Senior ELI Programme Manager

About Chapter One

Chapter One is a small but growing charity, working to ensure that every child has 1:1 reading support at the time they need it most.

Our Early Literacy Intervention (ELI) programme provides daily, tailored 1:1, 7 minute phonics sessions for children who are behind in phonics. Using a bespoke technology tool that can be aligned to any school phonics scheme, a trained Early Reading Interventionist works individually with target children. We currently have ELIs working in 11 schools in London, East Sussex and the West Midlands, with plans to expand. Data from 2024-25 showed that children receiving ELI support had a phonics screen pass rate of 95% (10% above school cohort averages).

Chapter One also offers a unique Online Reading Volunteer programme which currently supports about 3,500 children a year. It pairs struggling five to seven-year old (KS1) readers with reading support volunteers who come from over 170 local and national businesses. The volunteer pledge is very focused: readers commit 30 minutes a week to read with a child using a bespoke digital platform for an entire academic year. For more information about our programmes please visit our website and watch our videos.

About the role

Working 30 hours per week over 5 days, for 44 weeks a year, you will be responsible for the day-to-day running of our Early Literacy Intervention (ELI) programme in the UK. You will manage a team of part-time ELI practitioners, visiting them regularly in school to provide supervision, quality assurance and support. You will lead on the relationships with schools involved in the programme: organising and overseeing programme delivery; sharing regular data summaries and ensuring pupil progress. As the programme grows, you will also be responsible for the recruitment and training of new ELIs.

We are looking for a highly motivated individual who has recent experience of teaching and/or leading phonics with an excellent understanding of phonics pedagogy and the ability to train and develop our ELI practitioners. The successful candidate must be willing to travel to the schools we work with, initially in (but not limited to) London, East Sussex and the West Midlands.

Key Responsibilities
Staff management

• Lead and manage a team of Chapter One Early Literacy Interventionists (ELIs) to effectively deliver the Early Literacy intervention programme in schools.
• Visit ELIs in school regularly to provide supervision, quality assurance and support.
• Recruit, train and induct new ELI practitioners as required.
• Design and create training materials for new ELIs.
• Provide annual training for teachers who have pupils taking part in the programme.
• Conduct monthly supervision meetings and annual appraisals of ELI practitioners and clearly document these.
• Lead the fortnightly ELI meeting, supporting with any issues which may arise.

Programme delivery, school liaison and evaluation

• Ensure ELIs baseline each pupil when they begin and track pupil progress throughout the year.
• Proactively monitor session numbers in all schools and support ELIs to increase session numbers if necessary.
• Conduct termly data meetings with schools to share data trackers and ensure that schools are fully informed about pupil progress.
• Lead on the documentation of key processes and step by step guides for the ELI team and ensure that these processes are followed.
• Analyse pupil data both for ELI pupils and non-ELI pupils to produce reports and identify trends, sharing with the Evidence and Impact Manager as required.
• In collaboration with the Schools Development Manager, conduct annual renewal conversations with partner schools.

Platform development

• Be the first port of call for ELI practitioners for the operation of the Chapter One Early Literacy platform, escalating issues as necessary.
• Liaise with the platform development team to feedback on platform bugs and areas of improvement.
• Proactively identify new directions for the development of the platform, in line with the latest pedagogy and research on early reading, and liaise with the Product Manager and development teams as required.

General responsibilities

• Liaise with Managers in all other departments as required.
• Participate in business planning and objective setting and attend the School and Parent Engagement group meeting each term.

Qualifications Criteria

• Qualified teacher status (QTS)
• Right to work in the UK

Required skills & experience:

• Experience of working in education
• Experience of teaching or leading early reading and/or phonics
• Understanding of current phonics pedagogy and diversity of phonics schemes
• Experience of line management
• Highly motivated, energetic individual with excellent interpersonal and organisational skills
• Ability to adapt and embrace a changing environment
• Excellent personal planning and a proven ability to work independently
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build relationships at all levels inside and outside the organisation
• Highly computer literate with hands-on experience of using MS Office and platforms and tools
• such as Google analytics, PowerPoint and more
• An understanding of Child Safeguarding
• A commitment to Chapter One s mission and values

Chapter One is committed to safeguarding children and young people. All post holders are subject to a satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service disclosure. Copies of our Safeguarding Policy and Safer Recruitment Policy are available on request.

Chapter One is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value and celebrate diversity in backgrounds and experience and are deliberate about the kind of inclusive teams we are building. Literacy is a universal concern, and we need people from all backgrounds to maximise our innovation, creativity and impact. We especially welcome applications from persons who have experienced disadvantage and/or from those who are of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities who are currently underrepresented in the organisation.