Education Consultant - Part time hours (variable)
- Are you an experienced school improvement partner or education consultant?
- Are you an Ofsted inspector or recently retired HMI?
- Would you like to make a real difference to education in the communities that need the very best?
Oasis Community Learning (OCL) leads Oasis’ distinctive community and character-led education offer, operating our 56 Academies within 40 communities with a focus on areas of deprivation. Areas that need our unique blend of teaching, learning and support the most.
As a result of a recent retirement, we are looking for an Ofsted inspector or recently retired HMI to join a team of consultants who support our academies to improve through our evaluation and monitoring programme.
At OCL we believe our children and their families deserve the very best. We support our principals and their teams to ensure they have an accurate understanding of the academies strengths and development priorities by engaging the best school improvement experts to work collegiately with. By engaging consultants as part of our Monitoring and Evaluation Team, we maintain objectivity and draw on rich experience from outside of Oasis.
Our Monitoring and Evaluation Team visits all of our academies twice a year to provide the trustees, the chief executive and his team with an objective view of each academy’s performance and what’s next on the journey to securing exceptional education at the heart of the communities we serve. The reports are also shared with the trust board. Together with academy leaders, we co-construct a review programme to evaluate key aspects of academy performance and our trust-wide priorities.
But why might you be interested?
We will:
- Provide training in the Oasis ethos that drives our vision and mission
- Allocate a number of our academies for you to work with where you can help change lives
- Give you the opportunity to work with experienced existing team members to add to your network
- Devise a flexible schedule that works with your existing commitments and life balance
- Provide administrative and proof-reading support
- Arrange appropriate travel and, where necessary, overnight accommodation
- Remunerate you well for your work.
You will be:
- An experienced school/trust senior leader with a strong track record in school improvement and understanding of standards
- A serving Ofsted inspector (or recently retired HMI)
- Prepared to travel to the trust’s academies across England (travel paid)
- Flexible in your approach
- Committed to working with the communities who need the very best evidence based evaluations.
What is the role:
Our consultants lead all our reviews. They are supported by other consultants and/or academy leaders and senior staff from Oasis. Taking a collegiate approach, the lead reviewer constructs a review programme that provides a deep insight into what is going well and priorities for improvement. We are really interested in the why. Oasis is a solutions-driven organisation. But if we don’t know what is at the heart of the matter, we will not be able to make the changes that are needed and bring about rapid improvement.
We invest heavily in our review programme. In the first half of the academic year, all of our academies receive a 2-day long review by a team commensurate with the size and complexity of the academy. During the reviews, we work with our academy leaders to review how well agreed aspects of the academy are performing, look at any Ofsted areas for improvement and our trust-wide focus. This is very much bespoke to the academy. We want to be precise in what's hot and what’s not! We will share our findings in wash-up sessions at the end of each day.
In the second half of the year, the lead reviewer returns for a 1-day visit to see how much progress has been made against those development priorities that were identified earlier in the year. We also keep a check on how well the academy is performing against any areas for improvement from the most recent Ofsted inspection and our trust-wide priorities.
More details of specific responsibilities are provided in the schedule below.
The team is led by Iain Freeland, an experienced trust leader, former HMI, and lead Ofsted inspector.
We’d love to hear from you. If you would like to talk further about the role before you express your interest, please contact Carla Jackson to arrange a time to have an informal conversation.
Expressions of interest to tender for this role should include:
- Your experience of leadership in education in England
- The expertise that you bring
- How you, as an individual, align with the Oasis ethos
- Your anticipated availability per annum
Schedule 1: Services and rates
Provide an impartial view of the quality of educational provision across OCL.
Apply an up-to-date understanding of school improvement strategies and Ofsted expectations to the work of the MET.
Attend MET updates and CPD.
Liaise with OCL colleagues to share availability for each term and agree review dates.
Prepare for the review by analysing data, reading the most recent Ofsted inspection report and previous MET review reports, OCL documentation and MET guidance, reviewing the academy website, meeting with the principal, agreeing a timetable for the review.
Ensure that the MET review team are prepared well for the visit.
Provide day-long onsite (and remote on occasions) visits to academies following the agreed foci for each review.
Involve the principals and RD in the design and focus of the review.
Work in a collegiate and open way with academy leaders.
Give clear and impartial verbal feedback to the RD and principal.
Work with leaders to agree next steps and solutions for development priorities.
Produce a report, following the current OCL template, highlighting strengths and development priorities for the academy as well as potential solutions.
Ensure all members of the team have an opportunity to contribute to the overall feedback process to academy leaders.
Invoice in a timely fashion for work completed.
RATES
Lead reviewer
Full review: £1,840 (includes preparation, 2 full days on site, report drafting and revisions)
Monitoring visit: £1,160 (includes preparation, 1 full day on site, report drafting and revisions)