Senior Learning Support Mentor in Shaftesbury

Salary: Grade 7, Point 8-14: Actual salary will be based on working hours and scale point.

Contract: Permanent, Part-Time or Full-Time hours considered, 39 weeks a year (term time plus inset days).

We are seeking a dedicated and proactive Senior Learning Support Mentor to join our Inclusion team. This is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who may find the demands of school life challenging. Working closely with the SENDCo, you will play a key role in managing and developing our Internal Alternative Provision. You will support pupils to re-engage with learning, promote independence, and ensure that every student feels included in all aspects of school life.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the day-to-day running of the school’s Internal Alternative Provision.
• Develop and deliver programmes of study for pupils with additional needs.
• Act as a key adult and role model for pupils attached to the IAP.
• Support the identification of pupils for alternative learning pathways.
• Provide guidance to teachers and colleagues around key students using the provision.
• Liaise with staff, parents/carers and professional agencies to support pupils’ needs.
• Promote a calm, purposeful, and supportive learning environment, whilst maintaining relationships.
• Mentor, support, and help train other Learning Support Mentors.

We are looking for someone who will go the extra mile for our students who may struggle with school and/or mainstream lessons. They will make a positive contribution to the Inclusion Team and beyond, sometimes into the classrooms and corridors.

Skills and Training

• To have excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• To be adaptable and flexible.
• To have strong behaviour management skills.
• To have the ability to work in a busy school environment.
• The ability to work within a high-pressure environment and to keep calm when under pressure.
• The ability to work individually, as well as part of a team.
• The ability to deal confidently, calmly and consistently with demanding situations.
• The ability to use your initiative.
• To be a person of integrity.
• To be confident and professional.
• The ability to maintain confidentiality.
• The ability to remain impartial.
• To be sympathetic to the needs of others, respectful and demonstrate a relational manner.

You will join a busy, yet small school and a trust that is full of activity, opportunity and optimism. You will join a school that has a centralised behaviour management system, supporting staff workload. This role will be in one area of the school’s Internal Alternative Provision. There is another part of the building which accommodates students with additional needs, who struggle with being in mainstream lessons. Our Internal Alternative Provision is well-staffed.

Shaftesbury School also has a 6th Form and fantastic facilities, including a staff gym, an industrial hospitality facility, five ICT suites, a 6th Form and Staff Café, a fully resourced Library, staff refreshments every day, a multi-faceted Steps to Support programme for our young people, a staff well-being charter and staff counselling.

SAST is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will have to meet the person specification and the post is subject to safeguarding checks, including an enhanced DBS check and Children’s Barred List check. The post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the amendments to the Exceptions Order 1975, 2013 and 2020.

SAST recognises the benefit of having a diverse workforce and is committed to building a workforce which reflects diversity from the communities it serves. SAST values the contributions from all staff from a wide range of different backgrounds and actively seeks to promote an environment that is free from discrimination and harassment and at the same time supports fair promotion and cultural acceptance. Under the provision of the Equality Act 2010 SAST welcomes applications from everyone and operates a recruitment process which is fair and does not discriminate against or disadvantage anyone because of their age, disability, gender reassignment status, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race or nationality, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.