Programme Director

About Us

Learning with Parents is a charity with a vision for every child to be supported at home to fulfil their potential.

We are narrowing the attainment gap by supporting all parents and carers to engage in their children’s learning.

We do this by leading the Parental Engagement Forum - a group of organisations and researchers connecting to improve home learning across the sector. We also provide a ground-breaking parental engagement programme to primary schools, which aims to motivate and empower all families to have enjoyable learning experiences together.

In the last year, our charity has become a leading player in parental engagement, working with over 10,000 families and large organisations such as BBC, Department for Education and Oak National Academy.

You can read our 2021 impact report here and see our latest news and blogs here.

About the Role

We are looking to recruit a Programme Director with a strong knowledge of how schools operate and of the education sector more widely to join our Senior Leadership Team and lead Learning with Parents school programmes.

The Programme Director leads the Schools Team, working with schools and other partners through our platform to promote parental engagement in their children’s learning. This team is responsible for supporting our school partners and other partners to use our platform, ensuring that parents and teachers are supported to effectively use the technology and that school leaders are regularly updated on the progress of their classes. Part of the role involves leading the Learning with Parents’ sales process to bring on board new schools, allowing us to expand our reach to more disadvantaged families. The Programme Director is responsible for overseeing and improving the processes and materials which underpin these programmes. This includes working closely with Learning with Parents’ Tech Team to feed into new developments, updates and any troubleshooting as required. 

The Programme Director also represents Learning with Parents and promotes parental engagement in sector networking and advocacy events. 

Finally, the Programme Director is a member of the Learning with Parents Senior Leadership Team, drawing on their experience and learning coming for our programme to feed into strategic discussions. 

Core Areas of Responsibility

Oversight of school partnerships

●    Oversight of existing school partnerships management.

●    Lead on school relationship strategy.

●    Support the School Partnership Managers to manage school relationships, address and escalate issues as they arise and keep the wider team informed.

●    Support the School Team to maintain regular meaningful communications with school partners, including through catch up calls, monthly newsletters and tailored termly impact reports.

●    Liaise with the Tech team to ensure that any tech issues can be managed, as appropriate.

●    Oversight of the school renewal process and progress towards targets.

●    Oversight of the transition process for existing schools from one academic year to the next on the Learning with Parents platform.

●    Strengthen current systems and ensure any lessons learned are captured. 

Lead on school sales

●    Lead on the sales strategy, process and progress towards school sales targets.

●    Identify new leads to feed into the Learning with Parents schools pipeline, including engagement with Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) and other potential networks.

●    Take potential school partners through our sales process

●    Update and develop any new marketing and branding materials.

●    Ensure that when new schools are handed over to the Schools Partnership Managers and effectively onboarded into the programme.

Strategic and technical input

●    Feed into strategic discussions on the direction of the organisation.

●    Provide input into the development of new content, programmes, partnerships or tech drawing on experience in the education sector and learning from the Learning with Parents programme.

●    Support or lead on the development of new strategic partnerships.

Line management

●    Directly line manage the Schools Team which includes two Schools Partnership Managers and the Charity Development Coordinator.

Additional possible areas of responsibility

Impact measurement

●    Oversee the impact measurement of Learning with Parents programmes, including exploring new approaches and methodologies

●    Support the Programme and Operations Officer with ongoing impact reports for schools and external publication. 

About You

Our ideal candidate would be able to provide examples of when they have used the following skills and experience:

●       Experience of working in schools (e.g. as a teacher) or working closely with schools

●       Project management and organisational skills

●       Excellent management skills, including the ability to lead and motivate others

●       Experience developing and strengthening systems and processes

●       A desire to champion and uphold our organisation’s vision, mission and values

Our ideal candidate might also be able to provide examples of when they have used some of the following skills and experience, although these are not essential:

●       Experience of working in schools (e.g. as a teacher) or working closely with primary schools in the UK

●       An understanding of education inequality in the UK

●       Experience of strategic planning and development

●       Experience in sales and marketing

●       Experience in impact measurement and evaluation

●       Lived experience of some of the barriers that families from disadvantaged communities face in engaging with children’s learning

Our Values

Our Learning with Parents values are key to how we work and inform our strategy, programme, and how we collaborate.

●       We have an ambitious vision, and we are determined to achieve it

●       We are inclusive and enjoy making a positive difference together

●       We foster a test-and-learn culture to drive change

●       We are empowered to take ownership

●       We act with integrity and default to transparency

Benefits

We have a passionate team and supportive culture, which was recognised as we were named one of “The top 100 organisations to escape to in 2021” by Escape the City. In addition, we offer:

●       Generous holiday allowance (35 days, including bank holidays)

●       Income protection in case of sickness

●       Home-based working with optional office time

●       Flexible working times

●       Social events

●       Environmental (Net Zero) Pension

●       Cycle to work scheme

●       Benefit Hub, including virtual GP and discount scheme

To Apply

Submit a CV and one-page Cover Letter outlining your interest and suitability for this role.

Due to the nature of our work with young people, on acceptance of offers all Learning with Parents employees are subject to a DBS check in accordance with Safeguarding Policies and offers will also be subject to reference checks.

If you have any questions about the role and applying, please contact us at [email removed - click apply for more details].