Play Leader

Lime Academy Parnwell; Peterborough; On-site; GBP 18,000 - 23,000; Full time

Job summary

Lime Trust in Peterborough seeks a dedicated Play Team member to support lunchtime play and dining hall activities across our schools. You will help create a safe, engaging outdoor space and ensure children have a pleasant lunch experience.

The role requires experience with children from diverse backgrounds and a commitment to safeguarding and personal development. Training and development are provided within a supportive team environment.

Qualifications

• Experience of working with children from a range of cultural backgrounds.
• Commitment to ongoing personal development and safeguarding of children.

Responsibilities

• Cover lunchtime tasks daily, including sessions outside and in the dining hall.
• Work with the play coordinator to provide exciting play opportunities at lunch.
• Facilitate play and act as an ambassador for play.
• Ensure a safe site for play with the site manager and team.
• Coordinate between play zones and dining hall to manage lunch visits.
• Assess play areas for risks and implement changes as needed.
• Assist with setting up, clearing away play equipment and kit.
• Record and report incidents and assist with first-aid reporting.
• Assist children at lunch with queuing, seating, packets, spillages and order.
• Clean, pack down and store dining hall furniture after lunch and sweep the floor.
• Promote safeguarding and the school values, attend meetings and training.

Skills

Experience with children

Safeguarding awareness

Job description

Lime Trust is a Multi Academy Trust formed of 9 schools over 11 locations across Peterborough, the London Boroughs of Havering and Waltham Forest and Luton. We have grown to include four primary schools, four all-through special schools and one secondary special school, with 2588 pupils and over 750 employees. In our academies we strive to ensure that:

• Learners are safe and enjoy learning
• Everyone feels included, respected, and valued
• An ambitious curriculum develops our learners for the challenges of life and adulthood
• Employee potential is recognised and invested in

The Trust’s vision is to provide high quality education for pupils through school-to-school collaboration, Trust direction, high challenge and high support. Our values of Respect, Equity, Self-worth, Partnership, Enjoyment, Communication and Trust are core to all we do.

We passionately believe in promoting the well-being of our teams and have a wide range of benefits and systems to support our staff, you can read more about this in the attached recruitment brochure.

Working as a member of the play team, you will ensure that all of our children have meaningful lunchtime play every day. You will work as a member of the play team to create a safe and stimulating outdoor environment providing social, active and creative play experiences for all. The play team is also responsible for ensuring that all of our children have a pleasant eating experience at lunch time, whilst maximising the time they can spend outside playing. You will support all of our children as they visit the dining hall and are responsible for clearing and cleaning the hall to a state ready for use (e.g. for PE, school assemblies) in the afternoon.

Overview of the role:

We are looking to appoint an individual who has experience of working with children from a range of cultural backgrounds, with a commitment to on-going personal development and safeguarding of children.

• Work as part of the play team to cover all lunchtime tasks daily. This will include sessions outside and also sessions in the dining hall
• Work with the play coordinator to ensure all children have access to exciting play opportunities every lunch time
• Facilitate play opportunities and act as an ambassador for play
• Work with the site manager, play coordinator, and play team members to ensure that all of our children have a safe site for play
• Coordinate and communicate between play zones and dining hall to ensure all children visit the dining hall and eat their lunch
• Assess play areas for risks daily and communicating/implementing any changes required
• Assist with putting out and packing away of play equipment/kit
• Record and report incidents of note that occur during lunchtime - e.g. site issues, behaviour, first aid
• Assess and deliver first aid to pupils (if trained). Assist with first aid reporting
• Coordinate and communicate with the play coordinator, play colleagues and the catering team to ensure that all children visit the dining hall in a scheduled manner, to minimise queuing and maximise play time outside
• Assist children at lunch, e.g. with queuing, getting seated, opening packets, spillages, disputes, clearing plates/cutlery and encouraging good eating and social skills
• Clear and clean the hall during service (e.g. spillages, assisting with waste food, trays and cutlery)
• Clean, pack down and store all dining hall furniture at the end of lunch. Sweep the floor ready for use in the afternoon
• Offer care, support and advice to children during lunchtime
• Contribute ideas and suggestions to improve the team practices and performance
• Promote and safeguard the safety and welfare of children in accordance with school child protection and behaviour management policies
• Support and uphold the school’s values system, our four school rules and reward pupils with verbal praise for positive attitudes and behaviours
• Attend periodic team meetings and/or training for professional development
• Assist with training new team members.
• See attached job description for full requirements.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Applicants must be willing to undergo Child Protection screening, including checks with past employers and an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS check). References will be taken up before