Education Improvement Team Professional Learning Lead

Description:

The Welsh Government is changing the way that it engages with local authorities and schools, in the context of the Strategic Review of Education Partners, to provide more active support to enable a self-improving system which improves educational standards for learners in Wales.

We are establishing a new Education Improvement Team within Welsh Government, to lead more regular strategic engagement with local authorities to share national priorities, develop cross-sector understanding, and provide national support as appropriate. The Team will look to build up over time if and as needed. It actively seeks to represent WG education priorities in an integrated way so will represent key education policy areas.

We are recruiting two secondees to work closely with local authorities and schools to ensure national priorities are clear, build a better understanding of local challenges and experiences to inform national policy, and to facilitate connection and join up across Wales to support delivery of national priorities. They will contribute to the overall understanding of the progress of the school-to-school collaboration model set out in the recent guidance (attached), and will be responsible for ensuring that their area of focus enables improvement in educational standards.

A professional learning secondee will ensure the new national arrangements for professional learning connect closely and effectively with the local professional learning offer across Wales, and will support and facilitate the responsiveness of the system to emerging need. As their focus will be on professional learning, we are looking for a person with current and strong experience of local authority ways of working, ideally from within a local authority. The postholder will have experience in developing strong collaborative relationships with partners, be innovative and responsive to emerging needs.

A secondee on ALN and on equity are also part of the team. They will provide this lens and experience in the engagement the team has with local authorities.

Welsh language is desirable for both posts and the postholders will need to be prepared to travel across Wales at times over the period.

The appointment will be as a secondment. A part-time arrangement will be considered. There will be no possibility of extending the agreement as the policy is to ensure that expertise and knowledge is shared across the system and that these posts provide a learning opportunity for partners across the sector.

Person specification

• As part of the new Education Improvement Team, provide a clear set of national priorities for schools and to support learning in the context of the National Improvement Framework, based on information and evidence, and with support for inclusion and more equitable attainment underpinning these. Keep these priorities under review on an annual basis.
• Set out an approach to a national information-sharing cycle which includes schools, local authorities and national government, to ensure agile ongoing information-sharing on successes and opportunities as well as issues and challenges, to enable success to be shared across, up and down and help the system to respond to challenges. The professional learning secondee will work to ensure close alignment between school improvement and professional learning to enable the provision of valuable and impactful support.
• Welsh Government will discuss with local authorities their local improvement priorities and challenges and the quality of learning on a bi-annual basis (once at least in person). School improvement is a process which enables our national priorities to be achieved in an integrated and coherent way. As information becomes available through school improvement discussions with local authorities, Welsh Government will act on this promptly and appropriately to support schools and local authorities. The professional learning secondee will be particularly responsible for ensuring that emerging support needs across local authorities and schools are raised internally and with key national partners to ensure an appropriate and timely response.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Working Together

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know