Senior IT Technician Northern Hub (Birmingham & Black Country)
Grade SC5/SC6

The Role
Central Region Schools Trust seek to appoint a highly skilled, knowledgeable and customer focussed IT professional for the role of Senior IT Technician. The successful candidate will have a proven track record of providing outstanding support to both secondary and primary academies and they will also be committed to ensuring IT Services are safe, secure, and reliable, whilst maintaining strong working relationships with stakeholders.

The successful candidate will join our Northern IT Services Hub where they will be based at one of our Secondary schools and support other schools located around the hub as required.

Your role as a key member of the IT Services Team within the Trust will contribute to the development and support of our Trust IT strategy and operation as required.

The role of our Northern Hub (Birmingham & Black Country) Senior IT Technician requires:

 A minimum of two years’ experience in an IT support role.
 A proven track record of providing outstanding support to both secondary and primary academies both onsite and remote.
 Experience of delivering outstanding services to meet customer needs, in person, online, and face to face.
 Experience of supporting other colleagues and positively influencing their work.
 Experience of managing priorities and working to tight timescales.

There are strong working relationships between all the CRST schools within the Northern Hub, from following the same curriculum overview to sharing operations staff. Working within the Northern Hub opens up exciting opportunity to contribute to the education and development of children through the entirety of their formal education.

How to Apply
Please complete our application form and send it to Ed Cooper, Trust Head of IT at as per the application pack. The closing date for applications is 16:00, Wednesday 18th May. (https://centralregionschoolstrust.co.uk/work-for-us/vacancies/)

If you would prefer an informal discussion with Ed Cooper, Trust Head of IT, please contact Chelsea Cafolla (PA to the CEO & Office Manager) as per the application pack to arrange a mutually convenient time.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. https://centralregionschoolstrust.co.uk

The History of our Trust
As a trust, we were founded by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, more commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts or the RSA. The RSA has a history of developing ideas and projects to improve people’s lives, and our vision of ‘social justice through exceptional schools’ aligns closely with the social justice mission of the RSA. All our schools are improving in reputation, popularity, and quality of education.

Whilst we are now an DfE approved academy sponsor, recognising the collective strength of our trust and schools, we retain many programmes and partnerships from the original sponsorship. We have a strong school improvement force and now sponsor, in collaboration with the DfE and Regional Schools Commissioner, schools that will benefit from our structural, formal support.

Our trust aims to influence the practice of our schools through the collaborative knowledge sharing we expect through our school improvement model and co-design structures. We are outward facing, sharing, and learning from internal and external partners. Central Professional Learning, Research and Development (CPL,R&D) ensures the development of all employees at all levels of the organisation. We have developed excellence in central services, such as finance, HR, estates, which make a huge difference to our schools, not least by enabling Principals and staff to focus on delivery of excellence in teaching and learning. Teach Central, as part of CPL,R&D, recruits, and trains new teachers to the profession with a high level of success.

Our Mission, Vision, Strategic Objectives & Values
Mission: to promote opportunity and social justice for every child through exceptional schools.
Vision: As a trust founded by The Royal Society of Arts, our exceptional schools work together to create learning that is inspirational for all: igniting imagination and enabling creativity and curiosity which results in the highest achievement. People are valued and happy, developing their knowledge, attributes, skills and networks for success and fulfilment. In our empowered communities, everything is possible, and aspirations are high. Outcomes are highly impressive.

Strategic Objectives:
SO1: EXCEPTIONAL LEARNERS
SO2: EXPERT PROFESSIONALS
SO3: EXCELLENCE IN INFRASTRUCTURE, SYSTEMS AND PLACES
SO4: EMPOWERED COMMUNITIES AND LASTING PARTNERSHIPS

Values: Integrity, Excellence, Creativity, Community and Respect

Teach Central, formerly the RSA Academies’ Teaching School Alliance, recruits, and trains new entrants to the teaching profession, identifies leadership potential, and provides support for schools across the West Midlands, to transform outcomes for young people and bring about positive social change. We drive action research, undertake innovations in teaching, and optimise the talents and commitment of our staff to develop creative ways of providing education. https://centralregionschoolstrust.co.uk/teach-central/

We believe that effective Research and Development begins with our students and a drive to improve their learning experience and educational outcomes. The power to transform education comes when schools collaborate, and an active Research and Development culture can be found across all the schools in our Alliance. https://centralregionschoolstrust.co.uk/cplrd/

KASE
The leadership across our Trust has identified pupil knowledge, skills, and attributes that we believe are key to the current and future success of the young people in our schools. Each school creates their own approach to developing the skills and attributes. These skills and attributes have an identified leader across the Trust to lead expert collaboration where the most effective practice emerges from within the Trust and beyond, then standardisation of approach will be agreed as appropriate.

Knowledge: Working with pupils to know understand and have mastered key concepts so that they develop the expertise to become fluent and excel within and across subject disciplines, locating their experiences within the broader sense of society.
Attributes of Character: To create the conditions in which attributes of character are nurtured, so that pupils can lead full active and successful lives which support their communities and the wider world.
Skills: Helping pupils to develop the skills needed for a successful and happy personal and professional life.
Experiences: Ensuring our pupils enjoy, experience excitement, and find value in their school experience, through a very wide range of experiences that challenge and motivate them, providing aspiration and demanding responsibility from them.

JOB DESCRIPTION and PERSON SPECIFICATION
Job Title: Senior IT Technician
Department/Directorate: Central IT Team
Salary Scale: Grade SC5/SC6
Accountable to: Trust Senior Network Manager
Location: Gospel Oak Secondary School and other schools within the Northern Hub.

The Role
Central Region Schools Trust seek to appoint a highly skilled, knowledgeable and customer focussed IT professional for the role of Senior IT Technician. The successful candidate will have a proven track record of providing outstanding support to both secondary and primary academies and they will also be committed to ensuring IT Services are safe, secure, and reliable, whilst maintaining flexible, friendly, and strong working relationships with all stakeholders.

This role will involve providing efficient and customer-friendly ICT support to schools within the Northern Hub and overseeing the smooth running of the school’s networks and systems. This role would also involve supervising, supporting, and mentoring junior team members and playing a key role in delivery of projects across the trust.

Main Duties and Responsibilities
 Responsible for ensuring IT systems within the hub are reliable, consistent, and fit for purpose.
 Maintain core infrastructure, systems, and services with support from senior IT colleagues. This may include:
o Network connectivity (switch maintenance and VLAN updates) o Internet services, including web filtering and Office 365
o Windows server infrastructure, including AD, GPO, DNS, DHCP, PRINT
o Backup Systems, ensuring backups are regularly monitored and tested in accordance with Trust Backup Procedures.
o Server system maintenance such as anti-virus and windows updates o Academy MIS systems
o Telephony and VOIP
 Participate in Trust IT projects and CapEx related project work, ensuring best practices are followed from planning through to implementation.
 Implementation of curriculum and IT strategies as outlined by the Head of IT and ICT Leaders.
 Lead on the delivery of changes to hardware and software, ensuring documentation is created and maintained where appropriate and items are asset tagged and added to the Trust inventory.
 Utilise and promote the use of the Trust Helpdesk ensuring requests are managed efficiently and in line with Trust procedures. Provide escalated support to junior colleagues as required and use the Trust knowledge bases to assist with diagnosis and resolution.
 Provide support and guidance to other IT colleagues.
 Support individuals or groups with training on the use of IT resources to enable first class teaching and learning opportunities for students and staff.
 Participate in regular team meetings and provide valuable feedback.
 Establish good working relationships with suppliers and external contractors.
 Work as part of a wider trust IT Services team, adopting flexible working practices, attending meetings and liaising with staff at all levels to ensure efficient operation of IT systems and services.
 Understand the importance of ensuring all school networks are kept safe and secure. Conduct regular maintenance of Web Filtering, Anti-Virus, and monitoring protocols in line with trust safeguarding strategies and procedures.
 Enhance knowledge and skills relevant to IT through online resources and attend relevant courses where appropriate.
 Any other duties corresponding to the general character of the post and appropriate with its level of responsibility. We would expect the successful candidate to recognise this and adopt a flexible approach to this role.

Key Skills and Personal Qualities
 Resilient, dependable, and reliable, with the ability to work on your own initiative.
 Excellent time management and organisation skills.
 High attention to detail and take pride in your work.
 Confident in providing small group sessions for training and development.
 Excellent computer hardware and software skills, with the ability to effectively troubleshoot and resolve problems as required for this role.
 Outstanding communication skills, both oral and written, with ability to communicate with people at all levels.
 Ability to work under pressure and manage competing priorities

Person Specification
Central Region Schools Trust (CRST) is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and as such expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and completion of an Enhanced DBS will be required. This job description is current as of May 2022, but following consultation, may be changed by Management to reflect or anticipate any changes in the job role which are commensurate with the salary, job title and Managerial standards across the Central Region Schools Trust (CRST)