The Opportunity
Salary: NJC Grade 7 £29,540 to £32,061 per annum
Contract Type: Permanent
Working Pattern: 37 hours per week, full time, Monday to Friday
Location: Countywide (West Sussex), your base location will be agreed with you at interview
Please note: You will be required to travel independently throughout the county, including to locations that are not always accessible by public transport.
The Virtual School team have an exciting opportunity to join us as an ESOL Learning Mentor for Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC).
Working with our unaccompanied asylum‑seeking children, you will provide individual or small group English language support and tuition. You will assess their educational needs, design and deliver small group work and also create bespoke packages of tuition where required.
This is a collaborative role, where you will liaise with colleagues across the Virtual School, Social Care, schools, the wider education sector, and other professionals as required. This ensures that children looked after have access to education and also have meaningful and regular Personal Educational Plans (PEP) meetings that are focused on raising academic achievement and attainment.
Key responsibilities of the role include:
* Supporting children with access to school or college.
* Attending statutory meetings for PEPs linked to young people’s care plans.
* Planning and delivering initial assessments of English proficiency, identifying suitable pathways for learning.
* Providing specialist knowledge and advice to young people on the educational and social opportunities available to them.
* For each student, record keeping, monitoring and analysis of information.
* Support students to overcome barriers to education and positively impact outcomes for children and young people.
About You
We are looking for someone who has a positive approach to innovation, solutions, support, and challenge. You will need emotional resilience and a passion for improving the lives of the children we care for.
Key Skills
1. Ability to present information clearly, concisely, accurately and in ways that promote understanding, either verbally or in written/electronic format.
2. Ability to develop strong and purposeful relationships with a range of professionals, carers and young people.
3. Sound technical knowledge in relevant discipline to a level suitable to provide advice and support to other team members; ability to work creatively and under own initiative to ensure best outcomes for the young people in our care.
4. Be able to use first‑language assessment materials to establish current educational level of UASC in their own language as well as English, and use these assessments to provide professional written reports for schools and other settings.
5. Ability to assess ESOL levels and design and deliver appropriate schemes of work of ESOL to meet the language requirements of individuals and groups of students.
Qualifications and/or Experience
* L5 ESOL teaching certificate or equivalent.
* Experience of designing and implementing appropriate schemes of work.
* Experience working with older children and those with English as a second language.
* Experience of working with colleagues in social care and education settings.
* Understanding of the asylum‑seeking process and the impact this has on well‑being.
* A willingness to travel to various locations around the county.
About Us
The Virtual School operates under the local authority’s statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of children looked after. This involves over 1,000 children in approximately 250 schools and settings and is subject to constant change as children enter and leave care. The school also offers advice and information to those engaged with the education of children previously in care, children with a social worker and those in kinship care arrangements.
Benefits
As an employer we recognise that it is our employees who are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work‑life balance, and are rewarded for the work they do.
Rewards and Benefits page provides a full list.
Employer Pension Contribution: 18.70% (altered per annum on 1 April each year).
Annual leave: 25 days holiday + Bank Holidays = 33 days.
Equal opportunities
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check, five years referencing, and an occupational health check.
Equity, inclusion, and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to give them the best possible chance of success.
We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on the application help page.
If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application, please contact Natalie Greene, Recruitment Specialist.
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