Leading Teacher Range 3 $5000 Financial Incentive

Officer Specialist School is a purpose-built facility servicing the needs of students aged between 5-18, with mild to severe intellectual and associated disabilities in the shires of Cardinia and Casey; two of the fastest growing municipalities in Melbourne. The school opened in 2014 and the student population has increased rapidly each year, requiring the recruitment of new staff and additions to our buildings and facilities. There are two departments at the school, Primary and Secondary, and these include classrooms, visual and performance arts spaces, food technology kitchens for both departments (including the student run Shivering Chicken Café), multipurpose spaces and extensive therapy spaces. Areas for social gathering are also featured. With continued growth we now have a number of modular buildings including a Performing Arts Hub, Sensory Motor Room, Sustainability Hub and an Out of School Hours Pilot Program. The school has just opened two newly established sensory playgrounds.

School staff work in transdisciplinary teams that include teaching staff, allied health practitioners and education support staff to cater for the diverse range of student abilities and needs. Our teaming approach also provides opportunities for staff to learn from one another and share expertise.

Officer Specialist School aims to create reflective and independent learners for life through a learning community that provides a challenging and secure environment responsive to individual learning needs. We believe that effective learning occurs when outstanding and innovative teaching staff provide a variety of tasks that actively engage students who are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning. The expectation is that students will be successful and enthusiastic learners capable of building positive relationships.

Officer Specialist School believes that every child can and will learn in an environment of dignity and respect. It is the role of the school and its community to build on a child's strengths and talents to ensure that each child reaches their full potential.

The school community has a commitment to ensuring that our students are offered a high quality education enhanced by a caring and supportive environment. Parents and members of the community at large are welcomed to the school and encouraged to participate in a range of activities and programs, including a very active Parents and Friends Association. Much emphasis is placed on educational opportunities, inviting the community to be involved to a greater extent in the school, and establishing the school as a focal point of the community. We value our family friendly culture.

School values: Safe, Respectful, Friendly, Responsible

SC1         Demonstrated high-level understanding of initiatives in student learning including the FISO framework and the capacity to provide leadership in the alignment of teaching and learning in accordance with the Victorian Curriculum, including A – D.

SC2         Demonstrated outstanding classroom teaching and leadership skills and capacity to implement high impact classroom teaching strategies, to lead colleagues to continually improve teaching and learning to enable all students to achieve their full potential.

SC3         Demonstrated exemplary ability to monitor and assess student learning at an individual, team or whole-school level using a range of assessment types.  Demonstrated ability to support others in using data to inform teaching practice and to provide feedback on student learning growth and achievement to students and parents.

SC4         Demonstrated exemplary interpersonal and leadership skills to manage major curriculum or student activities.  Demonstrated ability to lead collaborative relationships with students, colleagues, parents and the broader school community focused on student learning, agency, wellbeing and engagement.

SC5         Demonstrated ability to model behaviours and attitudes consistent with Department values and support colleagues to adopt these behaviours and attitudes.  Demonstrated commitment to ongoing professional learning for self and others to enable further development of skills, expertise and teaching capacity, taking into account the intellectual, physical, emotional and social development of all students.

Leading teachers will be highly skilled classroom practitioners and undertake leadership and management roles commensurate with their salary range.  The role of Leading Teachers is to improve the skill, knowledge and performance of the teaching workforce in a school or group of schools and to improve the curriculum program of a school.

Typically, Leading Teachers are responsible for coordinating a number of staff to achieve improvements in teaching and learning which may involve the coordination and professional support of colleagues through modelling, collaborating and coaching and using processes that develop knowledge, practice and professional engagement in others.

Leading teachers are expected to lead and manage a significant area or function within the school with a high degree of independence to ensure the effective development, provision and evaluation of the school's education program.

Leading teachers will be expected to make a significant contribution to policy development relating to teaching and learning in the school. A Leading Teacher has a direct impact and influence on the achievement of the school goals.

Leading teachers are usually responsible for the implementation of one or more priorities contained in the school strategic plan.

In recognition of the importance of leadership and management combined with exemplary teaching practice for improved student learning outcomes, the key roles of the Leading Teachers may include but are not limited to:

• Leading and managing the implementation of whole-school improvement initiatives related to the school strategic plan and school priorities
• Leading and managing the implementation of whole-school improvement strategies related to curriculum planning and delivery;
• Leading and managing the provision of professional development and developing individual and team development plans for teaching staff within the priorities of the school;
• Leading and managing staff performance and development (review of staff);
• Teaching demonstration lessons;
• Leading and managing the development of the school's assessment and reporting policies and practices;
• Leading and managing the implementation of the school operations and policies related to student welfare and discipline;
• Leading the development of curriculum in a major learning area and participating in curriculum development in other areas;
• Responsibility for general discipline matters beyond the management of classroom teachers;
• Contributing to the overall leadership and management of the school;
• Contributing to the development of proposals for school council consideration;
• Developing and managing the school code of conduct.

Teachers currently registered or eligible for registration with the Victorian Institute of Teaching and qualified to teach and/or have demonstrated experience in the curriculum area(s) specified for the position.

The Department of Education and Training is committed to the principles of equal opportunity, and diversity and inclusion for all. We value diversity and inclusion in all forms – gender, religion, ethnicity, LGBTIQ+, disability and neurodiversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for roles within the Department.  The Department recognises that the provision of family friendly, supportive, safe and harassment free workplaces is essential to high performance and promotes flexible work, diversity and safety across all schools and Department workplaces.

Victorian government schools are child safe environments. Our schools actively promote the safety and wellbeing of all students, and all school staff are committed to protecting students from abuse or harm in the school environment, in accordance with their legal obligations including child safe standards. All schools have a Child Safety Code of Conduct consistent with the Department’s exemplar available at http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/health/protect/Pages/childsafestandards.aspx

The Department’s employees commit to upholding DET’s Values: Responsiveness, Integrity, Impartiality, Accountability, Respect, Leadership and Human Rights. DET’s Values complement each school’s own values and underpin the behaviours the community expects of Victorian public sector employees, including those who work in Victorian Government Schools. Information on the DET values is available at http://www.education.vic.gov.au/hrweb/workm/Pages/Public-Sector-Values.aspx

Start Date is negotiable with the Principal.

Please phone the school on 5943 2800 to arrange a school tour.

Please ensure that your application includes:

• a resume including relevant experience as well as personal details (name, address and contact numbers, business and home)
• a section addressing the selection criteria and the requirements for application under the Who May Apply section
• names and contact numbers (telephone and email if possible) of two referees who are able to attest to the claims made in your application

Please note that the selection panel may seek additional referees beyond those you name. Consistent with policy, we shall advise you if we will take this action.

Where an ongoing teaching position in a special school is advertised:

• an ongoing teacher who does not hold an approved special education qualification may be offered permanent transfer to the school if the teacher has completed 3 or more years continuous employment in the teaching service in a special setting and is assessed by the principal as suitable for ongoing employment in a special setting
• an external applicant, including an existing fixed term employee, who does not hold an approved special education qualification, but who holds provisional or full registration with the Victorian Institute of Teaching, may be offered ongoing employment if the teacher has completed 3 or more years of continuous employment as a teacher in the teaching service in a special setting and is assessed by the principal as suitable for ongoing employment in a special setting

Other than set out above, a teacher who does not have an approved special education qualification can only be offered:

• temporary transfer for a period not exceeding 3 years where the successful applicant is an ongoing employee, or
• fixed term employment for a period not exceeding 5 years where the successful applicant is not an ongoing employee

Please phone the school on 5943 2800 if you would like to discuss the position further.

$5000 Financial Incentive is offered to external applicants only.

• All staff employed by the Department and schools have access to a broad range of employment conditions and working arrangements.
• Appointment of successful applicants will be made subject to a satisfactory pre-employment conditions check.
• A probationary period may apply during the first year of employment and induction and support programs provided.
• Detailed information on all terms and conditions of employment is available on the Department's Human Resources website at http://www.education.vic.gov.au/hrweb/Pages/default.aspx

To be eligible for employment, transfer or promotion in the principal or teacher class a person must have provisional or full registration from the Victorian Institute of Teaching. In addition, from 3 August 2020, to be eligible for employment in the principal class or teacher class, a person who graduated from a Victorian Initial Teacher Education program after 1 July 2016, must demonstrate that they have passed the literacy and numeracy test for initial teacher education (LANTITE) requirements. This condition is satisfied where the LANTITE requirement is part of the Victorian Initial Teacher Education program completed by the person.