Head of Department

About the School
Milpera State High School is a special purpose state high school which teaches English language across curriculum areas. It also provides settlement services to newly arrived immigrant and refugee background young people to prepare them for living and studying in Australia. Our school is committed to maximising the full human potential of every student within a socially just and culturally inclusive environment. We achieve this by delivering a quality educational and settlement service that is needs based in order to gain the best learning and settlement outcomes for our learners and their families.
About the Role
As Head of Department - Student Services, your responsibilities and key tasks will include:

- Provide leadership and guidance for the implementation of innovative measures aimed at improving student learning outcomes and attendance in a school where all students have a refugee or migrant background, ensuring quality learning outcomes for all students.
- Manage and support student attendance
- Provide management and engagement strategies including induction activities of new arrivals, and advise on specific academic, social and emotional needs of new arrivals.
- Work as part of the student support team to ensure successful outcomes for all students
- Communicate and work with parents, staff and staff in a multi-disciplinary team to develop strategies to improve learning outcomes, student achievements and attendance, taking consideration of diverse family backgrounds
- Work with and provide tools for the school leadership team, Head of Departments, Year Level Coordinators, Guidance Officers and teachers to utilise in relation to student achievement and attendance.
- Develop and implement community engagement strategies and programs with other organisations, not for profit organisations and settlement agencies.
- Liaise with external agencies (for example, Multicultural Australia) and destinations schools to support new arrivals and their families through settlement and transitions into the new environment,
- Understand the legislation and policies that impact on schooling especially in relation to students and staff within the school, with a focus on students with additional needs who speak a language other than English
- Manage the human, financial, facilities and curriculum resources of the school department to achieve goals.

Applicants should have a depth of experience working with newly arrived migrant and refugee background students and have a deep understanding of both their learning and settlement needs and the interplay of trauma in both of these. In this role the Head of Department will work closely with the GP, Nurse, Youth Support Co-ordinator, Transitions Officer to develop an individualised approach to meet the specific learning, settlement and transitions needs of our students. The successful applicant will have highly developed advocacy and team work skills that will enable them to work across a multiplicity of teams.
For a full list of mandatory requirements please see the attached role description.

**Interested? To apply**:

- Attach a brief resume including contact details for 2 referees (one of whom should be your current supervisor)
- Attach a maximum 2 page written response outlining your suitability for the role referring to the key capabilities identified in the attached role description.

Applications remain current for 12 months from the closing date and may be considered for appointment to identical or similar vacancies within the Department.
Applications from recruitment agencies will not be accepted.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License.