KM CAT Teacher

Role Responsibility

Teacher for Kent and Medway Communication & Assistive Technology (KM CAT) Service

KM CAT Service, The Old Railway School, Ashford, TN24 0PF

Job Description

Part time (0.6FTE) commencing 01 January 2021

We are looking for a dynamic, experienced teacher to join our trans-disciplinary team of education and health professionals. You will be working collaboratively within the team to support the children and young people on the KM CAT caseload, along with the school teams, local therapists and families involved with them. These children and young people have complex verbal or physical communication difficulties and are supplied with augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) or assistive technology (AT) systems to support their communication and educational needs.

Additionally, you will provide teaching and learning recommendations, advice, support, training and mentoring to families and professionals working with a range of CYP with complex or physical difficulties, who are not on the KM CAT caseload. This may be specific for individual CYP, or more general advice for educational settings. 

You will need excellent knowledge and understanding of teaching, learning and the curriculum and will have the skills and expertise to work with children and young people with communication difficulties and associated educational needs. 

You will have experience of developing a fully inclusive and differentiated curriculum which can include the needs of children and young people with complex communication and interaction difficulties, with appropriate reference to the ‘mainstream core standards’ and ‘best endeavours’.

You will also work with the families of the children and young people, as well as their teachers, local NHS therapists and other professionals to raise achievement and overcome barriers to learning which result from their communication difficulties.

You will be based at The Old Railway School in Ashford but will work and travel across Kent and Medway, with occasional journeys outside of Kent, as required. Where possible, we are currently doing much of our work remotely from home, using video platforms such as MS Teams. Some visits to schools or homes may be necessary but these will be individually risk assessed and PPE will be provided. 

This job is advertised as a 0.6 contract (3 days per week), to be worked throughout the year with a standard annual leave entitlement (27 days plus bank holidays, pro rata). 

This job provides excellent opportunities for ongoing professional development working in a highly supportive, creative and friendly team environment.     

Information about the Service

The KM CAT Service is an exciting specialist service established in collaboration with the NHS and KCC. It is one of 14 nationally commissioned hub services that assess and provide communication equipment to children and young people with complex communication difficulties who use technology in order to communicate and to support their access to written recording. In addition, KCC funds the team of KM CAT teachers to work with schools in order to provide on-going support to these children and young people.

The KM CAT team consists of teachers, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, therapy assistant practitioners, health care scientists and admin. The service is based in Ashford and covers a caseload in various nurseries, schools and colleges across Kent and Medway. 

Application close date:              11 October 2020 at 23:59pm

Interview date:                           22 October 2020 

Interviews may be held remotely, depending on relevant government advice at the time.

This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure Application to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Contact Details

KM CAT Service, The Old Railway School, Ashford, TN24 0PF

For any further details about this post please email kcht.cat-admin@nhs.net or phone 01233 629859 and ask for Nicole.

About the Company

Please note – if you are interested, please apply as soon as possible as the closing date for this advert may be earlier than stated should a number of suitably qualified candidates apply.