Virtual School Achievement Officer

North Northamptonshire Council; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 28,000 - 36,000; Full time

Job summary

The Virtual School at North Northamptonshire Council is seeking an Achievement Officer to work with children in care in the early years, supporting their progression into primary education. The role involves collaboration with education settings, carers and other agencies to raise life chances and ensure smooth transitions.

You will champion engagement, maintain case records, and participate in Multi Agency Meetings as needed.

Qualifications

• Educated to Level 3 or above with GCSE Maths/English at 4/C or higher.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to build relationships.
• Good IT skills and willingness to learn various IT systems.
• Knowledge of early years education and needs of children in care.

Responsibilities

• Champion and support children’s engagement and progress in early years education through liaison with education settings, carers and agencies.
• Support education settings to enable progress through the early years foundation stage.
• Ensure case records align with policy and procedures.
• Represent The Virtual School at Multi Agency Meetings as required.

Skills

Communication skills

IT skills

Early years education knowledge

Case load management

Education

Level 3 qualification or above

GCSE Maths and English (4/C or above)

Tools

IT systems

Job description

The following content displays a map of the jobs location - 1 Angel Square

Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we’re transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people.

You’ll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think!

Why choose us?

We offer a vibrant working environment with:

• a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
• lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
• generous leave entitlement (28days, rising to 33days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
• hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.

We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

About the role

The Virtual School is a team of experienced teachers and dedicated educational professionals. We promote and support the educational attainment and progress of Northamptonshire's children in care and children previously in care.

We are looking for an Achievement Officer to join the Virtual School working specifically with our early year’s cohort of children in care, and alongside our Education Officers, to support young people in care, to thrive within their early years education and transition into primary school.

What will you be doing?

You will be responsible for championing and supporting children’s engagement and progress in their early year’s education. You will do this through liaison with education settings and childcare providers, carers and any other related agencies or professionals, to improve the life chances of children.

You will proactively support education settings so that they can enable a child to engage and make progress through the early years foundation stage.

You will ensure that all case work records are kept in line with service expectations and agreed operational policy, practice and procedures.

You will represent The Virtual School at Multi Agency Meetings as and when required e.g., initial and review Personal Education Plans.

About you

We are looking to recruit a forward-thinking person who works well in a team. You will need:

• To be educated to Level 3 or above and have GCSE (or equivalent) Maths and English at grade 4/C or above.
• To have good IT skills and be willing to learn how to use a diverse range of IT systems.
• A good knowledge of early years education.
• Knowledge and understanding of the needs and entitlements of children and young people in care.
• To have excellent communication skills and experience of building good working relationships.
• Excellent organisational skills, and the ability to manage your own case load.
• You must be able to work in a way that promotes the safety and wellbeing of children and young people.

Where you will be working:

The Virtual School working pattern includes working from home, attending education settings and other venues in the community across Northamptonshire and occasionally out of the county, and some days working from our office at ONE Angel Square, Northampton.

Closing date for applications (we do not accept CVs) is 12’noon, tbc.

Provisional interview date will be the Thursday 12 th November, 2026.

About us

Our Values and Behaviours

Our values define who we are and how we operate, by forming the foundation for how we interact with our customers, colleagues and provide our services. They are also at the forefront of our decision making and delivery and are:

• Customer-focused
• Respectful
• Efficient
• Supportive
• Trustworthy

Our key commitments help ensure that the priorities we make, now and in the future, maintain the necessary breadth of focus in those areas that we believe matter most.

Disability Confident Employer

We are proud to be a recognised Disability Confident Employer and is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.

The council obtained the Gold status award for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS).

Further information can be found at Jobs and careers | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)