Family Worker - Pastoral and Behaviour Support at Dorchester Learning Centre

Are you passionate about making a difference in the lives of vulnerable students? Do you have a caring and dedicated approach to supporting young learners? Are you ready to join a dynamic team, focused on the ambition to provide bespoke solutions to drive change for our students and families? We work to our motto, “One pupil, one plan”, driven by the understanding that every child is different and every child matters.

We are seeking a dedicated and compassionate Family Worker with pastoral responsibility and experience in behaviour management to join our team. This role is essential in providing support to families and young people, ensuring a positive and supportive environment both at home and within the school. We are an accredited Mental Health and Trauma Informed School. Our understanding of student behaviour is underpinned by the Thrive approach and relational practice

This role requires you to support young people and their families with emotionally challenging situations. It is important that the post holder has strong emotional health. The role does involve a significant amount of safeguarding and the post holder may become a deputy designated safeguarding lead.

Key Responsibilities:

Provide pastoral care and support to students and their families/carers, 

Work closely with parents, carers, and external agencies to improve the wellbeing of students.

Offer guidance and intervention strategies for managing behaviour, including creating behaviour plans.

Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of support and report progress regularly.

Work with teachers, SENCO, and leadership to implement strategies for behaviour improvement.

 Key Requirements:

Previous experience in a similar role, ideally within an education or social services setting.

Strong understanding of child development, behaviour management, and pastoral care.

Ability to work collaboratively with families, staff, and external agencies.

Excellent communication, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills.

A compassionate, empathetic, and non-judgmental approach to supporting families and young people

A resilient and calm demeanour to cope with challenging situations 

We passionately believe that happy, highly respected employees make the best teaching and support staff. We therefore take the wellbeing of our staff very seriously and ensure that they all maintain a healthy work-life balance. Successful candidates will be prepared to work hard and respond to the daily challenges of school life but won’t have any unreasonable demands placed upon them.

“There are secure and trusting relationships between staff and pupils at Dorchester Learning Centre. These are vital to the success and positive experiences of the pupils who attend. Staff are ambitious in their vision to get the best possible outcomes for pupils during their time at the school. Staff encourage pupils to be aspirational and leaders work to make sure that pupils receive the support they need towards achieving their goals.” Ofsted report (Good) – May 2022

The Dorchester Learning Centre has a main teaching base close to Dorchester (Monkton Park). The cohort ranges in age from 5 – 16. Visits to the school are encouraged, prior to submitting your application.

Please don't hesitate to ring Deborah Guyler, School Business Manager, on 01305 261213, or email [email protected] to make an appointment.

Dorchester Learning Centre values the diversity of our workforce and welcomes applications from all sectors of the community.

Dorchester Learning Centre is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people; this is a commitment which we expect all staff and volunteers to share. The successful candidate will be required to have a Disclosure and Barring Service check in line with the Governments safer recruitment guidelines.

The pro rata salary shown is based on the number of hours and weeks worked and includes appropriate paid annual leave and bank holiday entitlements.

The salary quoted is the annual salary for the position at the time of advert. The salary will be paid in equal monthly instalments and will be adjusted at the start of employment and again if leaving part way through the school year to ensure the correct salary is received for the work completed in an academic year.

This role is UK based and your Right to Work will need to be established as part of the appointment process.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974. The amendments to the ROA 1974 (Exceptions Order 1975, (2013 and 2020)) provide that when applying for certain jobs and activities, certain spent convictions and cautions are ‘protected’, so they do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account. The MOJ’s guidance on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Exceptions Order 1975, provides information about which convictions must be declared during job applications and related exceptions and further information about filtering offences can be found in the DBS filtering guide.

Keeping Children Safe in Education

Dorchester Learning Centre will conduct online searches of shortlisted candidates. This check will be part of a safeguarding check, and the search will purely be based on whether an individual is suitable to work with children. All aspects of social media and internet searches will be conducted. As care must be taken to avoid unconscious bias and any risk of discrimination, a person who will not on the appointment panel will conduct the searches and will only share information if and when findings are relevant and of concern.