ABOUT THE ROLE
Location: London, with travel across the UK
Reporting to: Senior School Relationship Manager
Start date: August 2019
Hours: Full time. This will be a 12 month contract which we expect to renew annually.
Pay: Up to £31,000 dependent on experience plus excellent benefits and flexible working.
Application process
Please send a CV and cover letter to tiffanysmyly@economist.com
Deadline: June 3rd 2019.
About us
We are a fast-growing and ambitious charity that was set up from inside The Economist newspaper. We enable inspiring discussions about the news in, and between, schools.
Joining these discussions inspires young people to think big about the world and their possibilities in it. Even more importantly, it builds essential knowledge of current affairs, critical thinking, communication skills and confidence. These news literacy capabilities can help to change a young person’s life. They’re hugely valuable socially, in education, in the workplace and in public life.
Our priority is to work with those young people who most need these capabilities. Young people from low income backgrounds don’t have equal opportunities to succeed in education and beyond. They’re likely to fall significantly behind in school. They’re likely to be worse affected than their peers by the social, political and economic issues in the news. They’re less likely to end up in positions of influence where they can affect these issues. So they have the most to gain by developing knowledge and skills that can help them to understand affairs affecting their lives and to succeed in school and beyond.
That’s why our mission is to tackle inequality by giving disadvantaged young people the skills to think for themselves about current affairs.
We have big plans to increase our impact by expanding our core programme, the Burnet News Club, and exploring new ways to spark important conversations about the news in schools. We are creating this role as part of the next phase of the Foundation’s growth.
www.EconomistFoundation.org
www.BurnetNewsClub.com
About the opportunity
School Relationships Managers are the Foundation’s main liaison with Burnet News Club teachers. The right candidate will have teaching experience and an exceptional ability to motivate people and build rapport.
This is a varied role which will include a balance of office time and school visits. It will involve a mix of visiting participating schools, running sessions with students, delivering teacher training, visiting prospective schools, and presenting the programme at events or to senior people at multi-academy trusts. Office-based time will include facilitating online discussions between pupils on the Burnet News Club Hub, communicating with teachers, contributing to content development and tracking how schools are engaging with the programme.
This is an opportunity to join a friendly and highly committed team. You will make a meaningful difference to young people’s lives by bringing the Burnet News Club to more schools and deepening the impact in each one. You will be part of a unique, enterprising charity with ambitious plans to grow and deepen impact.
Training and supporting teachers to maximise impact
You will train and support participating teachers to maximise the impact of the programme in their schools. You will monitor and support a portfolio of schools to keep teachers engaged and focused on the Burnet News Club, in order to help ensure they get the most from the programme and renew their membership.
As well as delivering teacher training and support, you will feed into the ongoing development of the Foundation’s training and support model.
Curating and facilitating online discussion
The Burnet News Club Hub (BurnetNewsClub.com) is an essential part of our core programme where participating students join discussions with peers and experts. You will take lead responsibility for facilitating this discussion and curating the content of the site. This will include writing posts, moderating student contributions, responding to students, sourcing experts to join discussion, and developing new ways to enhance the students’ online learning.
Engaging new schools
You will use the relationships that you build with participating teachers to secure opportunities to introduce the club to new schools, for example at teach meets or MAT training sessions that teachers take part in.
Using your ability to build strong relationships with teachers, you will forge relationships with new schools and encourage them to take part. You will maximise your credibility as a teacher and front-line deliverer of the programme to inspire new schools to join the club.
Creating teaching resources
You will prepare training programmes and materials, and contribute to the development of Burnet News Club teaching resources each half term.
Requirements
- Teaching experience.
- Passion for the Burnet News Club pedagogical approach: using current affairs as a stimulus for dialogic teaching and discussions that develop students’ critical thinking and literacy skills.
- Strong communication skills, both verbal and written.
- An interest in current affairs.
- Exceptional ability to both quickly build rapport and nurture ongoing relationships.
- Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail.
- Self-starter with the initiative and flexibility to thrive in a dynamic small organisation.
- Willingness to travel within the UK.
- Strong commitment to our vision, mission and programmes.
This role will involve working with young people, so you will need to have a DBS check (which the Foundation can organise). It will involve travel across the UK.
Diversity and inclusion
We deeply value diversity in all respects, including age, cultural identity, race, colour, ethnic origin, national origin, gender, religious beliefs, disability, class or sexual orientation. We are passionate about providing the same chances to people from all backgrounds, and valuing the unique contributions that can be made by people with different life experiences.