Learning facilitator / coach Verified listing

Have you been frustrated by an educational system that disregards the needs of children as learners? Are you feeling like your time is spent ‘managing behaviour’ more than supporting meaningful learning?  This opportunity presents a chance to bring the joy back to ‘the day job’, and to keep the evenings and weekends sacred!

Cultivate Learning micro-school is a self-directed and learner-centric project-based independent school, in its pre-registration phase, putting learner happiness front and centre.  We are based on the Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire borders, in a village in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Our school will support learning in mixed-age groups for up to 24 children of 7-14 years, bringing compassionate communication (and in particular nonviolent communication or ‘NVC’, modelled and taught by our team), together with the autonomy to explore curiosity and creativity, through a sociocratic model of operation.  This will help us to build a culture of belonging, joy and contribution among the whole school community.

We're seeking to engage early with people with a range of experience levels, who are interested in working as a learning facilitator/'Coach' in the school on a part- or full-time basis. We are doing this, so that our team of Coaches can contribute to how the school operates and input into important decisions that may impact their own working environment (when we are in a position to formally hire), and that need to be made prior to final submission of our (almost ready) paperwork to Ofsted. Meeting the needs of the whole school community necessarily includes that coaching team!

We’ll be open 45 weeks a year (unless all the Coaches prefer to adjust that!), with flexibility to take annual leave outside of ‘conventional school holidays’, and hope to build a supportive team to allow additional flexibility outside of ‘opening dates’, so that part-time coaches can ‘cover’ additional shifts, when extra leave is desired.  Working hours may vary slightly (within the team to suit individual needs), with all covering the 9.30 - 3.30pm ‘school day’, with 60-90 minutes to be spent supporting set-up/pack down, and any administration. It is our aim for our Coaches to have ‘no homework’ outside of these hours, by planning in the moment with our community of learners, and having time during working hours to consolidate / research ideas.

Our vision is for this to be the first of many micro-schools, where coaches and learners alike actively enjoy their time with us.  Having had high levels of interest already (without any active marketing), we anticipate that this will be the first of a series of micro-schools locally and across the UK, and naturally those involved in our ‘pilot’ project, would be well-placed to lead sister projects in future.  It is our vision is to have a stable, well-remunerated and happy coaching team, so that the children and coaches can really get to know each other and enjoy the enhanced sense of connection and emotional security that comes with that.

No formal qualifications are necessary, but experience working with groups of children and a deep understanding of any of the following would all be beneficial:

·       how children learn in a non-coercive environment, self-directed learning or unschooling (think Alfie Kohn, John Holt, Peter Gray)

·       the value of play and an ‘Early Years’ approach

·       child development and the importance of secure adult attachments (‘The Whole Brain Child’, ‘How To Talk…’, ‘Hold Onto Your Children’ Gabor Mate, Gordon Neufeld)

·       compassionate/empathic communication and NVC (Marshall Rosenberg, Alice Sheldon and others)

·       the benefits of a ‘forest school’ approach and time outside

·       SEND

·        trauma-informed/therapeutic practices (Sarah Naish and others)

·       subject matter experts in one or more of mathematics, science, languages, movement, the arts and creativity, technology, finance and entrepreneurialism.

We’re seeking to build a team who can inspire and support each other in learning, so mastery in new and interesting related areas would also be lovely to hear about!

There are several positions available as we’ll have 4 adults working with the children each day, and we anticipate some of these will be part-time.  It’s likely that each day we will have two more experienced team members and two who are newer to working in this way.

Salaries will vary from £20-30k and £40-50k, depending upon experience and the make-up of the team.

Please share your CV and a short covering letter, setting out: 1) your reasons for interest, 2) what you can bring to the school and areas of expertise and experience, 3) your salary expectations and 4) anything else that you think is helpful for us to know.