Lead SENDCo ( Community role)
Outwood Academy Ripon, Ripon, North Yorkshire, HG4 2DE16 days remaining to apply
Start date details
As soon as possible
Closing date
1 October 2026 at 9am
Date listed
15 September 2026
Job details
Job role
- Teacher or lecturer
- SENCO (special educational needs coordinator)
Visa sponsorship
- Visas cannot be sponsored
Key stage
- Key stage 3, Key stage 4
Working pattern
- Full time (Can be done as a job share): 1 FTE , Monday to Friday
Contract type
- Permanent
Full time equivalent salary
- Leadership Scale , L 8 -£63,687 to L12 -£70,275per annum
What skills and experience we're looking for
A Community Role with Real Influence - This is not a traditional SENDCo post.
We are seeking an experienced and values driven Lead SENDCo to take on a community led role across three Outwood academies: Ripon, Easingwold , Bydales and Normanby (Middlesbrough). With Ripon as your base, your time will be strategically split across all three schools, enabling you to shape SEND provision at both academy and community level.
This role is for someone who wants to make a wider impact, developing people, practice and provision.
The Purpose of the Role
At its heart, this role is about strengthening inclusive practice across a community of schools while maintaining operational SEND leadership in Outwood Academy Ripon.
Your work will focus on three core priorities:
A Community Led SEND Role
You will operate as the community SEND leader across Ripon, Easingwold, Bydales and Normanby, ensuring strong collaboration, shared standards and a coherent SEND offer across very different contexts.
These schools are intentionally different — rural, market town, coastal village and neighbourhood — and this role exists to connect them, not standardise them. You will help each academy deliver inclusive excellence that meets its unique community needs while benefiting from shared expertise and support.
Developing SSPs and SEND practice across the schools
A central focus of the role is the development and consistent implementation of SSP’s (Student Support Plans) across the three academies.
You will:
- Lead the strategic development of SSP practice
- Ensure high quality, meaningful and impactful plans that support teachers to deliver Quality First Teaching
- Evaluate impact and refine provision to ensure students with SEND thrive academically, socially and emotionally
Growing People Through Supportive Leadership
This role places people development at its core. You will provide supportive line management, coaching and CPD for:
- Assistant SENDCos
- SENDCos within the school community
- Inclusion and SEND teams
You will be a visible leader who builds confidence, capability and consistency, modelling best practice and creating space for others to grow into strong SEND leadership roles.
Your Base: Outwood Academy Ripon
Based at Outwood Academy Ripon, you will also fulfil the role of the designated SENDCo for the academy and be a member of the Senior Leadership Team. You will be timetabled for five teaching lessons, ensuring your leadership remains rooted in classroom practice.
At Ripon, you will join a driven and collaborative leadership team united by our vision of Students First. Inclusion is not an add on here — it is fundamental to how we raise standards and transform lives.
What the school offers its staff
Our Community: North Yorkshire & Redcar and Cleveland
Outwood Academy Ripon, Outwood Academy Easingwold, Outwood Academy Bydales and Outwood Academy Normanby form a connected community of secondary schools across North Yorkshire and Redcar & Cleveland.
This role offers a breadth of experience rarely found in one post:
- Ripon – a historic market town, competing alongside a selective grammar school
- Easingwold – a rural academy serving a close-knit community
- Bydales – friendly, coastal village school.
- Normanby – a neighbourhood school with deep local roots in Middlesbrough
Because these schools are at different points in their journey, the opportunity to make a meaningful impact is significant.
Why Join Outwood?
Outwood Grange Academies Trust is one of the largest and most established MATs in the country. Our scale allows us to invest heavily in:
- SEND leadership development
- Trust wide CPD and networking
- Specialist support for vulnerable learners
You will also work closely with:
- Community Executive leadership
- Trust Strategic Leads for Inclusion and SEND
- SEND School Improvement Partners
Above all, you will be part of a Trust that is unapologetically focused on Students First, Raising Standards and Transforming Lives.
Further information about the job
Commitment to safeguarding
Our organisation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff, volunteers and trustees to share this commitment.
Our recruitment process follows the keeping children safe in education guidance.
Offers of employment may be subject to the following checks (where relevant):
childcare disqualification
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
medical
online and social media
prohibition from teaching
right to work
satisfactory references
suitability to work with children
You must tell us about any unspent conviction, cautions, reprimands or warnings under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975.
Applying for the job
Please complete the online application.
CVs will not be accepted for this application.
Apply for this jobAdditional documents
If you need these documents in an accessible format, please contact the school.
About Outwood Academy Ripon
- Organisation type
- Academy, ages 11 to 18
- Education phase
- Secondary school
- Size
- 609 pupils enrolled
- Age range
- 11 to 18
- Ofsted report
- View Ofsted report
- Email address
- v.chandrashekar@ripon.outwood.com
About the School:
Principal: Rachel Donohue
We are proud that Outwood Academy Ripon is rated Good with Outstanding features by Ofsted. We are an 11-16 academy based in the cathedral city of Ripon which is a thriving community with a magnificent cathedral making it one of Yorkshire’s most loved cities. The city’s history is entwined with the church and its proximity to the UNESCO World Heritage Site encompassing the magnificent Studley Royal Deer Park, including the well-preserved Cistercian Fountains Abbey. Ripon is a delightful city with riverside and canal sidewalks that reach into the countryside and buildings that span the last thousand years. Our success is one of the most impressive in North Yorkshire, and we have been recognised for our consistently excellent outcomes in progress and attainment.
Judged as Good with Outstanding features by Ofsted in 2024, the inspection stated that “Pupils are supported by caring staff who know them well”, “Pupils know that learning is important and apply themselves diligently to their work" and noted that ”the relationships between staff and students are very strong and behaviour around the academy is of a high standard".
We aim to promote the highest standards of academic achievement through inspiring teaching and learning, with a curriculum designed to stretch and enrich our students’ experience. Our success speaks for itself as we are above the national average for the number of students achieving at a Grade 5 or above in english & maths GCSEs, and we have won numerous awards as a school including the Carnegie Mental Health Silver Award, Anti-Bullying Alliance Bronze Award and being accredited with the prestigious IQM Centre of Excellence status, which highlights that inclusion at all levels is of paramount importance to us.
Put simply, we take pride in serving the local community, ensuring everyone has a right to learn.
Arranging a visit to Outwood Academy Ripon
To arrange a visit and increase the chance of a successful application email v.chandrashekar@ripon.outwood.com.
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