RB- Merseyside, RB- Preston and RB- Warwick will be looking for staff in the future

If you are interested in applying, please feel welcome to contact us and ask to visit a Centre that has been in operation for some time - specifically, in Cambridge, Norwich or Harrow. You would also be welcome at one of the new Centres.

 

Information that might be helpful for those enquiring about Red Balloon posts

Red Balloon Learner Centres provide safe learning environments for young people who have been so badly bullied that they cannot attend mainstream school. They could be described as "intensive care units", in that once the young people have recovered, they return to mainstream education or enter employment.

Red Balloons are not schools, and indeed aim to be as unlike schools as possible, partly because our students have had such bad experiences in schools, and partly because what they need in order to be able to recover from the effects of bullying could not be provided in a school setting.

A teacher joining a Red Balloon would become part of a supportive community of students, staff (teachers, support assistants, an administrator, a housekeeper) and volunteers.

All Red Balloons subscribe to the explicit philosophy which underpins our approach. Its core principles are:

1.     We are different from schools.

2.    Students are our first priority.

3.    We provide a first-class service.

4.    Each child is given unconditional positive regard.

5.    We operate a negotiated curriculum.

New staff follow an induction programme in order to become familiar with our philosophy, and there is ongoing training of all staff to ensure that the practice reflects the philosophy.

• The Learner Centres are set up in domestic-type houses.

• Each Centre takes a maximum of 15 students.

• Students attend daily from 9 to 3.30

• There is no staff room.

• Academic work (including creative subjects) takes up about 60% of the day, the pastoral element (group sessions, therapy and counselling, citizenship and ethics, Circle Time, etc) comprises 40%.

• Students work with teachers either on a one-to-one basis or in small groups, as appropriate.

• All members of staff act therapeutically to some extent.

•The academic level of the children we take varies greatly.

• GCSEs can be taken, though each student is limited to five/six per year.

• The salary scale is much lower than mainscale teacher level. We are aiming to be able to pay a minimum teacher rate of £20,000, though that varies from Centre to Centre.

 

-- Posted by Red Balloon - Merseyside on 1st May 2010 --