Join our team! Administrator

People walking at The Acorn Centre - The Seeds of Change

Administrator – The Seeds of Change

The Seeds of Change is a busy alternative provision, offering placements for young people. Sessions last between and 75mins to a full day. More than 50 young people attend either group or 1.1 sessions each week. We are looking for a motivated cheerful person to join the team to support us with the administration surrounding facilitating the running of the centre.
Our mission: To assist the individual in the many spheres of personal development, growth and learning through the unique interaction that occurs between human and horse.
The purpose of this role is to ensure that the day to day administration of the centre. The role is varied and the post holder will need to demonstrate our culture and ethos when dealing with those that access the provision, potential new attendees and referring bodies, as well as our team of coaches.

Key duties and responsibilities

Role

To ensure the day to day support of the general admin involved in the running of a busy centre.
To accurately register attendance of young people and following up on non-attendance
Sharing and chasing information with referring bodies
Taking phone calls and handling email enquiries in a professional and courteous manner, passing on messages as appropriate.
Arranging visits
Preparing information regarding programmes and activities
Provide administrative support during meetings, including composing and distributing minutes
Support and tracking progress of young people
Provide support on creation of marketing materials including website and social media.
Record and follow up on staff training
To support the Seeds of Change clients to overcome their barriers to progressing to the next stage of their life, using the TSOC approach while delivering authentic, learner led innovative coaching to meet and exceed individuals’ objectives.

To be an inspiring, innovative and engaging coach, able to support the therapeutic development of young people, whilst also encouraging stretch and gentle challenge to achieve personal or academic goals.

Safeguarding is one of our key priorities and potential applicants should be fully aware of and compliant with Keeping Children Safe in Education legislation. It is our aim to provide an environment where young people feel safe and supported and can achieve their full potential.

You will be required to occasionally travel to different sites and therefore it is essential to possess a car and a full driving license.

Core Behaviours

We are looking for someone who embodies our core values. This person will be able to demonstrate that they are a team player who is non- judgemental, accepting, empathetic, inspiring, authentic, flexible, resilient, accountable and can use their initiative. Working as part of an established team who put the needs of young people at the forefront of everything.

High levels of personal resilience, innovation and the ability to remain positive are important qualities to have. Our work is in high demand and there are many more young people with SEMH issues to require our help. Our priority is to supporting them and therefore commitment to the role and the team is essential.

Knowledge and Skills

The successful candidate to possess a good sound working knowledge of working outdoors and preferable with small animals and horses.

Previous experience working within the education sector is an advantage and in particular an understanding of school commissioning and the requirements of the curriculum.

Working within disengaged young people who have SEMH issues or exhibit challenging behaviour is also an advantage.

  • Proficient use of MS 365 and Google docs
  • A-level or relevant Level 3 qualifications
  • Equine knowledge
  • Strong verbal and written communication skills.
  • Highly organised and able to work under pressure.
  • Responds to change in a positive and proactive way.
  • Relates to people of all ages and levels and can communicate authentically.
  • Commercial business awareness.
  • Respects confidentiality and working within boundaries.
  • High attention to detail
  • Knowledge and experience with social media platforms for business

Remuneration

For full details about the role, please visit the job advertisement here

Join our team! Coach

Horse and young person

Due to continued expansion, we are currently looking for a positive, enthusiastic and energetic individual to join our coaching team at our site just outside Walgrave in Northamptonshire.

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Mental Health in Education – Intervention Award

We are delighted to announce that we have won the Association of Mental Health in Education, Mental Health Intervention Award.

“This award celebrates effective and innovative interventions to support pupils experiencing mental health difficulties. The winner will evidence how they go above and beyond in meeting the needs of their pupils and how they have sustained this across two academic years.”

Mental Health in Education Awards, 2024

We are honoured to have received the award and delighted for the team to be recognised on a national level for the hard work and commitment they put in to support young people in making positive changes. It is our mission to assist the individual in the many spheres of personal development, growth and learning, through the unique interaction that occurs between human and horse.

For the last 18 years we have been supporting the young people of Northamptonshire, we are lucky to have a 17-acre purpose-built site in the heart of Northamptonshire. This beautiful and tranquil environment provides a safe place for every client ‘just to be’ even for a short while delivering Equine facilitated learning and Therapy and our unique TSoC (The Seeds of Change) approach. We support more than 50 young people a week on programmes ranging from 6 weeks to more than 2 years. Our learner leader, CBT-based person-centred approach or the TSoC approach is focused on personal development, self-awareness and growth through working with horses. Horses have the most amazing ability to create boundaries for themselves and those around them, very much a herd creature, accepting and acknowledging a natural hierarchy, yet humble, honest, willing and kind. Playful and inquisitive, affectionate yet still with the ability to be their authentic self, always giving honest and helpful feedback to those working around them.

Many of the young people referred to us have experienced and found traditional ‘Talk therapy’ challenging and may have struggled to build a therapeutic relationship with one person. Sometimes certain unconscious barriers make it impossible to form a connection with the Therapist, Professionals or even adults in general, in what can feel like a fairly sterile indoor environment. Horses can provide that ‘third person’ element in the therapeutic alliance, making it easier for many clients to more naturally connect with themselves to be able to express and begin to link with what they are feeling and experiencing at that present time. It is the task of the skilled coach to enable the client to understand what is occurring through observations and feedback, enabling the young people to become more self-aware, and confident developing a greater resilience to work through their personal challenges. The TSoC approach is focused on allowing young people to learn through experience and reflection, creating opportunities to feel and become aware of a range of emotional responses with the horse as a mentor and mediator. This allows the coach to support the young person to explore these emotions and consider related behaviours. The horse’s role within the therapeutic relationship will vary this can include reflecting the young person’s behaviour, allowing the young person to project how they are feeling, and giving them more freedom to talk openly or as a confidant and source of comfort. Coaches work to facilitate the interactions and the relationship between the young person and the horse. Encouraging reflection and in turn the ability to transfer the skills and learning to their everyday life. Every session requires the coach to be innovative to help the young person link the learning to their everyday life. The key to TSoC isn’t the escapism that being in the peace of our centre offers although this supports the young person in building the therapeutic relationship, the real value to the young person is the effect of the transferable skills have on their entire life.