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ELSA Practitioner - Term Time - Special Needs Position

Five Acre Wood School, Maidstone

  • Ref:KCC886-7056-259S
  • Posted:16/07/2020
  • Pay:KR7 + SEN (actual salary £19,667-£21,346 inc. SEN)
  • Start Date:Immediate
  • App Close Date:10/08/2020 at 12:00
  • Interviews:TBC

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ELSA is based at West Kent Health Needs School in West Malling. Our aim at ELSA is to value each individual child and work with the child in a safe, caring environment. We have one classroom plus a calm area and a wooded outdoor area.

We have two members of staff welcoming up to 6 children. The children attend ELSA from 9.30-2pm Monday-Thursday for 12 weeks. All children return to school on a Friday with outreach support from the ELSA staff.

We encourage and develop children’s self-esteem, to face learning challenges with more confidence, to be compassionate, respectful, and to have an enhanced sense of identity and belonging within their school community.

At ELSA we believe that to enable our pupils to learn effectively, they need to feel safe in their environment and be both socially and emotionally ready to learn. We understand the importance of holistic development and offer nurturing and enriching experiences to enable the development of the whole child.  We recognise that some of our pupils are not always emotionally ready to learn when they come to ELSA and require an increased level of support for them to access the wider curriculum.

 At ELSA we provide a modified curriculum in an environment based on the six principles of nurture .

We aim to: 

  • Encourage the development of positive social relationships with both peers and adults.
  • Provide opportunities to understand emotions and develop pupil’s self-worth, confidence, motivation, trust, self-esteem and adaptability.
  • Provide a safe, calm and nurturing environment, alongside a programme of activities structured to the emotional, social and intellectual needs of each pupil, while keeping them in close contact with their base class.
  • Support pupils to understand their behaviour and that behaviours generally have a consequence and to develop strategies to self-regulate emotions and anxieties.
  • Support the development of a whole-school nurturing ethos focused on inclusion to reduce fixed term and permanent exclusion.

 Responsibilities of the post:

The ELSA practitioners main role is to provide support for children with identified social and emotional and behaviour difficulties. The ELSA practitioner will ensure that the pupils can integrate as fully as possible in the nurture based activities undertaken by the other children in the ELSA provision.

Duties will include running specific programmes and activities to assist the pupils’ individual learning social and emotional needs based on the nurture principles. The ELSA practitioner will be responsible for implementing these activities and to review progress with the STLS case worker, pupil’s school and parent/carers.

 

Please see attached job description for a list of duties.

 

 For any further information on this role please feel free to contact the ELSA STLS Lead Jill Ansell at jansell@five-acre.kent.sch.uk

Information about the school

Five Acre Wood is a successful outward looking and expanding Special School based over 4 sites in and around Maidstone, Kent. We are one of the largest special schools in the country with over 800 pupils on roll aged 2-19 years with profound, severe and complex needs.

Our ‘Outstanding’ school will continue to expand and we are looking for people with a positive approach to join us who share our vision of ‘Only the best will do’ for all our students and staff. We are a Teaching School and part of a collaborative alliance with other special schools. We have been awarded The Schools Wellbeing Award for pupils and staff which demonstrates we really value our people and want to work with them to fulfil their career ambitions.

In addition to your salary, FAW allowance and pension benefits, we have excellent additional staff benefits including:

Confidential staff counselling service A wellbeing app and platform A range of staff social and well-being events Annual flu vaccinations

Sometimes words cannot explain how something really is, we would encourage you to view the links below:

We hold an annual music festival for our pupils, it gives them the opportunity experience something they may not ordinarily be able to access. You can see it here.

Woodstock 2023 – Woodstock 2023 Festival at Five Acre Wood School - YouTube

Woodstock 2022 - Woodstock 2022 Festival at Five Acre Wood Schools - YouTube

Woodstock 2019 - Five Acre Wood School's "Woodstock 2019" - Amazing Festival in a Day! (Longer Film) - YouTube

We produced our own songs and music videos, you can watch them here: -

Beautiful – Five Acre Wood School featuring Taryn Charles - Youtube

Five Acre Wood School Featuring Jack Rose - Hall Of Fame - YouTube

Don’t Give Up – Nathan Grisdale and Five Acre Wood School - YouTube

We look forward to hearing from you.

Five Acre Wood is committed to the safeguarding of all its pupils, you will therefore be subject to an enhanced disclosure process. As part of our responsibility for safeguarding, in addition to the Kent policy of one employment and one personal reference, the school will request additional employment references. The school will also, as outlined in Keeping children Safe in Education 2022, complete an online search for shortlisted candidates.

Job Contact Information

  • Name:Nicola Devereux
  • Address:Boughton Lane, Maidstone , Kent, ME15 9QF
  • Telephone: (01622) 743925
  • Email: hr@five-acre.kent.sch.uk

Fax: 01622 744828

Documents

Below are documents that have been added to this vacancy.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all our students. You are advised that this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and therefore this post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure Application to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). Please be aware that schools are also required to undertake online recruitment checks on shortlisted candidates under changes to Keeping Children Safe in Education.