Jobs in Nailsea

About Us

Learning with Parents supports all families to have positive learning interactions together. We drive inclusive parental engagement by partnering with schools and leading the sector through learning what works.

By partnering with primary schools, we support thousands of families across the UK to enjoy learning together at home. Our child-led videos and hands-on family activities replace traditional homework. Through behavioural insight research, innovative technology and teacher training we ensure that as many families as possible are supported effectively.

We are working to improve parental engagement across the sector, by producing evidence of parents’ impact and generating insights into how schools can best support them. Learnings are disseminated through the Parental Engagement Forum and amplified through the Fair Education Alliance.

About the Role

One of Learning with Parents’ objectives over the next five years is to evidence how best to drive inclusive parental engagement. We are looking for an individual with experience in monitoring and evaluation to join our team. 

The Evaluation Manager will be responsible for evaluating our programmes to capture the impact we have, inform improvements internally and share insights externally. The role will begin with implementing an existing evaluation plan and develop into leading improvements and innovations in our evaluation strategy.  It will involve primary research, such as leading focus groups in schools, as well as analysis of quantitative and qualitative data generated by our platform and surveys of parents and teachers. It will also involve reporting this data and supporting others to do so. The Evaluation Manager will be responsible for maintaining tools and processes around evaluation and ensuring strong internal and external communications of findings. 

This is a role which involves extensive collaboration across different internal teams and with external stakeholders such as schools and funders.

Areas of Responsibility 

Evaluation design and planning 

• Improve, develop and innovate on existing evaluation strategies to better capture our impact and the voices of our stakeholders – school leaders, teachers, parents and children.

• Liaise with project leads to ensure that evaluation is planned into projects from the start.

• Liaise with the Programme Director to ensure evaluations are planned in tandem with strategic thinking about parent voice.

• Liaise with the fundraising team to ensure that reporting commitments to donors are planned into evaluations.

• Provide evaluation support with strategic partnerships.

• Collaborate with an external evaluator if appointed in future.

• Feed into future evaluation strategies. 

Primary research and conducting evaluations

• Analyse and present insights from platform data – both qualitative and quantitative.

• Conduct focus groups in schools and online with groups of parents, teachers or school leaders.

• Conduct individual case study interviews with parents and teachers or support other colleagues to do so. 

• Conduct evaluation activities with primary aged children in school.

• Analyse and write up collected data, including qualitative feedback from surveys, interview and focus group data. 

• With the schools team, manage the logistics for evaluation visits, such as arranging dates with schools and designing recruitment materials.

Processes and internal communication

• Maintain communication processes to ensure everyone is up to date and can access the information they need.

• Ensure project management software is kept up to date with details of evaluation activity. 

• Monitor and regularly report on progress in measuring our evaluation indicators. 

• Work with the Tech team to refine processes for managing data which adhere to UK GDPR and best practice in data management and ensure maximum usability of the data.

Evaluation tools and resources

• Develop or refine existing data collections tools. 

• Explore new opportunities and methodologies for capturing child voice and the voices of parents who may typically be underrepresented in research.

• Act as an inhouse technical resource to support the wider team with monitoring and evaluation-based queries 

• Review and routinely update supporting documents such as consent forms.

• Keep abreast of trends and innovations in the wider evaluation sector, identifying new opportunities and approaches for us to explore

Supporting Programme Evaluations

• Support the leads of individual projects to develop project level evaluation plans as required, ensuring that these are integrated into overarching plans, have a Theory of Change and adhere to ethics and data protection protocols.

• Develop or refine existing data collections tools to meet project needs and support with data collection, analysis and write up as required.

Dissemination

• Ensure that findings and learning from evaluations are consistently and robustly documented.

• Ensure evaluation findings are logged and shared internally to inform future programme design and development. 

• In partnership with the fundraising and communications team, create additional versions of evaluation reports for specific audiences. 

• In partnership with project leads, ensure feedback is shared with all stakeholders.

About You 

A successful Evaluation Manager will be able to work across multiple teams to ensure the quality and cohesion of evaluation work.  They will be committed to support the charity’s growth and impact. 

Our ideal candidate would also be able to provide examples of when they have used the following skills and experience: 

• Experience of research or evaluation, including using a range of data collection tools, analysing either qualitative or quantitative data (or both), report writing and sharing findings in a range of accessible and engaging formats.

• Experience designing evaluations and an understanding of the importance of adhering to ethics and data protection protocols. 

• Experience of managing projects which involve multiple stakeholders. 

• Excellent communication skills, in person and in writing. 

• Excellent attention to detail, whether in data analysis or written communication.

• Confidence working with a range of stakeholders, including children and families, and experience developing and maintaining relationships

• Excellent organisational skills and ability to work both independently and collaboratively.

• Interest in and understanding of educational inequality in the UK.

• A desire to champion and uphold our organisation’s vision, mission and values.

Our ideal candidate might also be able to provide examples of when they have used  some of the following skills and experience, although these are not essential: 

• Experience working in evaluation at another third sector organisation

• Experience working within the UK education system, either in schools or in other organisations working in the space such as charities or suppliers

• Familiarity with the primary school curriculum and current issues in the primary education sector.

• An understanding of the challenges of identifying and engaging families who are typically underrepresented in research.

• An understanding of the challenges of conducting evaluations in a busy school environment, why safeguarding is important in this context and how it may impact the design of evaluations based in schools.

Our Values 

Our Learning with Parents values are key to how we work and inform our strategy, programme, and how we collaborate.

Ambition - We strive do more for the families, schools and organisations we work with

Collaboration - We value the voices of others and achieve more by working together

Exploration - We are curious and seek evidence to inform our work

Innovation - We test, learn, adapt and embrace failure in our pursuit of progress

Integrity - We act responsibly and honestly, and default to transparency

Supportive environment - We work to create an environment which supports growth, belonging and wellbeing for everyone 

Benefits

We have a passionate team and supportive culture. We have supportive policies and offer a number of benefits including:

• Generous annual leave allowance (35 days, including bank holidays)

• Your birthday off and additional holiday reward for every year employed with us (up to five days pro rata)

• Enhanced maternity, paternity and family-related leave policy from day one

• Income protection in case of sickness

• Flexible working times

• Social events

• Environmental (Net Zero) Pension

• Cycle to work scheme

• Benefit Hub, including virtual GP and discount scheme

To Apply 

Submit a CV and answer the following questions through our site by Sunday 15th February:

• Why do you want to work for Learning with Parents? (no more than 300 words)

• Why do you want the role of Evaluation Manager? (no more than 300 words)

• What skills or experience do you have that would make you a good candidate for this role at Learning with Parents? (no more than 500 words)

Your questions will initially be assessed without reference to your personal details or CV so please include all relevant information in your responses. These will be scored by multiple reviewers using a scoring matrix. Please refer to our AI in recruitment policy for guidance.

First round interviews will be online the week commencing 23rd February. Second round interviews will be in person, at our Bristol offices, in the week beginning 2nd March.

We think it is important that our charity reflects the lived experience of our beneficiaries, and we want to be an organisation where employees and supporters from any background can thrive. 

We particularly welcome applications from candidates with lived experience of disability, candidates from Black, Asian or other minority ethnic groups, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, including non-binary (LGBTQ+) candidates, and candidates from disadvantaged communities. These groups are currently underrepresented at Learning with Parents, and we are committed to increasing representation and diversity internally at the charity.

Due to the nature of our work with young people, on acceptance of offers all Learning with Parents employees are subject to a DBS check in accordance with Safeguarding Policies and offers will also be subject to reference checks. 

Please note, travel for data collection from our partner schools across the country will be required. This is likely to be between three to six times a year. Additional travel may be required to share findings with stakeholders, primarily based in London.