Advisory Board Member - Volunteer

Woodpecker Court, Dover

• Ref:KCC886-7916-28S
• Posted:02/05/2025
• Pay:Voluntary
• Start Date:Immediate
• App Close Date:22/07/2025 at 12:00
• Interviews:TBC - on interest

Advert

Join Our Advisory Board at Woodpecker Court!

Are you passionate about education and strategic leadership? Do you have the skills to help shape the future of our provision? Woodpecker Court, an Ofsted Outstanding post-16 provision is seeking dedicated individuals to join our Advisory Board and contribute to our mission of providing high-quality education and support to students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

As an Advisory Board Member, you will play a crucial role similar to that of a school governor. Your primary role will include ensuring clarity of vision, ethos, and strategic direction, and holding senior leaders accountable for the educational performance of the provision and its students.

Woodpecker Court is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment therefore this post is subject to an enhanced DBS Disclosure and references.

If you are ready to make a difference and help us achieve our vision, ethos, and strategic goals, we invite you to apply to become an Advisory Board Member at Woodpecker Court.

For more information please see the attached role description, visit our website www.woodpeckercourt.com or contact our Business Manager, Dawn Fisher: dfisher@woodpeckercourt.com, to arrange an informal chat with the Principal or visit to the provision.

Information about the school

Woodpecker Court is a specialist education provider with specialist post 16 status. We are set in a rural location. We believe that every student is different and treated as an individual and therefore vary our practices to support them holistically. We aim to improve outcomes by providing all of our students with the necessary skills to equip them to sustain their onward destination after leaving us. We have a calm, safe and friendly environment that all of our students together as a community maintain.

We offer our post 16 courses in Land based studies, Animal Care, Catering, or Occupational studies, alongside functional skills English, Maths and Digital Skills.
Many post 16 vulnerable learner programmes fail because the delivery is formal in a classroom. This has not worked for the previous eleven years, so why repeat the process? Block by block, we will enable a young person to tolerate then work with others, show resilience to failure and bad weather. They can have the time and space to express their frustrations in the outdoors. They can fail safely, then learn to succeed. They can develop good peer and staff relationships, and maintain them over time. Then, and only then, do we deliver the formal learning because then students are ready to achieve. Our outdoor experiences are explicitly linked to formal learning objectives. For example, quantities of animal feed are linked to profit margins, having an impact upon Maths.

We provide engagement programmes for learners aged 11-16 by working collaboratively with local schools. Our programmes are run in the great outdoors from our 15 acre site that encompasses woodland, paddocks, classrooms, workshops and at the heart of our community our parachuted fire circles. These engagement programmes offer the chance for schools to prevent exclusion and promote re-engagement by changing the environment completely around the young person. We develop resilience, self-esteem and positivity through introducing routines.

Job Contact Information

• Name:Dawn Fisher
• Address:45 Wigmore Lane, Eythorne, Dover, Kent, CT15 4BF
• Telephone: 01304 830958
• Email: personnel@woodpeckercourt.com

Documents

Below are documents that have been added to this vacancy.

• Advisory board members role description
• Ofsted report