Job Openings at Valenture Institute

Description

Our School Counsellor is deeply committed to helping our students succeed in their High School experience. Our Counsellor is passionate about supporting our students, parents and staff. They are responsible for implementing pastoral care initiatives, developing socio-emotional programmes, providing personalised interventions to our students and parents, as well as supporting and training the Valenture Institute Faculty and Student Success Team members.

Student support

Builds a positive, supportive school culture among students, staff, and parents through the coordinating of staff, school and family events;

• Initiate, develop and implement pastoral care initiatives that promote an holistic skill set within the student population that are developmentally appropriate.

• Collaborates with Student Success leadership on developing social emotional programs and curriculum

• Provides short term individual counseling for students referred by staff or self-referred

• Screens and reviews the need for further psychotherapeutic support and refers out accordingly

• Conduct frequent classroom, homeroom and learning compass observations in order to best support students and staff;

• Proactively coordinates events that support and train families with students identified as at-risk;

• Communicate with teachers, parents and administrators on an ongoing basis about behavioural and academic problems

• Collaborates with mentors, faculty and other relevant staff in developing behavior plans for identified/referred students;

• Maintains case history records and prepares reports;

• Lead crisis management for students in need of this support

Staff support

• Plays an integral role in defining and supporting the Response to Intervention (RtI) process

• Provide professional development and 1:1 support around social emotional intelligence, skills, etc.; trains mentors and faculty in their role as mandated reports of suspected child abuse and neglect; acts as school liaison with Child Care Service Organizations

• Conduct monthly supervision sessions with the Student Success Mentors and Learning Coaches

• Provide whole school development in identified areas

• Work closely with Faculty Leads to understand and support the management of Tier 1 and Tier 2 student cases

Realities of the role

• Ability to balance administrative and support services efficiently

• Valenture Institute is a fast-paced startup. We are not a traditional school! We are reimagining schooling and precedent needs to be adopted only where it has proven to have great results. If you think that traditional schools have it all figured out, this is probably not the right role for you.

• Collaboration is the name of the game. We operate in highly specialised teams, and our ability to deliver an excellent student experience is premised on our team’s ability to collaborate, value the contributions of their teammates (including those in other teams) and see the value in the “rubbing of minds”. If you do not find value in having your ideas interrogated or others weighing in on how things could foreseeably be done, you are unlikely to enjoy the role. Similarly, if you are not comfortable with other teams being accountable for different parts of the learning experience, you are unlikely to find this environment to be a good fit for you.

• The Student Success team are master multitaskers. They enjoy the pace and variety of parent and student engagements, coaching groups, monitoring multiple data points, updating student progress monitoring resources, collaborating with teams, dealing with special cases, and working on multiple systems — all in a day’s work! If you prefer long periods of deep, uninterrupted time, you are unlikely to enjoy this role.

• Providing a seamless learning experience for students and parents often involves a lot of backend admin. The ideal candidate would have a pragmatic understanding of the value that administrative tasks bring to bear on the experience of an end user.

• As a new brand of schooling operating at the forefront of digital disruption, technical challenges do arise. The ideal candidate will have an appreciation for how necessary it is to fail fast and fail forward, learn through iterative feedback loops, and embrace the process of continuous learning.

• Change is constant as a result of rapid learning cycles. If consistent change gives you energy rather than drains your energy, you are likely to thrive in this environment. Similarly, if you are adept at managing yourself in a demanding environment and understand the importance of self awareness and boundaries in your work, you are likely to do very well.

Requirements

• Masters in Social Work, BPsych or equivalent

• Registration with HPCSA or SACSSP

• 3-5 years of professional experience in secondary school education, serving as a counselor or social worker

• Demonstrated ability in holding successful individual and group sessions with students;

• Experience in social emotional learning curriculum

• Experience working with a multidisciplinary team to support Barriers to Learning

• Experience developing and implementing individual support plans for students

• Be passionate about learning.

• To have a thorough knowledge of the Mental Health provision locally and nationally

• Understanding of the British Curriculum (preferred)

• Excellent command of the English language, verbal and written communication skills and demonstrated proficiency in telephonic engagement

• Excellent interpersonal skills, consistently amicable and responsive in dealing with all people, both externally and internally;

• Ability to simply convey concepts, principles and procedures via multiple channels such as email, phone and chat;

• Understanding of technical and business process at a high level;

• Minimum technical proficiency in working on different systems (training will be provided);

• Questioning, taking ownership of and simplifying the tasks to improve process efficiencies and achieve business outcomes.

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Description

Our School Counsellor and Support Lead is deeply committed to helping our students succeed in their High School experience. Our Counsellor and Support Lead is passionate about supporting our students, parents and staff. They are responsible for implementing pastoral care initiatives, developing socio-emotional programmes, providing personalised interventions to our students and parents, as well as supporting and training the Valenture Institute Faculty and Student Success Team members.

Student support

Builds a positive, supportive school culture among students, staff, and parents through the coordinating of staff, school and family events;

• Initiate, develop and implement pastoral care initiatives that promote an holistic skill set within the student population that are developmentally appropriate.

• Collaborates with Student Success leadership on developing social emotional programs and curriculum

• Provides short term individual counseling for students referred by staff or self-referred

• Screens and reviews the need for further psychotherapeutic support and refers out accordingly

• Conduct frequent classroom, homeroom and learning compass observations in order to best support students and staff;

• Proactively coordinates events that support and train families with students identified as at-risk;

• Communicate with teachers, parents and administrators on an ongoing basis about behavioural and academic problems

• Collaborates with mentors, faculty and other relevant staff in developing behavior plans for identified/referred students;

• Maintains case history records and prepares reports;

• Lead crisis management for students in need of this support

Staff support

• Plays an integral role in defining and supporting the Response to Intervention (RtI) process

• Trains mentors and faculty in their role as mandated reports of suspected child abuse and neglect; acts as school liaison with Child Care Service Organizations

• Conduct monthly supervision sessions with the Student Success Mentors and Learning Coaches

• Work closely with Faculty Leads to understand and support the management of Tier 1 and Tier 2 student cases

Team leadership and culture

• Direct line manager to the Academic Support Team and interns

• Provide direction and leadership to direct reports

• Focus on the overall health and wellness of the team through coaching and development plans.

• Support the Head of Student Well-being in developing an internship and/or learnership programme for long term scale of support services

Realities of the role

• Ability to balance administrative and support services efficiently

• Valenture Institute is a fast-paced startup. We are not a traditional school! We are reimagining schooling and precedent needs to be adopted only where it has proven to have great results. If you think that traditional schools have it all figured out, this is probably not the right role for you.

• Collaboration is the name of the game. We operate in highly specialised teams, and our ability to deliver an excellent student experience is premised on our team’s ability to collaborate, value the contributions of their teammates (including those in other teams) and see the value in the “rubbing of minds”. If you do not find value in having your ideas interrogated or others weighing in on how things could foreseeably be done, you are unlikely to enjoy the role. Similarly, if you are not comfortable with other teams being accountable for different parts of the learning experience, you are unlikely to find this environment to be a good fit for you.

• The Student Success team are master multitaskers. They enjoy the pace and variety of parent and student engagements, coaching groups, monitoring multiple data points, updating student progress monitoring resources, collaborating with teams, dealing with special cases, and working on multiple systems — all in a day’s work! If you prefer long periods of deep, uninterrupted time, you are unlikely to enjoy this role.

• Providing a seamless learning experience for students and parents often involves a lot of backend admin. The ideal candidate would have a pragmatic understanding of the value that administrative tasks bring to bear on the experience of an end user.

• As a new brand of schooling operating at the forefront of digital disruption, technical challenges do arise. The ideal candidate will have an appreciation for how necessary it is to fail fast and fail forward, learn through iterative feedback loops, and embrace the process of continuous learning.

• Change is constant as a result of rapid learning cycles. If consistent change gives you energy rather than drains your energy, you are likely to thrive in this environment. Similarly, if you are adept at managing yourself in a demanding environment and understand the importance of self awareness and boundaries in your work, you are likely to do very well.

Requirements

• Honours in Social Work, BPsych or equivalent

• Registration with HPCSA or SACSSP

• 3-5 years of professional experience in secondary school education, serving as a counsellor or social worker

• Demonstrated ability in holding successful individual and group sessions with students;

• Experience in social emotional learning curriculum

• Experience working with a multidisciplinary team to support Barriers to Learning

• Experience developing and implementing individual support plans for students

• Be passionate about learning.

• To have a thorough knowledge of the Mental Health provision locally and nationally

• Understanding of the British Curriculum (preferred)

• Excellent command of the English language, verbal and written communication skills and demonstrated proficiency in telephonic engagement

• Excellent interpersonal skills, consistently amicable and responsive in dealing with all people, both externally and internally;

• Ability to simply convey concepts, principles and procedures via multiple channels such as email, phone and chat;

• Understanding of technical and business process at a high level;

• Minimum technical proficiency in working on different systems (training will be provided);

• Questioning, taking ownership of and simplifying the tasks to improve process efficiencies and achieve business outcomes.

Necessary documents:

• Preferred: SACE

• Police clearance required

• Registration with HPCSA or SACSSP

• Sexual offenders affidavit

Benefits

• Remote work

• Voluntary savings Programme