Environmental Education & Care Farming Officer - SW England

Environmental Education & Care Farming Officer

Appointment of an Environmental Education & Care Farming Officer

• Full time (37.5 hours / week) Or part time
• Salary:  £26,500  -   £27,500 pro rata
• Accommodation can be provided on site by arrangement.
• The higher rate of £27,500 applies to those with a level 3 Forest School qualification

Application through this link:  https://magdalenfarm.org.uk/blog/environmental-education-and-care-farming-officer-vacancy/

We have a vacancy in our Learning and Wellbeing team to help deliver our environmental education and care farming to 6,000 people per year, many of them vulnerable, disabled and disadvantaged.

Based on our organic farm and developing nature reserve, the Magdalen Environmental Trust provides outdoor environmental education to children and adults, and therapeutic / respite opportunities to people with more complex needs.

We work with a wide range of people including schools, families, charities and schools from across southern England. We are a leading Care Farm and are growing this provision. You can learn a lot about us from our website: www.magdalenfarm.org.uk  

The aims of our education programme are to help people make better decisions about how they interact with their environment and with nature, and to provide opportunities for those people, particularly children, to develop a love of nature. If they don’t love it, they won’t value it. Working with schools, (providing environmental education and Forest Schools), is our main activity through much of the year, and the main focus for this vacant post.

Personal development is also a key outcome, not least within our Care Farming services. Many of our Care Farming clients live extremely difficult and demanding lives. Our aim is to help them improve their mental and emotional resilience, and their ability to overcome these difficulties. Our care farming clients include young carers, refugees, unaccompanied young asylum seekers, people with mental illness, children with disabilities and their families, and children growing up in care.

To ensure we attract the right candidate(s):

We need to fill a full time vacancy, but we are also offering this job part time, as it may be that we appoint more than one person to deliver the work between them.

We can offer mobile home accommodation on site by arrangement, either long term or temporarily to help with relocation. 

The application process

There is an application form at the back of this recruitment pack. We ask please that all applications are made on this form, and emailed to us at info@magdalenfarm.org.uk

We are not setting a closing date for this vacancy.

To speed up the recruitment process, we will carry out interviews with strong applicants as and when applications roll in. Depending on individuals’ circumstances, we may appoint after only one interview, or we may ask for 2.

If you are only interested in this post part time, please just tell us. Don’t worry about finding someone to share the job with – we will find a solution from the candidates applying.

Job Description

To lead educational and Care Farming activities for Primary Schools and other visitors staying overnight at Magdalen. This will include:

• Basic farm jobs
• Fire lighting activities and campfire singing
• Forest School activities
• Orienteering and mapping
• Low ropes course
• River and stream investigations
• Sensory activities
• Team building
• Arts and crafts
• Off-site visits to the coast and local countryside
• Rural studies (informal and curriculum-related)
• Conservation projects
• Teaching about wildlife, the environment and sustainability
• Other activities of a similar nature
   
• To lead one-day educational and Care Farming activities for schools and other visitors at Magdalen, including people with disabilities and complex emotional needs.
• To lead activities off site on occasion, typically in school grounds.
• To make written records of events and observations made during sessions with clients.
• To ensure the safety and welfare of visitors in your charge.
• To work closely with members of the Learning & Wellbeing team, including:
• Co- staffing activities for large groups of children, or groups of visitors with complex needs.
• Writing risk assessments, preparing resources, and designing educational activities
• Ensuring that the equipment and areas used for education are of a high standard and a safe working environment.
• To manage and liaise with visiting teachers accompanying school groups prior to, during, and after their stay.
• To use our bespoke IT system to plan itineraries and the best use of teaching facilities.
• To occasionally visit schools and talk with parents in advance of the school’s visit to us.
• To make a positive contribution towards Magdalen’s overall business and team plans / strategies with particular relation to environmental education.
• To act as a member of the Magdalen staff team, covering tasks when necessary and carrying out any additional work reasonably requested by the Chief Executive, to meet the charity’s objectives.

Person Specification

Essential criteria:

• Experience of working with children in an outdoor setting
• Understanding of environmental issues and sustainability
• Enthusiastic and able to motivate others
• Able to
• Work on your own, unsupervised.
• Work in a team and independently
• Work well under pressure
• Adapt and be flexible
• Be active outside all day
• Remain positive and in control of large groups of children
• Communicate effectively with colleagues
• IT literate in Microsoft Office applications
• Ability to relate activities to the national curriculum at key stages 1 – 3
• Good organisational skills and time keeping
• A non-smoker or able to go for very long periods without smoking.
• Understanding of safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults, and an enhanced DBS check
• A driver with access to a car or van, able to drive in connection with employment.

Desirable criteria:

• Qualifications in Forest School and/or Teaching If you do not have a Forest School qualification, but intend to get one, it is worth making this clear in your application.
• Experience of
• Working with vulnerable children
• Working with young carers.
• Youth work
• Working with people who have a disability
• Experience of animal care and / or horticulture
• Practical Skills using tools.

Application through this link:  https://magdalenfarm.org.uk/blog/environmental-education-and-care-farming-officer-vacancy/