Schools and Early Years Manager (Maternity Cover)

The Postal Museum is one of the newest and most exciting museums in London. We opened in 2017 and have already established the museum as a must-visit destination with award-winning experiences. Alongside hands-on exhibitions exploring over 500 years of British social and communications history, visitors can experience a subterranean ride through the tunnels of the old Post Office Underground Railway – Mail Rail. The museum welcomes over 160,000 visitors and our online content reaches almost a million users a year. We deliver award-winning learning, access and outreach programmes and provide unique experiences including popular Tunnel Walks under the streets of London. The museum also operates a children’s play space – Sorted! – popular with young families and schools. Alongside all this we offer one of the most unique venues in London for corporate hire and filming.

PURPOSE OF THE JOB

The Schools and Early Years Manager (Maternity Cover) will work within The Postal Museum’s Exhibitions, Access and Learning Team. The post holder will be responsible for all aspects of the museum’s schools and early years programmes. This includes planning, developing, delivering and evaluating a high-quality programme of activities and resources for teachers and students in primary schools and SEND schools and seeking opportunities to engage Secondary school audiences. The role serves to increase access to and learning from The Postal Museum’s collections and engage new audiences. In 2022/23 the Maternity Cover role will have a specific focus on launching a new programme for Under 5s, developed in collaboration with community partners to engage local families, benchmarking and researching a new SEND schools programme and project-managing a funded Maths programme for Reception and KS1.

Starting in July 2022, the Maternity Cover role will have a handover period of approximately two months with the Schools and Early Years Manager.

EXPERIENCE

(Essential criteria)

• Experience of line managing staff and volunteers.
• Experience of monitoring and supervising freelance staff and volunteers to meet programme objectives.
• Experience of developing and / or implementing strategies and action plans.
• Project management experience, including development of educational programmes from inception to delivery (e.g. planning, budgeting, monitoring, evaluation and reporting).
• Financial management experience, including setting and managing budgets.
• Experience of working collaboratively within project teams and partnership work.
• Experience of working with or in schools gained in a teaching or museum learning role.
• Experience of working with early years children in a teaching or museum learning role.
• Experience of developing high-quality learning sessions and resource materials for pupils and teachers.

(Desirable criteria)

• Experience of working in a museum or heritage organisation.

SKILLS/ ABILITIES

(Essential criteria)

• Ability to motivate, co-ordinate, and lead a multi-disciplinary team.
• Flexible, positive attitude and ability to work on own initiative.
• Excellent interpersonal, team-working and customer service skills.
• Excellent written, verbal communication skills, and presentation skills.
• Excellent organisational, administrative and project management skills.
• Strong IT skills, including Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook).
• Ability to work under pressure, prioritising to meet deadlines.
• An in-depth knowledge of the National Curriculum and other statutory education requirements across Key Stages 1 to 4.
• Knowledge and understanding of audience development and community engagement within the museum and heritage sector.

(Desirable criteria)

• Ability to carry out light manual tasks such as moving handling objects.

For further information click ‘find out more’ below.

Application Closing Date: 29 June 2022