Our company:
We're a small creative team that delivers STEM workshops to students and communities across New Zealand.
We began in Auckland in 2017 teaching after-school coding classes, and since then have expanded our offerings to also teach robotics, electronics, 3D Design and printing, science, Minecraft, and more! Our classes have expanded from running purely after-school to also running in school holiday periods, in school classrooms during the day, and in community venues for pop up family events. Our goal is to make STEM exciting and accessible for all, ensuring all our attendees leave our workshops feeling confident and proud of their newly developed skills.
This role:
This role in particular is a Special Education Team Lead role which means you'll be working 1:1 and in small focus groups with students who have additional needs or disabilities such as ASD / Autism. Outside of working with our students, you'll support our current high and complex needs team by facilitating team meetings, booking trainings, providing them with hands-on and in-class support, and you'll have a role in inducting new families, and maintaining relationships with referrers.
Our students are all amazing! They're passionate about technology, have amazing support around them (teachers, parents, psychologists, OT's, facilitators & of course us - Brain Play) and nearly all are happy, positive, and eager to learn. We do have some students and classes who are more challenging (low motivation, shorter attention span, emotional outbursts). The teaching element of your role is to work with a handful of our most in need of support students.
Our challenging students / school groups love our classes, but have volatile home environments, a history of trauma, and can have a hard time trusting adults, so it's essential our new tutor / team lead is understanding, supportive, and willing to break down barriers to get the best out of our students. We ask that you have experience working with neurodivergent and/or disabled youth in past roles, and come ready to share your knowledge with our current teaching team.
We would love for you to bring experience with STEM topics too. We work on coding, robotics, 3D design and printing, and electronics projects, as well as running some science experiments and learning through play activities such as making slime, or playing Minecraft.
For all aspects of this role we are looking for someone who is positive, can adapt quickly, is supportive & understanding, identifies as a leader, doesn't fluster when presented with challenges, and enjoys building relationships with students.
Location:
Our team is small but wide spread with 3 part time tutors based in Auckland, 1 in Christchurch, and our newest tutor based in Wellington. Together we support 40 students per week to engage in Brain Play.
Your role will be a combination of at-home work and on the road across Auckland supporting our team and students.
Responsibilities:
Tutoring:
- Organising activities and equipment with students individual needs in mind
- Visiting students at school, at local libraries, online, and in-home
- Delivering 45 minute - 2 hour classes to students
- Administration work - keeping notes, taking photos, booking sessions, booking make up sessions, emails
- Supporting our events team during school holiday periods when our students are on break (regular Brain Play team)
Team Lead:
- Facilitating team meetings and completing follow up tasks
- Inducting new team members
- Providing in-person support for our team who are facing challenges
- Running observations / assessments for new students
- Attending stakeholder meetings to update on the progress of our sessions
To apply for this job please make sure you meet the following, do not apply if you cannot confidently tick all of these boxes:
- Have availability of around 3 week days / 10 - 16 hours
- Have experience working with students (aged 5 - 16) who have a neurodiversity or disability
- Have experience working in education settings
- Have great leadership skills - confidence, adaptability, solutions focused, able to manage a group / new situation effectively
- Have the ability to bring positivity and resilience to every workday
- Have your own private & reliable mode of transport
- Bonus: have an understanding of how disability services, schools, or how the NZ education system supports young people with disabilities / neurodivergence
Benefits:
- Once fully trained, the hourly pay rate for this role jumps to $35.00 (training is 6 - 8 weeks)
- Option to extend to full time hours in future
- Paid travel to other regions of New Zealand
- We pay for daily travel - per km travelled and also time spent in the car
- All training is paid, and part of your training can be completed remotely
- We will pay for your first aid certificate, child protection course, and flu jab, as well as a Headspace subscription
- You get to play Minecraft for work - our favourite perk
We look forward to welcoming you into our team!
