Job Description

Woking College

Surrey
21,322 per year

Salary:

Actual pro rata salary: 21,322 pa for 35 hours per week, term time only (39 weeks per year). FTE 26,242 per annum. All figures are inclusive of fringe allowance

Job type:

Full Time, Part Time, Permanent

Start date:

06 October 2025

Apply by:

1 September 2025

Job overview

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The Role

The Progress Mentor role is designed to complement the work done by our dedicated Registry team and the Pastoral team. It provides an additional layer of support to students to help maximise their attendance in lessons to identify any barriers to attendance for individual students and work with the student and their parents/carers to overcome these barriers. This newly extended role will provide support throughout the week. Candidates must have good communication skills, both verbally and in writing, and have empathy and interest in helping young people fulfil their potential.







Working hours for this term-time role will be 8.30am to 4.00pm, Monday to Friday, with an unpaid half hour for lunch.







We are looking for an exceptional candidate. We expect high performance from all our staff, and are looking for an impressive individual to support our students. Candidates should demonstrate their ability and suitability to both the role and the culture of the College. We look forward to welcoming an additional team member to join our friendly Learning Support department in our successful and growing College.

Post title: Progress Mentor

Responsible to: Assistant Principal Support for Learning and Wellbeing

Job Purpose: To work with curriculum departments; pastoral leads and the registry team to monitor and follow up on student attendance concerns.

Job Responsibilities:

1. To work with curriculum departments and support the Head of Department in monitoring and chasing attendance: running weekly attendance reports for each subject; calling home; and meeting with students to discuss attendance concerns and set clear targets for improving attendance.

2. To liaise closely with Heads of Year; Pastoral Director and the Registry team to ensure appropriate allocation of attendance monitoring and follow up.

3. To ensure all interactions with students and communication with parents/carers are clearly logged on Portal to keep relevant staff informed of the concerns and actions taken.

4. To follow up on attendance concerns following key College events such as the Careers Mornings.

5. To manage an additional case load of students identified as high risk of non-attendance; to maintain close contact with each student for the duration of the support process through regular face to face meetings and contact via Teams with the goal of improving attendance and engagement with subjects.

6. To set SMART targets for each student which are regularly reviewed and renewed in line with progress.

7. To maintain close contact with students' parents/carers to establish a wide-ranging approach to supporting the student and to ensure that parents/carers are aware of the concerns and actions being taken to support re-engagement.

8. To be pro-active in tracking students' attendance, behaviour and submission of work and updating records with a log of actions and progress towards targets.

9. To keep records of the students on your caseload and the strategies used and progress made towards re-engagement targets.

10. To offer pastoral support and guidance for academic and personal issues and to work 1:1 with students to implement strategies to support building of self-esteem and confidence.

11. To listen to students and embed a solution-focused approach to barriers to learning.

12. To support students with access arrangements with both internal and external exams and to fulfil the role of an exam invigilator as required.

13. To take part in the first aider duty rota (training will be given if not already qualified to be a first aider at work). Carrying a radio, and responding to first aid requests when on rota, and to respond to first aid requests at additional times should the specific duty rota first aider not be available.

14. To promote good communication and working relations with subject staff, parents, carers and students to foster learning.

15. To ensure appropriate application of the Academic Support Process and Student Behaviour Policy

16. To act at all times in accordance with the College's Equality & Diversity policy.

17. To act at all times in accordance with the College's Safeguarding policy. Ensuring the safeguarding of students at the College, recognising one's own role in liaison with the designated safeguarding team.

18. To contribute to the safety policies of the College as directed by the Principal and to ensure that Health & Safety Regulations are observed within the Curriculum Areas and within the College in general.

19. To fulfil one's own responsibilities as a member of staff, in accordance with the quality standards of the College.

20. To take part in the training programmes provided by the College and agree to the process of professional reviews.

21. To undertake any other particular duties which may be reasonably assigned to you by the Principal from time to time.

Person Specification

Essential:

An interest and commitment to work with young people in a college environment. The ability to empathise with young people and interest in helping them to fulfil their potential. The ability and confidence to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing. Possession of good interpersonal skills e.g. tact, sensitivity, ability to listen, to be assertive at times. Positive approach to working with a network of partners: academic & pastoral staff; Student Services; Parents/carers; external agencies. Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office applications: Word; Excel; Microsoft Teams. Understanding of mental health and emotional wellbeing issues for 16-19 students and ability to utilise a range of strategies to support students with their wellbeing and engagement with their studies. Knowledge of Safeguarding (Keeping Children Safe in Education) and ability to maintain confidentiality in dealing with sensitive issues. Ability to work under pressure dealing with tasks logically and problem solving. The ability to prioritise and complete tasks independently within a team environment.

Qualifications:

Educated to A level equivalent, or educated to GCSE standard or equivalent plus a minimum of two years working in an educational environment.

Desirable:

Experience of supporting students to overcome barriers to learning. First Aid at work qualification and experience of being a first aider at work (training will be given if necessary)

Why work with us?

Woking College has a strong sense of community in which everyone is valued; we look forward to welcoming new members of staff to join our team.

In addition to staff development, sharing best practice sessions, and regular support, the following is short selection of what the College offers to staff:

Free on-site parking Staff room with free hot drinks available to all staff, Friday cakes Onsite canteen with a range of healthy options to purchase, and a Costa coffee shop Regular staff social events: bowling, staff quiz, summer BBQ, weekend walks/cycling, Christmas lunch, Christmas party College gym available for staff use, yoga classes, staff football (new 3G pitch), run club Staff clubs/support groups: book club, menopause group, group for Parents/carers of children with mental health concerns Access to prayer/multi faith room

College website:

We recommend applicants visit the College's website: Woking College | Surrey | Welcome to Woking College to find out more about our friendly community and why we are Outstanding.

Application Information:

Start Date:

September/October 2025 (as soon as possible)

Hours:

35 hours per week, term-time only (39 weeks per year), Monday to Friday 8.30am to 4.00pm

Salary:

Actual pro rata salary: 21,322 pa for 35 hours per week, term time only (39 weeks per year).


FTE 26,242 per annum. All figures are inclusive of fringe allowance

To Apply

: Please download the Application Pack and click the Apply Now button to access the Application Form via the College website.

CVs will not be accepted on their own. Applicants must have the Right to Work in the UK.

Please ensure education and employment history are completed in full, gaps in employment must be accounted for under the section entitled "Periods when not working". We would like to see your passion for the role and the College in your supporting statement, please use this opportunity to include personal skills, experience relevant to the post, and reasons why you feel you would be successful if this post.

Closing date: 9am, Monday 1 September 2025

Interviews: to be held shortly after the closing date

Completed applications, or any queries regarding the role or your application, should be sent via email to Kirsty Crook (Personnel Officer): recruitment@woking.ac.uk

Important information:

The College is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and successful applicants will be subject to Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. The College is committed to equal opportunities. The College encourages all candidates to be familiar with Section 1 of the DfE paper on "Keeping Children Safe in Education" September 2024 and the College's Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy. These documents can be found on the College's Staff Vacancies page, and Policies page. In line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) the College asks candidates to consider Woking College's Privacy Notice for Job Applicants, which can be found on the Staff Vacancies page of the College's website.

Recruiter contact:

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About

Woking College

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Woking College

Rydens Way, Woking
Surrey
GU22 9DL
United Kingdom

+44 1483 761036

Woking College is an oversubscribed and highly successful college of over 1700 students drawing students from more than 60 different schools. Our very successful focus will always be to create the very best environment for high quality of teaching and learning. We have a very broad range of enrichment activities, in order to greatlyenhance the cultural capital and future prospects of our students. We place a very strong emphasis on maintaining our wonderful community, we have a more diverse College population than might be thought of as typical for Surrey and we are determined to maintain our inclusive ethos. We are fully committed to innovation whilst maintaining a humane and caring approach for all members of the College community which has resulted in the doubling of the student population in recent years. These approaches have been key to securing Grade 1 'Outstanding' in all seven categories in our October 2022 Ofsted inspection.



Woking College is enjoying record results, very positive value-added and an abundance of applications and quite rightly has a teaching and learning culture which is the envy of other institutions, indeed in recent staff surveys over 95% of College staff said they were proud to work at Woking College!



We believe that our physical environment should also inspire our staff and students. All have benefitted hugely from an impressive transformation of the College's estate over recent years, with the completion of a new Sports Centre in 2014, a new Art building in 2015 and a modern and larger Science Building in 2016. A full size 3G pitch was completed in 2020. A 3m teaching block opened in early 2023, and a further 3m project working collaboratively with the adjacent community centre opened in September 2023 enhancing our Performing Arts facilities even further.



We recognise the advantages of collaboration and have worked hard over the years to build and maintain close working relationships with other education providers and the Local Authority. The College has been a long-standing member of S7, the Surrey and Sussex group of Sixth Form Colleges, arguably the leading college consortium nationally, and we look forward to continued positive engagement with schools, colleges and the local community for the benefit of all.



With strong leadership from our passionate and committed senior leadership team, and with the support of excellent teaching and support staff across all areas, we look forward to the continued evolution of the College; we also look forward to meeting committed, engaging and passionate people who want to join us to further enhance the life-chances and choices of our students - which is of course our main mission as educators.

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