Visiting Fellowship - Secondment Opportunities

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Job description

Visiting Fellowship - Secondment Opportunities

To ensure STEM Learning is best placed to continue to deliver a world-leading science education, in partnership with the science education community and school and college system, we wish to appoint highly experienced senior educationalists to play a pivotal leadership role across the National STEM Learning Centre and Network .

These newly created, highly prestigious national appointments - STEM Learning Visiting Fellows - will hold significant weight and authority within the education sector, leading a series of sector wide collaborations and partnerships.

Successful candidates will be joining a highly successful organisation with a vision to achieve "a world-leading STEM education for all young people across the UK". STEM Learning is the largest provider of STEM education and careers support in the UK, working to develop and support the expertise of teachers and school and college leaders; inspire groups and communities; and engage employers and industry.

STEM Learning's portfolio of science-specific CPD and provision is developed and delivered by a pool of quality assured CPD Facilitators - our talent pool - which supports school and system-wide improvement in science outcomes. Our ambition is to more strongly position our talent pool at the heart of our approach to achieve the highly versatile, flexible model - rooted in deep education expertise - to achieve a significant scaling up of our science support to schools and colleges across all educational phases from Early Years to post-16.

STEM Learning Visiting Fellows will lead this next phase of our development ensuring that educational talent and expertise becomes more visible, active and engaged across the breadth of the National STEM Learning Centre and Network.

We are seeking two Fellows in this round of recruitment: one covering science in early years and primary education phases, and one covering science in secondary and post-16 education phases.

Time commitment

The Visiting Fellowship will be a fixed-term arrangement - typically one year, but flexibility around time commitment and start date can be negotiated. Ideally, we would be looking at a start date of Monday 04 April 2022, but this can be flexible - an earlier or later start date any time from January 2022 will be considered.

Location

UK wide, with an expectation for frequent travel to our offices in York and London.

The role

This role provides an opportunity for outstanding candidates to undertake a flexible 'term-of office'/secondment with STEM Learning to:

• Perform a highly visible leadership and advocacy role across the sector, working nationally to "achieve a world-leading STEM education for all young people across the UK."
• Lead efforts to position subject-specific science CPD at the heart of all schools and colleges, building a culture of excellence in science teaching and learning.
• Work with system influencers across the education sector to ensure STEM Learning's offer remains relevant to existing and future needs, and complementary to other support.
• Play a central and demonstrable role in our successful mobilisation, nurturing, and further development of a vibrant science specific educational talent pool operating at scale across the UK. The impact of this success can be demonstrated by clear metrics which support a more flexible, diverse and sustainable approach to STEM Learning's CPD delivery.
• Work collaboratively with STEM Learning's partners, scientific societies, and others to build upon existing strong foundations, and position our 'talent pool' as a core component of the sector's solution to CPD capacity and capability, so becoming an unrivalled asset within the sector.
• Identify, evaluate and appropriately direct further support for schools and colleges within the challenging environment of educational recovery, and wider prioritisation of under-served and educationally disadvantaged people and communities.
• Provide informed and supportive challenge to STEM Learning's CPD strategy and operational delivery model, planning, and review whilst supporting efforts to diversify our offer, including into more specialised areas of provision.

As part of the Visiting Fellowship, there will be opportunity for the successful candidate to pursue research, evaluation, or further study in science education in an area of their choice. The successful candidates will have the unique opportunity to draw on the skills, connections and expertise within STEM Learning and, where appropriate, its partner universities and associated stakeholders.

The person

We are seeking two Fellows: one covering science at early years and primary education phases, and one covering science at secondary and post-16 education phases.

The successful candidate will:

Have recent experience of headship or senior leadership within a school or college setting, or across groups of schools and colleges;

Possess good knowledge of the current educational landscape and ability to translate that into the CPD context;

Have a highly established educational record. Desirable but not essential - experience leading CPD/science support with demonstrable impact;

Have high-level influencing skills and the confidence to secure engagement with senior leaders in schools, colleges and across groups of schools;

Be an effective public speaker with high levels of enthusiasm;

Possess high levels of integrity, compassion and trust;

Be experienced in developing effective links and partnerships between schools, colleges and wider partners.

Benefits to your school

One of the biggest challenges for any senior leader in an education setting is time - particularly to define and pursue an area of particular interest. This time will be made available through the STEM Learning Visiting Fellowships, with salary costs fully reimbursed. The STEM Learning Visiting Fellows will have dedicated time to focus on fulfilling the requirements of the role, alongside their research or study away from the exceptional demands of education leadership duties.

In addition, having the flexibility to interact with other school leaders and sector-wide education specialists at the highest level will enable the STEM Learning Visiting Fellows to develop ideas which will ultimately benefit their school / group of schools, whilst gaining an insight into sector-wide best practice and how that can be used for wider school improvement.

The STEM Learning Visiting Fellowships are highly prestigious appointments which will bring considerable status to the school; leading a series of sector wide collaborations and partnerships, the role will hold significant weight and authority within the education sector.

Location

UK wide, with an expectation for frequent travel to our offices in York and London.

About Us

STEM Learning is a highly professional and progressive organisation whose mission is to achieve a world-leading STEM education for all young people across the UK.

The National STEM Learning Centre and Network is a key UK resource for supporting STEM teaching and learning through provision of CPD, resources, online communities in partnership with a wide range of organisations and individuals. This includes driving forward ongoing development of the NCCE (National Centre for Computing Education), STEM Ambassadors and STEM Clubs programmes alongside subject-specific support for all involved in the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to young people.

Next Steps

How to apply

We welcome letters of application from interested parties with the qualifications and experience to undertake this role. Your letter should clearly detail your suitability for the role, including the educational phase that you are applying for; how you intend to fulfil the key deliverables; and suggestions of any flexibility around time commitment you might wish us to consider.

There is no deadline for applications and interviews will be scheduled on an ongoing basis so early application is encouraged.

Proposed start date: Monday 04 April 2022, this is flexible - we are happy to consider an earlier or later start date any time from January 2022.

Please apply through our vacancies page and submit:

Your up to date CV, including your full postal address, email and contact telephone number.

A covering letter (no more than the equivalent of 2 sides of A4) explaining your interest in the role and where you saw it advertised. Your application should clearly detail your suitability for the role, including the educational phase that you are applying for; how you intend to fulfil the key deliverables; and suggestions of any flexibility around time commitment you might wish us to consider.