About the organisation

Good to Great Schools Australia (GGSA) partners with schools and school systems to support school improvement along a journey from Poor to Fair, Fair to Good and Good to Great that is a universal school-improvement framework (which GGSA created along with McKinsey & Company) to benchmark performances and implement a set of evidence-based programs that enable them to progress to the next stage of their improvement journey.

GGSA has developed an innovative 6C education model and the 8 cycles of school practice to give every child the opportunity to develop to their full potential. The five distinct but inter-connected domains of the 6Cs are Childhood, Class, Culture, Club, Community and Civics. GGSA assists schools to tailor a package from the 6Cs that meets the needs of their students, teachers, school and community. The 8 Cycles of School Practice provides the information and guidance a school needs to support their implementation.

GGSA has an experienced team of professionals who support the school team, students and parents to effectively deliver the 6C model. Each school receives significant training, coaching, data monitoring and tools to enable them to develop into great teachers delivering effective instruction to every child and to continually improve on the journey to becoming a great school.

About the unit School Partnerships

School Partnerships is the unit responsible for delivering all projects that support schools across Australia to implement GGSA’s 8 Cycles of School Practice and 6C Education Model. The leader of the team is responsible for identifying and on boarding new schools, school networks and systems and then supporting them for the duration of their project/s.

The focus of this role is to lead School Partnerships in the pursuit to scale Effective Instruction across Australia (driven by an expansive GGSA agenda, large government projects and an aggressive commercial model). In order to achieve this, the role will focus on growing the amount of schools involved in the business (through strategic planning, great service delivery of the quality products and through leadership of the engagement team). The two major product areas are the Class domain where a range of programs  are designed around literacy and numeracy through delivery using Direct Instruction (DI) and Explicit Instruction (EI).

To do this, the School Partnerships Manager manages a service team who provide direct support to the schools and systems and other staff who provide project and administrative support or who work on product development.

GGSA partners with a range of stakeholders to be funded to support schools:

• Schools – the fastest growing area of GGSA are schools who come directly to GGSA with their own funding to support their school on a fee for service basis e.g various schools in the Gold Coast area
• Systems –  across every state and territory, including the private and public sector e.g. Queensland Department of Education who fund the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy(CYAAA)Through a joint partnership.
• Private investor groups – an emerging area of the business that is being planned - special interest groups, private philanthropic or business organisations who seek to support school improvement or specific schools in their catchment.
• Australian Government – who fund large network of schools to advance school improvement

About the role

This is an opportunity to play a key role in leading GGSA’s service delivery business in driving education reform in Australia. Due to the visibility of this role, this leadership position will directly report through to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

GGSA currently supports 29 schools across Australia – this role will oversee the expansion to over 200 schools within 2 years across the 3 aforementioned projects. To support this, the role will not only oversee school implementation but also training, accreditation services and operations management (which includes; contract management, budget oversight, growth planning, government relations and innovation).

Essential Criteria 

• Minimum 10 years experience leading projects
• Successful delivery of project outcomes in a complex environment (preferably design projects or programs)  including the use of project management planning methodology and risk management;
• Managed a project team of 5 or more full time employees who had other teams reporting to them;
• Ability to think strategically through complex issues taking into account the bigger picture and longer-term outcomes;
• Demonstrated experience in influencing the work and direction of a high-functioning project team/work group;
• Proven ability to develop strong networks with diverse key partners with demonstrated negotiation skills and  the ability to sell difficult/contentious concepts;Willingness to travel away from base location to regional and remote areas of Australia
• Evidence of a current valid manual drivers licence;
• Possess a Blue Card (or if successful provide evidence of obtaining/applying prior to commencement);
• Evidence of a successfully completed Police Check.

 Desirable criteria

• Experience of the Queensland (or other states and territories) education sector; policies, structure, framework.
• Managed an education program;
• Project management and/or business qualifications;
• Registration with a recognised national project management affiliation;
• Understanding of the political and legal framework in which the organisation operates;
• Knowledge of behaviour change and/or social and economic development;

Understanding of the social, political and legal framework in which the organisation operates.We offer rewarding careers for outstanding professionals, ongoing learning and development opportunities, a collaborative culture with flexible and agile work practices that focus on driving innovation.