Job Description
“This school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the
wellbeing of all our children, and expects our staff and volunteers to
share this commitment”
NW SILC
Job Title: Lead Practitioner
Grade: Lead Practitioner Range 1 – 5 (+ maximum SEN Allowance)
Accountable to:
Accountable for:
Vice Principal
A team at one of NW SILC settings
Purpose of the Role:
To actively contribute to the development of the NW SILC’s organisational vision and
communicate that vision in compelling terms to gain interest and commitment of all staff and
stakeholders. To ensure professional activities contribute to the future development of the
NW SILC and support the planning, implementation and performance of all aspects of its
operations and strategies, including:
o
o
o
To maintain specialist provision in centres of excellence for children and young
people with more complex needs;
To develop the capacity of mainstream schools to successfully include and provide
appropriate learning and personal development programmes for children and young
people with a wide range of individual needs;
To work in partnership with schools, other agencies and services to improve and
develop services and provision to benefit children and young people with special
needs.
The Core Purpose of this Role is to:
1. Model outstanding practice in teaching and provide pedagogic leadership to
teachers across the whole school so that the NW SILC is an outstanding
provider of education for children with special educational needs.
2. To play a key part in raising teaching and learning standards through the quality of
your own teaching and by supporting the professional development of colleagues,
resulting in learners making outstanding progress.
3. To contribute to the day to day running of a NWSILC site by being part of the
daily management team
To work as part of the wider leadership team to implement and support the school’s mission
statement and development plans. Also, to realise its strategic objectives to ensure a strong
commitment to local communities and to provide cost effective high quality education and
training.
The post holder is subject to the current conditions of employment set out in the School
Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document.
KEY OUTCOMES
 Plans are in place and they clearly set out the strategies for improving learner
achievement. The plan is clearly understood by all and leads to all teaching
being at least good with a significant element being judged as outstanding;
 All learners at least meet national expectations regarding progress with a
significant proportion exceeding expectations;
 In conjunction with the VP (Learner Achievement) curriculum reviews and
innovation inspires team members and clearly translates into high quality
teaching and the highest levels of achievement and progress;
 Other teachers, within the team and from across the SILC, and those beyond,
are developed as a result of delivering model lessons and leading professional
development workshops. This leads to the dissemination of innovative
teaching strategies and individual pupil interventions that accelerate pupil
progress.
 By acting as a professional coach to other teachers – within the team and
across the SILC – there is a significant improvement and impact on the quality
of teaching.
 The CPD needs within the team are clearly identified and set out in a Plan that
is successfully implemented and clearly shows impact in relation to learner
progress and the quality of teaching.
 Assessment judgements by the team are secure as a result of a robust
moderation process. This leads to reliable data informing teaching to
accelerate pupil progress;
 Pupil progress tracking and work scrutiny within the team is systematic and
regular so that pupils falling below progress expectations are highlighted and
interventions are identified and implemented..
 Teacher development and support has an impact on the quality of teaching and
accelerates pupil progress because the Appraisal Policy is effectively applied
within the team.
Main Duties:
In order to promote and achieve the SILC vision and purpose, the Lead Practitioner
should:
 Maintain expert knowledge of teaching and learning and disseminate this to other
teachers
 Maintain knowledge and understanding of the SILC aims, development priorities,
targets, self-evaluation and action plans and be a critical element in the positive
delivery of these.
 Understand and promote the benefits and effective use of ICT
 Assist in planning the induction year for NQT staff. In accordance with the school
policy document and the DFE regulations and the LA programme, arranging regular
meetings with them and undertaking classroom observation as appropriate
The Lead Practitioner will support teachers to consistently and effectively plan and
sequences lessons, to meet pupils’ individual learning needs by:
 Disseminating examples of effective planning practice
 Ensure that teachers are aware of the needs of all pupils and groups and make
provision for this in their planning
 That feedback from lesson observation, work scrutiny and analysis of assessment
data is appropriately reflected in teachers’ planning
 Establishing strategic planning, including short, medium and long term plans for the
development of their team
The Lead Practitioner will support teachers to consistently and effectively use a range
of appropriate strategies for teaching and classroom management through;
 Ensuring teachers are clear about the learning objectives in lessons, and they
understand the sequencing of teaching to communicate this to students
 Modelling lessons and leading regular professional development workshops,
professional coaching and evaluative and developmental feedback on the
effectiveness of their teaching strategies.
 Developing and promoting innovative and effective strategies to meet the needs of all
pupils
The Lead Practitioner will support teachers to consistently and effectively use
information about attainment and progress data to set well-grounded expectations for
students, to monitor progress, and to give clear and constructive feedback by:
 Evaluating and interpreting relevant local and school data, research and inspection
evidence to inform policies, expectation and teaching methods.
 Monitoring and evaluating assessment data across the team to identify trends in pupil
performance and issues for development
 Devising intervention strategies to address issues for development that are identified
through lesson observations.
 Evaluating and reporting on the effectiveness of intervention strategies used to
address identified issues.
 Use assessment data to make comparative evaluation of pupils performance
The Lead Practitioner will support teachers so that, as a result of their teaching, their
pupils achieve highly – making progress that at least meets national expectations
with a significant proportion exceeding expectations:
 Identifying quantifiable and challenging pupil progress targets with teachers within
their appraisal objectives ;
 Supporting teachers in planning appropriate strategies to achieve pupil progress
target levels and objectives
 Taking steps to ensure that agreed pupil progress target levels within the school are
achieved or exceeded
 Encouraging pupils’ motivation and enthusiasm in the school, developing positive
responses to challenge and high expectations
The Lead Practitioner will take responsibility for their own professional development
and use the outcomes to improve their teaching and pupil learning by:
 Maintaining ‘leading edge’ knowledge through reading, CPD activities and research
to inform their own practice, demonstrating impact in teaching and on pupils’ learning
 Assimilating and implementing curriculum developments to lead the process of
change within the SILC
 Prioritising and managing their own time effectively, balancing the demands made by
teaching, leadership and developing others and involvement in SILC development

Achieving their own challenging professional objectives
The Lead Practitioner will contribute to the policies and aspirations of the SILC, coordinating strategies to achieve relevant improvement priorities that have been
identified by:
 Evaluating and reporting the effectiveness of practice in the team, and their work
across the SILC and beyond, suggesting areas and issues for further improvement
through the performance management and quality assurance process.
 Leading and delivering professional development within their team and in other areas
of the SILC and in other educational settings
 Building effective links with our partners and the community in order to develop the
SILC
The Lead Practitioner will be an effective professional who challenges and supports
all pupils to do their best by:
 Creating a climate, which enables staff to develop, challenge and support each other,
resulting in positive growth
 Mentoring and coaching staff to develop confidence and maintain positive attitudes
 Communicating effectively with professional integrity within and beyond the SILC
community
 Taking action to build and maintain effective teamwork with high expectations of
outcome
Employees will be expected to comply with any reasonable request to undertake work of a
similar level that is not specified in this job description