• Experienced wellbeing leader
• Build partnerships with community, health and wellbeing organisations
• Develop trauma informed practices and policy unique to women from refugee backgrounds
• Passion for changing lives through education

The River Nile School (RNS) is a registered, independent, specialist senior-secondary school delivering Applied Learning curriculum to young women from humanitarian, refugee backgrounds who have had disrupted schooling or whose needs cannot be met by mainstream school. We are also a registered charitable organisation that delivers everything we do with our students for free.

All students who attend RNS have English as an Additional Language (EAL), so developing student levels of language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) is a central focus. RNS offers students the VCE Vocational Major (VM) and the Victorian Pathways Certificate (VPC) with an integrated program with projects negotiated with and developed by students. It provides a high-challenge, high-support learning environment with a strengths-based approach.

RNS offers small class sizes, and our team work collaboratively to achieve the best possible outcomes for each student with personalised learning, wellbeing and support programs. As many of our students have experienced complex trauma, we embrace trauma-informed practice to support student wellbeing and regulation and build engagement and learning. Our team takes a personalised mentoring approach, empowering students to address the complex challenges and trauma in their lives by building respectful relationships which strengthen their progress, success and achievements. Each student is supported to plan a career pathway specific to their aspirations and goals as they transition from our school.

Based in North Melbourne, 2024 is our eighth year as a school. RNS grew out of the River Nile Learning Centre (RNLC) established in 2006 to assist the African refugee community. Since then, we’ve grown substantially, and our student cohort now comprises young women from many regions. As a growing school filling a unique gap in the education sector, we are striving to build strong foundations to empower young migrant women, to gain the language, life and work skills to integrate and thrive in our community.

RNS has 100+ students and a 30-person team, including 12 registered teachers and 10 allied professionals with social/youth work, multicultural engagement and refugee health expertise. Our team brings different and overlapping strengths, skills and experiences to provide a holistic response to students’ educational needs in a respectful and productive learning environment. Our annual government school's income exceeds $4 Million.

For further information view: rivernileschool.vic.edu.au and Principal's message.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Assistant Principal of Wellbeing is responsible for designing and maintaining a wellbeing program that supports our young migrant women with their education to empower them to build a positive future.

Core to this role is managing and supporting the Wellbeing Team, developing strong wellbeing systems and processes to ensure that the school is a model for excellence in responding to the needs of women from a refugee background. They will manage the Wellbeing Coordinator and other staff and groups, in order to develop best practices across the school. This Assistant Principal role will oversee the establishment and continuation of our formal and informal partnerships with various health, wellbeing and community organisations and practitioners. The role will also oversee the codification our wellbeing processes in support of our overall wellbeing model.

The Assistant Principal of Wellbeing works closely with the School Leadership Team, particularly the Principal, Leading Teachers, the Wellbeing Coordinator and Business Manager to establish a culture of improvement and feedback to ensure high-quality wellbeing practices. They will contribute to the development of the Strategic Plan / Annual Implementation Plan and advise in areas relating to wellbeing, community engagement, inclusion and other areas. The position also has responsibility for policy development, implementation and ongoing compliance. As a key member of the River Nile School Leadership Team, the role contributes to leadership planning and decision making by offering a strategic overview to the necessary requirements for high quality wellbeing practices. The role will collaborate with multiple teams in areas of student pathways and careers, academic output, attendance, engagement, compliance, inclusive education, enrolment and community engagement.The role will form part of an Executive Leadership Team, which will initially include the Principal, Business Manager and Assistant Principal of Teaching and Learning. The incumbent must have demonstrated ability to think creatively, anticipate and solve problems, to support our flexible school operational model, which is essential to our work as a reengagement school that enrols students with complex backgrounds across the school year.

THE POSITION

This position provides leadership, direction and support across our Wellbeing Team, to ensure we are skilfully engaging our young migrant women with their education to empower them to build a positive future. The capability to build and strengthen a positive school culture consistent with the RNS Vision, Values and Strategic Plan is essential.The Assistant Principal will also have responsibility for governance, compliance, policy and practice development and delivery in all areas connected with student wellbeing. The incumbent will be required to support school leadership and staff across the school to develop and embed policies and processes to ensure effective student wellbeing across the school.Responsibilities and expectations of this role include but are not limited to:

Your Mindset

• You believe every young person deserves a thriving future.
• You respect and value the perspectives of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) young people and are interested to work with those with complex needs to help them achieve their potential.
• You are comfortable working in a flexible, evolving, changing work environment, staying focused on outcomes and adapting your approach as needed.
• You are collaborative, valuing and respecting relationships within and across our entire team and with our external partners.
• You are a wellbeing expert; informed by data, research and best practices.
• You take initiative, solve problems and have a high attention to detail.

Core responsibilities:

Manage overall wellbeing program:

• Oversee the delivery an effective Wellbeing Program across River Nile School.
• Develop clear practices that respond to the wellbeing needs of our student cohort, based on research, trauma informed practices and knowledge across relevant disciplines.
• Codify and popularise the above practices so that they become established practices across the wellbeing department and school.
• Ensure that wellbeing and other staff have the relevant skills, training and qualifications to implement the Wellbeing Program.
• Use data to evaluate the effectiveness of wellbeing program and develop appropriate response plans where there are gaps.
• Coordinate the delivery of wellbeing student support services within a multi-disciplinary team across the school and provide expert advice to improve the wellbeing of the school community.
• Lead the student wellbeing team to create, develop and evaluate programmes that meet the needs of the whole school community. The role will require an understanding and implementation of budgets and other administrative tasks.
• Ensure processes are in place for NCCD compliance and monitor the effectiveness of adjustments to support students.
• To promptly identify and address issues where the delivery of programs does not meet standards expected by VRQA, VCAA, VIT or other authorising bodies.
• Use data in accordance with school processes to inform wellbeing and resourcing campus wellbeing needs
• Support the school’s identification, development and evaluation of educational, social and emotional programs providing prevention, intervention and postvention stages, particularly in respect to students who are vulnerable or have additional needs
• Ensure implementation of wellbeing systems in the classroom
• Develop long and short- term hiring practices and business plans
• Run budgets
• Develop the ability of wellbeing staff to case manage
• Develop and execute strategic plan in creating wellbeing infrastructure

Manage compliance and child/student safety:

• Use legislation, codes of practice, rules and regulations to inform that RNS wellbeing policies and process are aligned to minimum standards.
• Ensure that child safety and student safety are at the forefront of wellbeing processes.
• Ensure that the Wellbeing Team are able to make informed decisions based on knowledge of above rules and regulations.
• Monitor the wellbeing of students at an individual and group level.
• Oversee the Wellbeing Team’s response to crisis management and necessary follow up.
• Oversee and support the wellbeing team to manage high needs cases and necessary follow up.

Build and manage rns wellbeing model:

• As part of the school’s priority of building a model that responds to the needs of refugee women, contribute to and drive the development of the wellbeing components of the model.
• Use research and best practices to codify wellbeing practices best fit for women from refugee backgrounds.
• Support the popularising and training of people to utilise the model inside and outside of the school.
• Support the school’s strategy for advocating for the wellbeing needs of women from refugee backgrounds.

Create, maintain and oversee the rns community hub:

• Oversee the creation of the community hub.
• Connect with various community, health, allied health and wellbeing. organisations and practitioners to assess suitability for partnerships with the school.
• Develop MOU’s and other arrangement documents that create agreements between the school and other parties.
• Act as conduit between the school and external health and wellbeing agencies.
• Support the Wellbeing Team in understanding and accessing the services of providers in the hub.
• Support the management of facilities relating to the community hub, including reception, facilities entry and other processes.
• Manage information from providers and how it is stored and shared.
• Develop and oversee processes relating to the sharing of information from external providers to the school.
• Develop and oversee processes in how the student cohort accesses and utilises hub services.

Community engagement:

• Support the school’s connections to health, wellbeing and refugee related services.
• Manage relationships with community organisations.
• Identify key learnings from community organisations and make recommendations to the school based on these learnings.
• Support the Community Engagement staff/teams in their approaches and responses to community engagement.
• Promote a model of good mental health for staff, students and families.
• Contribute to the planning and delivery of parent and community education seminars.
• Participate in relevant classroom programs as required and/or offer specialised groups on targeted areas.
• Relate and connect with students to achieve a level of connectedness that is engaging, reflects a high level of personal commitment and is in touch with current student needs and life challenges.

• Take a caring interest in the students and their welfare and a supervisory role in maintaining the school’s tone, standards and engagement expectations.
• Be committed to ensuring all those engaged in our school promote the fundamental rights of all children and young people to be respected and nurtured in a physically, emotionally and culturally safe, respectful and inclusive school environment. This includes being a champion of Child Safe policies and practices.

Manage key leaders and wellbeing staff:

• Directly coach, manage and support key members of the Wellbeing Team.
• Identify key skills needed by roles in the Wellbeing Team and support plans for staff to acquire these skills.
• Coach the Wellbeing Coordinator and support their capacity to manage their own team.
• Support staff and groups ranging from Inclusion Coordinator, Engagement Coordinator, and other staff.
• Manage key tasks forces, groups and initiatives across the Wellbeing spectrum and other prioritised school needs.
• Along with other key stakeholders, support processes surrounding the schools Inclusion and NCCD processes.
• Lead the student Wellbeing Team to address and achieve school priorities for students' wellbeing and engagement.
• Contribute to the development of strategic interventions that support capacity-building related to student learning, engagement and wellbeing consistent with the priorities of the school and education standards.
• Contribute to the professional learning of staff on child development, emotional and psychological issues.
• Develop and coordinate a cohesive Wellbeing Team and other teams through professional development, performance management, mentoring and formal and informal supervision.
• Ensure all students are valued, connected and supported and experience success by ensuring positive student/teacher/staff relationships are the foundation for solid learning outcomes.
• Develop a cohesive staff culture built on the values of the school.
• Lead key focus groups, initiatives and involve core stakeholders as needed.
• Support and develop the school’s coaching and development program.

Contribute to leadership team and school vision:

• Contribute to the school’s Leadership and Executive Leadership Team.
• Support in developing and maintaining the vision for the school.
• Develop and execute key features in the school’s strategic plan.
• Represent wellbeing best practices and excellence to the Executive Leadership Team in decision-making.
• Be available to attend and present to the board, or sub committees of the board as needed.

School contribution:

• Embody the school values and the school workforce norms.
• Contribute to school events and key dates.
• Attend parent information evenings and key community events.
• Support the daily running of the school.
• Assist with the critical incident response where necessary.
• Participate in relevant professional development activities.
• Perform other duties as needed at the Principal’s discretion.

Key Selection Criteria

• An outstanding ability to implement a school wide vision for wellbeing practices.
• Create coherency across multi-disciplinary teams and establish systems like a community health hub that operate effectively.
• Understand the wellbeing needs of young people, specifically young women from a refugee, CALD background. Develop Wellbeing systems and processes that respond to these needs.
• Well-developed and demonstrated knowledge of mental health interventions, risk assessment skills and counselling skills to meet the wellbeing needs of the school community.
• Leadership skills to manage people well and build the capacity and performance of individuals, teams and leaders.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to relate effectively with a diverse range of professional staff.
• Understanding of child safety standards, reporting obligations, information sharing processes and a demonstrated ability to create systems and processes around these obligations.

Qualifications, experience and credentials

• Master's level qualification in relevant education/wellbeing field.
• Minimum 4 years leadership experience, preferably in working with young adult students from diverse backgrounds in a school setting.
• Necessary registration to profession based on above qualification.

Employment Conditions

• Competitive salary commensurate with qualifications and experience; access to the tax-effective salary packaging; training and development opportunities, and an employee assistance program.
• Appointment of the successful applicant will be subject to:
  • Reference checks
  • A satisfactory Pre-Employment Disclosure Declaration
  • Evidence that the applicant has completed training in Child Safety prior to commencement (a DET link to on-line training for non-government schools will be provided).
  • National Police Check – willingness to apply for.
• A 6-month probationary period will apply, and induction and professional support programs will be provided.
• The position reports to the Principal.

Feel free to email to organise a conversation time if you would like more information - [email protected] using the subject line: Assistant Principal of Wellbeing enquiry via EthicalJobs.

A position description is attached.