Do you want to have the freedom to make a real difference to the lives of young people at school?

Do you want to be part of a movement advocating for a more inclusive education system?

Do you want the opportunity to receive a high-quality training package focussed on gaining the skills to support the most ‘at risk’ young people?

Title: School Programmes Lead Practitioner
Reports to: School Project Manager 
Start date: September/October 2023
Location: Birmingham
Hours: Full Time
Salary: £27,000 - £31,000 (experience depending)
Deadline: Tuesday 29th August 2023, 5pm

We are looking for a passionate individual who wants to learn to deliver our long term, intensive wrap-around intervention in schools across the West Midlands. The FBB model puts young people’s passions and strengths at the heart of their development to help them thrive in secondary school. We need someone who is deeply committed to changing the life chances of young people and has the energy, empathy and adaptability to deliver the support young people deserve to thrive in school and beyond.

You will be highly motivated, with high standards for yourself and others. We’re seeking someone caring, ambitious and keen to learn who loves working with young people. You will have a strong moral compass and a proven commitment to really make a difference to young people’s lives.

Before you skim the job description, please remember you don’t have to tick all the boxes for the role to apply. We all experience a bit of imposter syndrome, including the staff here at Football Beyond Borders. If this role pulls you and you believe you could make a difference then apply anyway or reach out to us to discuss more!

Who are we?

FBB is one of the leading educational charities and youth brands in the UK. Established in 2014, we have undergone impressive growth in the past couple of years and are now at an exciting stage of our journey. We currently work with 2000 students across 130 Secondary School programmes in Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Lancashire, Yorkshire, London, Kent and Essex. Alongside this, we have built strong partnerships with a host of brands such as Nike. In the next stage of our journey FBB aims to become the leading specialist charity for disengaged young people and the best place to work with young people in the UK.

Young people are at the heart of everything we do. From decisions made at Senior Leadership and our Board, to how we design activations with partners to ensure young people get the most out of them. We’re working in a system that has been designed to limit the potential of many young people, and we know that to make real change, we need to work hard and differently. FBB can be fast-paced and intensive at times, but our focus on working culture and support is prioritised to ensure staff are in a position to ‘Go Beyond’ for young people.

We place relationships at the heart of what we do. That’s not only about our work with young people, but equally important with our colleagues. We strive to do things differently at FBB. We don’t believe that work should be the thing you dread on a Sunday evening. If you’re keen to throw yourself into new environments and develop meaningful relationships with people from all walks of life, then FBB is the workplace for you.

We’re also BIG on learning. This means that we dedicate a full day of everyone’s week to learning and development, during this day practitioners take part in our innovative training programme which includes chances to receive training from external experts, connect with colleagues and reflect. As a young and ambitious team, we are constantly finding the next opportunities to develop. We like to throw our hat in the ring for things we’ve never tried before. FBB is a place where you can be introduced to multiple different aspects of work: our focus on cross-team collaboration means you'll have the opportunity to work on projects in Brand, Comms, Operations, Culture and Programmes. We also don’t mind the conventional stuff: there’s an FBB reading list, opportunities for reflection and external training budgets too!

FBB is recognised in the sector as innovative and thought-leading. We are always on the hunt for talented and ambitious people to join the team and contribute to our vision of becoming a leader in supporting young people to thrive and become the best versions of themselves.

Role Overview

The School Programme Lead Practitioner will deliver the FBB Schools Programme in partner Secondary Schools across the West Midlands. This will involve delivering programmes across up to 4 schools. This person will be based in schools facilitating FBB sessions and supporting FBB participants outside of sessions with additional pastoral support including 1:1s and parental engagement.

Main duties:

1. Lead on the delivery of up to 5 FBB Schools programmes at our partner schools managing a caseload of 80 students. This will involve delivery of FBB sessions as well as additional pastoral support outside of sessions including 1:1s, parental engagement and working with staff within the school.

2. Lead on the ongoing evaluation and monitoring of individual sessions, participant performance and programme outcomes.

3. Track, draft and submit progress reports on the students contained in your FBB Schools programmes.

4. Manage the team of staff members on each of your FBB Schools programmes

5. Manage relationships with partner teachers and SLT at our partner schools and with participants’ parents

6. Working closely with our specialist therapeutic team to design and develop specific interventions for at risk students on your programme

Your Team

The beauty of this role is that you will be working closely with young people on a day to day basis as well as staff across various FBB partner schools.

Your key relationships within FBB will be with:

• School Programmes Practitioners. On each of your programmes you will be supporting one of our School Programmes Practitioners.
• School Programme Managers. These people are the leaders of the team with a wealth of experience within schools who will support your development.

Your Development 

In 2022/23 academic year we launched a unique frontline development programme which aims to give the best possible training for our practitioners. Every Wednesday practitioners will not be in schools, instead this day is reserved for training. Depending on a practitioner's experience and previous qualifications they will receive formal training in couselling, supporting young people with SEN, Mental Health, group facilitation, football coaching and much more. There will be the opportunity for our practitioners to identify a specialist area that they wish to train in so they can lead the organisation in this area. This is a brilliant opportunity to build your skills and expertise in supporting young people. FBB is an ambitious charity with plans for continued growth over the coming years and with that comes opportunities to grow with the organisation and take on more responsibility.

What development could look like…

Year 1 

Title: Lead  

Salary: £27,000

Role:  At this point the practitioner becomes a ‘Lead’ which means they hold responsibility for the programme. They will have responsibility for the relationship with the school, running therapeutic mentoring for those students with higher needs and managing the more junior practitioners they have working with them.

Training: Base level training in counselling SEN, Mental Health, Group facilitation, football coaching and more.

Year 2

Title: Advanced Lead

Salary: £29,000

Role:  In year 2 of being a Lead practitioner responsibility for supporting the development of a trainee and managing school relationships will be part of the responsibilities. They will also begin to contribute to FBB in their area of specialism (impact team, policy, delivery training).

Training:  Staff will get the opportunity to choose a specialism to pursue at this point. This could be in teaching and learning, counselling or youth work.

Year 3

Title: Specialist Lead

Salary: £31,000

Role:  At this point as a ‘specialist’ in their chosen field they will take on some FBB wide responsibility for that area.

Training: During this year practitioners are encouraged to scale their impact by taken their specialism and contributing to area of FBB from curriculum design to training to brand to fundraising.

Year 4

Title: School Programmes Manager

Salary: £35,000

Role:  Leading a team of people to deliver FBB Programmes across multiple schools. Managing the relationships with the schools, line managing School Programme Practitioners and ensuring quality of FBB programmes in that region.

Training: Training is dependent on area of specialism along with equivalent senior leader training that school leaders receive.

Your Perks

Due to our corporate partnerships and focus on working culture, FBB has a variety of perks alongside the job, including:

🏄🏻‍♀️ 20 + 16 days annual leave

We offer all our staff 20 flexible days plus 16 days further as part of 3 separate annual office shutdown periods.

📚 Learning & Development

A significant Learning & Development Budget for training opportunities, qualifications, and a wide network for external mentoring.

🕺 Regular social & team events

Staff away days and regular team bonding days as well as event opportunities through our partners.

🧘‍♀️ Wellbeing Support

From free access to Health Assured EAP and Headspace packages to a wellbeing budget - we go beyond to support our staff holistically.

Your Experience

Important Things About You....

• You will be committed to supporting the most at risk young people in our schools and willing to go beyond for them
• You have experience of delivering sessions to 10-16 year olds
• You will be someone who loves working in a team
• You will have excellent interpersonal skills, empathy and emotional intelligence
• You enjoy working in fast paced environments and have a hunger to learn
• You have an understanding of the challenges and different learning needs of adolescents
• You will be able to build strong relationships with young people built on their assets and passions
• You can develop strong working relationships with colleagues and teachers within schools
• You will be able to problem solve independently and adapt to new situations
• You are keen to learn and develop and relish taking on feedback and learning from mistakes

And also consider applying if any of the following apply to you...

• You have worked in schools supporting young people
• You have been a teacher with QTS
• Have qualifications in counselling/mental health support for young people
• You have experience of delivering interventions to young people with SEN or  SEMH
• You have experience in youth work

Recruitment Process 

Football Beyond Borders aims to be representative of the community we are working with. We recognise that having the strongest workforce possible means hiring and developing the best people across all races, ethnicities, religions, age groups, sexual orientations, gender identities and abilities.

We’re not just committed to being an equal opportunity employer, we actively celebrate diversity in all its forms. Let us know if we can do anything to make the application or interview process more accessible. If you are invited to interview, we will at that point ask you for any accessibility requirements or preferences.

FBB is committed to adopting a safe recruitment process and follows the NSPCC safer
recruitment procedures that have safeguarding at their heart. The appointment will undergo an enhanced DBS check.

Shortlisting, interviews and reference checking

When shortlisting, we will be looking for evidence that you have the knowledge, experience and skills to do the job as detailed in the person specification and job description. These provide the criteria against which your application will be assessed.

You must fill in the application form and are requested NOT to submit a curriculum vitae. All applications will be taken seriously and contacted regarding the outcome of their application.

Principles of the Model

We exist to transform the behaviour for learning and attitude to learning of students
who love football but are disengaged at school.
Our work builds on the strengths and potential of our young people through putting
their passion for football at the heart of their learning.

Our programme is built on the following four theoretical foundations:

Attachment Theory
Adolescent Neuroscience
Developmental Trauma
Humanistic Therapy

FBB works with young people for four years, through weekly interventions and holiday
programmes delivered in partnership with secondary schools across London and the
North West. The programme is targeted at Key Stage 3 students who are disengaged at school and come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. We know from
the evidence that Key Stage 3 is the crucial time to work with disengaged young people in order to prevent them from being excluded.

We believe real change can only be sustained through an embedded and holistic approach to our young people’s development. We work to become deeply embedded in the lives of our participants and in the communities we are based in. Our integrated approach is supported through intensive parental and teacher engagement achieved through parents’ evenings, teacher showcases and weekly text and phone updates.

SEL Curriculum
Our expert social and emotional learning curriculum takes place in the classroom and
on the football pitch. We explicitly teach social and emotional skills through passion-
led modules which tap into young people’s interests. We create transformational
learning experiences through our partnerships with Nike, Gillette and the FA, and these
complete with a public showcase at the end of each project. We see this as a key part in young people developing a more positive attitude towards learning. We use reflective
questioning on the football pitch to develop the social and emotional skill in focus.

1-1 Therapeutic Mentoring

Weekly one to one session to provide a safe space for our most At Risk students to work through the traumatic experiences which may be contributing to their challenging behaviour.

In-school support
We work alongside the school’s pastoral team to provide in school day behaviour and social emotional support. We conduct classroom observations, informal 1-1s, restorative meetings, reintegration meetings, target-setting parental engagement and much more.

Trips
We reward participants with visits and end of year tours built around exciting events
involving inspiring people from the world of football and media. Our students broaden
their horizons and develop positive habits.