Residential Matron – Westbourne House School, Chichester

The Role

We have an exciting opportunity for a dynamic and friendly person to join our vibrant boarding and medical team. Would you relish the opportunity of working with young children (aged 7–13) in our Main Boarding House? If you have experience of working as a matron, healthcare worker, or similar profession, this position offers an exciting opportunity to play a key role in ensuring the care of our pupils. The successful candidate will have a warm and welcoming presence and be a helpful and caring team member who would enjoy working and living in our School community.

We are looking for someone with a very positive “can-do” practical approach to support our pupils, including our full, weekly and flexi boarders throughout the weekdays and at weekends. Numbers vary from 10 to 100 boarders. You will support the nurse to provide care in the Medical Centre and will need to be fit and agile for laundry and bed changing duties.

You will need to be practical, patient, sensitive, as well as an excellent communicator and a team player.Previous experience of working with young people would be an advantage but not essential.

Accommodation will be provided all year round and the term-time only position will commence in September 2023.

Westbourne House creates a safe, supportive and fun boarding environment for children to help them develop into caring, self-reliant and confident individuals.

We can offer:

• Strong, supportive staff team

• Competitive salary

• Pension Scheme

• Use of the school’s facilities

• Employee Assistance Programme

Closing date: 23rd May 2023

We reserve the right to interview and offer to a strong candidate prior to the closing date. For this reason, early applications are encouraged.

Westbourne House is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including checks with current and past employers, online checks, the Disclosure & Barring Service, overseas checks and the Secretary of State’s Prohibition List from Teaching and Management.

About the School

Westbourne House is situated just to the east of Chichester in beautiful grounds of over 100 acres. There are approximately 380 boys and girls, aged 2½ -13. Most children go on to major Public Schools across the South.

The school enjoys outstanding facilities. Teaching is extremely well resourced with excellent teaching rooms, the majority equipped with interactive whiteboards; there are also sets of laptops which can be booked for class based work. There are rooms for Art, Ceramics, ICT, Design Technology and Food Technology, a separate Science block and Music School, as well as a modern, 300 seat theatre/assembly hall. The School also has a large (30 acre) lake on the north boundary for kayaking.

Academic standards are high, with consistently outstanding Common Entrance results together with an excellent scholarship record; last year no fewer than 36 awards and scholarships to senior schools were won across a range of disciplines, totalling 140 over the last five years.

Westbourne House uses the High Performance Learning philosophy to guide all pupils in becoming good learners. The school believes that all pupils have the potential to

perform at the highest level regardless of their current performance level. The Advanced Cognitive Performance Characteristics (ACPs) and Values, Attitudes and Attributes (VAAs) of HPL are the “thinking” and “behaviour” characteristic and these are delivered specifically and systematically throughout the curriculum.

The Music and Drama departments also excel consistently: all children are involved in school productions, a large number are members of school choirs and there are regular concerts.

Saturday school consists of sports matches, as well as optional enrichment activities, such as kayaking and coding.

There is a wide variety of sport on offer, and a large number of teams represent the school most Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. As well as extensive playing fields, there is a 25-metre swimming pool, dance studio, sports hall, squash courts and a full-sized astro-turf pitch.

There are around 100 boarders, many of whom board for two or three nights in one of seven houses on the school grounds. The school offers full time boarding allowing the children to further enjoy the beautiful facilities and grounds the school has to offer.