JOB PURPOSE
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This regional post is required to help the Education Authority meet its statutory responsibility in supporting pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds and to help meet the increased demand from schools for EA services to help enroll and educate these children and young people. The Support Officer is required to assist IES in the provision of educational support to our schools, our EA support services and to the families of these vulnerable children and young people. This post holder will work with the IES Adviser to:
1. build the capacity of schools to meet the needs of ASR, Roma and Traveller pupils and their families. The support for schools is aimed at welcoming, supporting and developing positive outcomes for the newly arrived pupils;
2. the current support officer career breaks are within the North Eastern region including the Causeway Coast and Glens Council area, and the second post is in the South Western region, but this can change as families are regularly moved to other parts of NI;
3. provide advice and support both in school and out of school to key partners in the child and young person’s education including parents, teachers, school managers, Boards of Governors, youth workers, training providers and any other community partners who provide education for the newcomer and other BME students;
4. help to design, deliver and review school-based, cluster-based and other forms of training in response to the identified needs of schools in relation to these students;
5. promote access to early years’ opportunities, out of school hours’ learning, youth services and other external education provision which will complement the school-based education during and after school hours.
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
6. To help design and deliver additional educational support programmes for minority ethnic pupils, particularly those who are newly arrived and/or in need of additional educational needs support, such as Asylum Seekers, Refugees, Roma and Travellers;
7. To encourage schools to help the wider family support their children’s education through home visits; home-school liaison work and agreed transitionary arrangements to help the schools and parents improve the child’s early educational experiences in Northern Ireland;
8. To promote effective communication, information sharing, cooperative learning and clustering within and across schools and/or youth organisations in geographic or thematic clusters;
9. To assist schools and/or youth organisations in identifying culturally appropriate curriculum and other learning resources to help support the professional development needs of staff and to help design and deliver educational programmes aimed at addressing those needs;
10. To assist schools and/or youth organisations in monitoring progress through effective target setting and evaluation procedures;
11. To establish and maintain good working relationships with other EA services including EWS, EPS, Youth, SARS/SEN, EOTAS, Behaviour Support and others;
12. To reflect on feedback from schools and/or youth organisations and modify support if appropriate;
13. To monitor and record ASR support activities and to provide reports to the Director of Education, EA Committees and the Department of Education;
14. To work in close co-operation with Health and Education colleagues to provide an effective educational support service for BME young children and their parents; to find ways of using parents as facilitators, to develop parental support plans and to assist the relevant bodies in their development work including learning support, out of school hours provision or alternative education (if appropriate);
15. To provide advice and support to the relevant authorities including Voluntary Committees, Boards of Governors, Principals and teachers in schools and/or youth organisations in matters relevant to the development of positive educational experiences from early years through to school-leaving age;
16. To assist as required with the development of guidelines for Boards of Governors, Principals, teachers and other support staff in schools and community settings on the nature and form of education for BME children and young people;
17. To contribute to the development and production of relevant and suitable school-based or youth work focused personal development, learning support and educational materials, particularly for literacy and numeracy;
18. To encourage the use amongst schools of culturally specific or intercultural materials or as appropriate;
19. To assist IES in the promotion of its policies and programmes in supporting schools to improve the educational provision for BME children through fostering positive attitudes and promoting good practice among all those involved;
20. To disseminate the outcomes and results of IES work through all schools and/or youth organisations in Northern Ireland to the Department of Education and to relevant regional and local steering groups.
Management and Supervision
21. To assist with IES ‘service-wide’ outcomes-based accountability workload;
22. To ensure that any additional staff assigned are trained in all procedures and practice within the IES team;
23. To ensure staff are appraised in line with EA Procedures and assist in compiling a staff development plan for the team in accordance with the EA’s Staff Development Policy to maximise the potential of staff.
Other Duties
24. Participation in wider EA staff training as and when required;
25. Such other duties as may be required to help the EA fulfil its statutory obligation.