Warning - This Vacancy is now Closed!

Deputy Principal - Full-time - Special Needs Position

The Oaks Specialist College, Tonbridge

  • Ref:KCC886-7071-32L
  • Posted:27/03/2023
  • Pay:£47,000-£60,000
  • Start Date:September 2023
  • App Close Date:23/04/2023 at 23:30
  • Interviews:Wednesday 3rd May 2023

Advert

The Oaks Specialist College is an exciting development based in Tonbridge, set up to meet the needs of young adults aged 18-25 with learning difficulties or disabilities (LLDD).

The College was initially known as Oakley College, having arisen from Oakley School – a Kent County Council special school – to better meet the needs of special school leavers.  The College opened in 2018 with five staff and ten learners.

The College, now with over one hundred learners and over fifty staff, was renamed The Oaks Specialist College in 2021 to reflect more clearly who we are and what we do, as part of the network of specialist colleges across the country.  We are a participating member of Natspec.

The Deputy Principal role is a senior leadership role and an essential and integral part of the exceptional team at The Oaks Specialist College and is crucial to our continued success and development.

Benefits of working at The Oaks Specialist College including private healthcare, Perkbox and free health screening.

The Oaks Specialist College is committed to safeguarding young people; a commitment we expect all staff to share and uphold. Our safeguarding policy can be found below along with our Staff Code of Conduct.

Information about the school

Our aim is to complement and work alongside existing providers in the area, to ensure that the needs and aspirations of all learning difficulties and disabilities (LLDD) young people can be met locally. Our learners travel to the College from West Kent, other areas of Kent, Bromley, and East Sussex.

In our first two-day inspection by Ofsted in May 2021, we achieved the highest grade possible in all three themes of the inspection – almost unheard of for a new provider.

We work closely with a number of employers and other organisations to ensure that the skills, knowledge and understanding gained in college are applied in the “real world” so that every learner makes clear progress and develops into a young person who is respected and valued in their community and is confident and able to contribute fully. On leaving The Oaks our young people will gain employment, further training or meaningful volunteering roles and be able to live their life more independently – with less dependency on others as they continue to develop, mature and thrive.

Our mission is to put young people with learning disabilities at the heart of all that we do. We achieve our success by having a great team of staff who really care about the work that they do with our young people and who have a wide range of skills & expertise plus drive and total commitment to our vision.

Our vision is to give all of our young adults opportunities to discover ways of learning that engage them and enable them to gain new skills, knowledge and behaviours that develop them, and lead to them each being exceptionally well prepared for their next steps into adulthood and a positive, meaningful and productive long term future

Learning pathways include: • A programme of study and work-related learning and experience that will lead to further vocational training, internships/apprenticeships and employment.

• A programme of study providing a further 1, 2 or 3 years for young adults to continue to develop their personal life and independent living skills so that they can contribute to society in a number of ways and live an independent or semi-independent life.

• A vocational programme providing a further 1, 2 or 3 years for young adults to continue to develop their personal life and independent living skills so that they can contribute to society in a number of ways and live an independent life in a supported environment.

• A Learning for life programme providing a further 1,2 or 3 years for young people to develop their communication skills, life skills, work skills and physical and emotional wellbeing.

• A bespoke programme of study for learners that require a total communication approach and may use AAC. This is a multi-sensory curriculum to enable the learners to communicate their needs in a supported environment.

The Oaks Specialist College learners have diverse needs and come from a range of socio-economic backgrounds.

Job Contact Information

  • Name:Nikki Twiner
  • Address:The Oaks Specialist College, Cage Green Road, Tonbridge, Kent, TN10 4PT
  • Telephone: 01732 207950
  • Email: hr@theoaks.ac.uk

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 Legislation.