Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) in Rochester

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.

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.

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.

At Oasis Restore we value equality, diversity, and inclusion and aim to create a supportive environment for all staff.