Fair Education Director

• Improve outcomes for children from disadvantaged backgrounds
• Support senior professionals mentoring peers in schools
• Use your leadership & influencing skills in established education NFP

Australian Schools Plus is a national charity supporting disadvantaged schools across Australia. The organisation aims to improve students’ education outcomes and opportunities by increasing philanthropic support to their schools. Their growing team is collaborative, friendly and passionate about giving students every opportunity in life. The Australian Schools Plus working environment is fast-paced, dynamic, and supportive.

The Fair Education Director is a new role, established to lead the delivery of a strategic program to support school leaders in disadvantaged NSW schools to better engage parents and communities in student learning. This role will also oversee the growth of Fair Education into other states.

The Fair Education Program in NSW is being carried out in close partnership with the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation. The successful candidate will be working closely with this organisation, as well as an external evaluation team based in Melbourne, the rest of the Schools Plus team and a wide range of other key education sector stakeholders.

Australian Schools Plus   are looking for a highly experienced, energetic and passionate individual to lead the program and to support and enable a team of experienced coaches (including senior education professionals) who are working with schools facing disadvantage in NSW. Your gravitas and significant career experience in leadership will enable you to guide the coaches to provide leaders within NSW schools with the necessary skills to successfully embed new practices into their school environment. The Fair Education Director will be responsible for growing this innovative program to enhance the authentic partnership of parents, communities, and other contributors that lead to significantly enhanced student learning achievements and experiences.

You will inspire, support, challenge, and serve as a critical friend for the team of coaches and schools selected to take part in the Fair Education Program.  Your strategic guidance will enable the team to work with schools to design effective, long-term initiatives which will have sustainable impact on the schools’ ability to grow their learning community, and ensure support to the schools in implementing and sustaining these projects.

The successful candidate will be a leader and strategic thinker who has a solid track record of developing leadership teams, successfully leading large initiatives and building key relationships. Specifically, an individual who firmly believes in this initiative as an opportunity to change lives for students facing disadvantage. Knowledge of schools would be considered favourably, however strategic experience working in community based programs in other disciplines might also be considered.

The role involves travel across NSW and is currently a 2 year contract, starting at 5 days per week over the next 12 months, reducing to 3 days thereafter. The project involves two cohorts of schools, one finishing up at the end of 2019, the other completing at the end of 2020. There are plans to extend the program to a third cohort, but these are yet to be finalised.