Set on a picturesque campus with views of the Malvern Hills, New College Worcester is a unique education provider with big ambitions for their future. Following the successful recruitment of board members in 2022, the College now seeks to appoint a further trustee governor who can help to shape and support their provision.
* Salary: Voluntary
* Closing date: Rolling applications
New College Worcester is a unique college, delivering education to young people who are blind or vision impaired (VI) in a beautiful, rural setting to the southwest of Worcester.
Our college has a long and proud history. Initially established in 1886, we moved to our current site over a century ago. Today, the College welcomes students from across the country. As a provider of both day and residential education, the majority of students attend from outside of the immediate, local area.
Due to this ‘national catchment area’, the college works hard to foster a sense of community and is very proud of success in relation to this. It is this sense of ‘feeling like family’ which is frequently described by staff, students, and parents/carers alike, that is one of the keys to our success.
Senior Leaders and Governors have worked tirelessly to ensure that the College has the appropriate mix of education and curriculum knowledge coupled with expertise relating to visual impairments and safeguarding to create a successful, ambitious and safe learning environment for their students.
The College currently delivers a curriculum almost identical to that provided in a mainstream setting, from Years 7 to 13 – including GCSEs and A Levels. There is an additional focus on independent living skills, mobility, accessibility technology, braille, and a keen focus on extra-curricular opportunities. The College has a lot of success in relation to academic attainment with many going on to higher and further education, but to New College Worcester, success isn’t just about grades or pass rates. Whilst these are of course important, success to New College Worcester means ensuring their young people are appropriately prepared to live independent, happy and fruitful lives once their education is complete.
At present, the college currently has 75 students enrolled with additional capacity for a further small number. Alongside the continuous quality improvement processes relating to education, the College has ambitious plans for the future. There is a desire to expand and modernise accommodation to increase capacity whilst adapting and developing the wider site more generally.
In 2022, we appointed our Principal, Rachel Perks, who, along with her SLT and our Board has led us through a period of transformational change resulting in our recent Residential Ofsted grade of Good in May earlier this year. We have also recently experienced some changes within our Board, with Pat Dyson succeeding Diana Fulbrook as Chair following years of dedicated service. With other governors departing us as they came to the ends of their terms of office, we have successfully implemented our succession planning. To complete this process, we now seek to appoint a new Trustee Governor to join our Residential Care & Safeguarding Committee (RCSC).
Who we're looking for
The safety and wellbeing of our students is always our priority. We believe that if our students feel cared for, respected and safe, then they will be able to thrive from both educational and social development perspectives. As such, we set very high standards for ourselves and need to ensure that as a college we are scrutinising and challenging our own processes in this regard. Scrutiny and challenge are also welcomed from our Trustee Governors who dedicate their time to ensuring that we are on the right path as an organisation.
To this end, we seek to appoint a new member to our Residential Care & Safeguarding Committee (RCSC) to support us in continuing to offer high quality education in a setting where our learners are safe and suitably cared for – where the safeguarding and wellbeing is paramount. The appointed candidate will also be a member of our full board.
This new member could have a range of experience. We will be welcoming applications from individuals who have experience in the safeguarding of young people, and the delivery of high-quality residential care as well as those with experience working with young people from a health and social care perspective. We also welcome applications from people with a visual impairment.
Candidates will need to be able to demonstrate an up-to-date knowledge of relevant policies and practice. Experience does not need to have been gained in a formal education setting.
It is expected that all governors would need to dedicate around 10 hours per month to the role. All meetings of the governing body and its sub-committees currently take place during the college day.
Peridot Partners and New College Worcester are, together, committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and our client expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced DBS check and satisfactory references before any final offer can be made.
For further information about the role, or to arrange a confidential discussion, please contact our advising consultants at Peridot Partners:
If you would like to know more about this role please contact Chloe Cox
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