Senior Behaviour Learning Support Mentor

Salary: Grade 7, Point 8: £20,936 per annum *

Contract: Permanent, 32.5 hours per week, 39 weeks a year (term time plus inset days)

*The salary quoted reflects the annual salary for the position at the time of advertising. Payment will be made in equal monthly instalments and will be adjusted at the start of employment, and again if employment ends partway through the school year, to ensure the correct salary is paid for work completed during the academic year.

We are seeking a calm, resilient and highly organised individual to join our team as a Senior Behaviour Learning Support Mentor, supporting the school in maintaining exceptional standards of conduct and a positive climate for learning.

You will play a key role in the effective day-to-day management of our inclusion room provision, which forms an important part of our disruption-free learning strategy. This is a well-managed and highly disciplined, yet relational-based environment, where students are supported to remain focused, engaged and productive in their learning.

About the Role

The successful candidate will supervise and actively work with students who have been removed from mainstream lessons through the school’s centralised behaviour system. You will ensure that students complete their assigned work in a calm and purposeful environment, while supporting them to reflect on and improve their conduct.

Working closely with pastoral teams, teaching staff and senior leaders, you will uphold high expectations, promote positive behaviour choices and establish positive, productive relationships with students. You will provide support, encouragement, guidance and assistance with learning, helping students feel that they belong and can thrive, even when removed from lessons.

You will also support students with co-regulation and reflection, encouraging them to take responsibility for their behaviour and make positive choices. Working under the guidance of the Associate Assistant Headteacher, you will actively support students’ learning on a daily basis.

Experience of working with young people in a school or similar setting would be advantageous.

Key Responsibilities

• Supervise and actively work with students who are removed from lessons through the school’s centralised behaviour system.
• Contribute to a purposeful working environment that supports learning and positive behaviour.
• Act as a positive role model, helping students feel included and able to thrive.
• Liaise with teachers to establish appropriate work for students and monitor the completion and quality of work.
• Ensure completed work is returned to teaching staff and Heads of Department.
• Establish positive and productive working relationships with students, providing support, encouragement, guidance and assistance throughout the learning process.
• Support students with co-regulation and reflection, helping them identify and improve their behaviour choices.
• Undertake administrative duties that support the school’s centralised behaviour system.
• Recognise and use your own strengths and areas of expertise to lead, advise and support colleagues and students
• Uphold the school’s safeguarding responsibilities and promote inclusion, equality and diversity.

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, (often used by our students in Alternative Provision), 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.

For more information about our school, please click here.

To find out more about the benefits of working for SAST, click here

Should you wish to arrange a visit to view the School, please do not hesitate to contact Channon Bruton, Office Manager on Channon.Bruton@shaftesburyschool.co.uk and she will be happy to arrange this for you.

SAST will conduct online searches of shortlisted candidates. In line with KCSIE guidance, this will be part of safer recruitment checks, and the search will purely be based on whether an individual is suitable to work with children. As care must be taken to avoid unconscious bias and any risk of discrimination, a person who will not be on the appointment panel will conduct the searches and will only share information if and when findings are relevant and of concern.

Safeguarding responsibilities associated with this role may include engagement in regulatory activity, such as administering first aid or supporting an upset child. It will have contact with young people on a day-to-day basis. 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.

This role is UK- based and your right to work will need to be established as part of the appointment process