Sill visitor centre, Northumberland National Park.

Farming: Past, Present and Future: January 2027 – June 2027. Newcastle University’s two research farms will provide a fresh insight for students to consider how we farm in the future. Practical workshops, tours and talks by academics will provide insights into carbon capture in soil, breathalysing cows for methane and how AI will transform our farming in the future. The 18th century farming diaries of Brewis, herbals and historical recipe books will provide a context on the lessons we can learn from the past on how we farm and eat in a sustainable way that encourages biodiversity and protects our natural heritage. An exhibition of super-sized fruit and vegetables will be on display at Wallington, National Trust to invite the public to consider this essential part of protecting our natural heritage.

The stunning entomology collections at Newcastle University Special Collections provide inspiration for students to apply a creative lens to highlight how our tiny nature is being affected by climate change. They will work with academics and National Trust staff to learn how we protect and study our tiniest nature as well as enjoying a lecture and workshop on writing poetry from published poets. Poetry and creative artwork by the students of various insects will form an exhibition at Wallington, National Trust.

Festival of Hope – Schools: June 2027 – July 2027. The work from all 3 mini projects will be created into a full day workshop for a further 10 local schools. They will be invited to consider the inter-connectedness of our natural heritage and how we can work to protect it from climate change with workshops led by experts from Newcastle University, Northumberland National Park and the National Trust. They will be invited to focus upon the positive research and interventions being made by all partner organisations and have the opportunity to consider training, volunteering, education and careers in these fields.

Festival of Hope – families and public: June 2027 – September 2027. All the exhibitions from all 3 projects will be on display to the public visiting Wallington throughout the summer of 2027. The exhibitions will provide a creative lens to invite the public to consider how organisations are working together to celebrate our natural heritage and protect it for future generations. Family activities linked to each exhibition will be offered to encourage families to engage with the exhibitions in a fresh way.

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution. We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population. At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme. In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.