EDUCATION MANAGER

EDUCATION MANAGER

Job Description & Person Specification

OVERVIEW

“Inventive, entrepreneurial. Bravo.”
(Daily Telegraph, 2024)

Founded  by  Sarah  Gobran  and  Matt  Pinches  in  2006,  Guildford  Shakespeare  Company  is  an  award-winning
theatre company creating exceptional theatre in extraordinary places.

To date we have welcomed more than 200,000 audience members to our site responsive productions. As well as
Shakespeare on lakes, in castles, churches, museums, galleries and gardens, we’ve commissioned 11 brand new
works inspired by classics including Austen, Chaucer, the Brothers Grimm, and Dickens.

Most recently our shows have been on tour in the UK, London and New York.

The Creative Learning Department creates and delivers some 29,000 engagement opportunities every year. Much
of this work is aimed at improving engagement for socially excluded groups and the least advantaged. Activities
range  from  intergenerational  clubs  and  Young  Carers,  to  programmes  for  families  with  teenagers  living  with
mental health challenges, displaced young people and a pioneering knife crime awareness project.

We have also received numerous awards for our community engagement, including from the prestigious Institute
of Directors in 2023 for Inclusivity, Diversity and Equality.

GSC is based in Guildford, Surrey, 35 miles  from Central London, at the foot  of the Surrey Hills.  Our  office  and
rehearsal rooms are in the beautiful Stoke Park.

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EDUCATION MANAGER

Job Description & Person Specification

POSITION OVERVIEW: EDUCATION MANAGER
The Education Manager is a key position in our core team in Guildford, playing a pivotal part in ensuring we
continue to inspire, engage and educate the widest possible community of participants.

This dynamic role will work alongside the rest of the Creative Learning Department to plan, execute and evaluate
GSC’s in-house participation activity. They will also contribute to organisation-wide initiatives of promoting
inclusion and diversity. You'll work with freelancers and partner organisations to ensure activity is well planned,
inclusive and impactful.

You’ll be part of a small, hard-working team, within an ever-growing and developing theatre company, meaning
there is great potential for future growth.

Responsible to:
Responsible for:
Location:

Salary
Terms:

Joint Executive & Artistic Producers; Board of Trustees
Facilitators full-time and freelance
Guildford Shakespeare Company, Astolat Pavilion, Lido Road, Guildford, GU1 1FH (onsite
parking; 15 mins walk to mainline station)
£28,000 to £30,000 depending on experience
Full-time, permanent (40hrs per week); 29 days holiday (inclusive of 8 public holidays)

Specific Responsibilities

In-House Provision

•  To programme, deliver and manage GSC’s existing in-house provision of clubs and classes.
•  To facilitate in-house provision.
•  To act as cover facilitator for both in-house and outreach provision, where necessary.
•  To facilitate, direct and produce GSC’s Young Company and its performances.
•  To lead our adult provision The Bard’s Not That Hard.
•  To manage and steer the Youth Advisory Board.
•  To train and organise additional teachers for Trinity pupils.
•  To share in advance all programming, schedules with the rest of the GSC team.
•  To ensure Marketing and Administration have all associated details (venues, fees) in a timely manner to

enable effective sales and promotion.

•  To contract, train, support, and guide facilitators, ensuring a GSC standard and style of work, including

visiting classes and performances, checking lesson plans.

•  To lead and guide script cutting and lesson planning.
•  To administer and keep detailed records of registers and club attendance.
•  To pass on all salient information to facilitators, teachers and practitioners about children or adults with

special needs.

•  To look after the safeguarding of all attendees.
•  To ensure that all attendees are up to date with their subs and fees, and chase payments where

necessary.

•  To be responsible for organising transportation for students who may require assistance.
•  To liaise with schools, venues and premises used.
•  To keep up to date with competition from other providers.
•  To engage pro-actively with the development of new clubs and classes.

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EDUCATION MANAGER

Job Description & Person Specification

•  To be familiar with and adhere to the GSC style of delivery.

Education Events

•  Where appropriate, to lead on producing ad hoc education projects, including venue liaison, script

creation, directing, budgeting, photography, evaluating, invoicing, contracting staff (facilitators and stage
management). E.g. this could include our regular summer project with West Horsley place.

In-School Provision

•  Where required, to support and collaborate with the Learning and Development Co-ordinator and
Creative Learning Producer on school workshops, including creation, facilitation and development.

Outreach Provision

•  Where required, to support and collaborate with the work of the Outreach Department.

General Responsibilities
Safeguarding

•  To undertake DBS checks of volunteers and facilitators
•  To be Deputy Safeguarding Officer
•  To ensure all necessary permissions/consents are obtained when photography/filming is planned
•  To keep a personal up to date Enhanced DBS certificate

Health & Safety

•  To ensure personal Emergency First Aid training is up to date
•  To risk assess all education programmes of work and ensure risk assessments are kept up to date
•  To ensure all classes/venues have an up to date First Aid Kit available

Administration & Reporting

•  To assist with monitoring and evaluation of all provision, including end of term debriefs.
•  To keep detailed budgets and financial records for the Education Department and to ensure that the

Creative Learning Producer has all necessary information to create annual financial report.

•  To administrate, organise and keep up to date records of subscriptions and renewals, and collation of

registers and consent forms.

•  To liaise with and manage workshop leaders, practitioners and assistants as appropriate.

Collaboration & Promotion

•  To promote GSC as a valuable resource to all areas of the community, both locally and regionally.
•  To create and develop close relations with schools, training and education partners and community

groups.

•  To represent GSC at conferences and industry events as appropriate.
•  To arrange, in liaison with Marketing, photography of activities.
•  To ensure the Education section of the website is kept up to date through liaising with Marketing.
•  To assist with all Education publicity, including all online and print marketing.

Other Duties

•  To work evenings and weekends as required.
•  To be proactive in personal CPD.
•  To support the Creative Learning Producer and Outreach Department, when necessary.
•  To attend read-throughs, rehearsals (as required), previews and press nights of the main house

programme.

•  To carry our other general duties as required.

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EDUCATION MANAGER

Job Description & Person Specification

•  To work effectively as part of the core GSC Team and make a positive contribution to the theatre

company as a whole and its charitable objectives.

•  Adhere to all GSC policies.
•  To always act in the best interest of GSC.

PERSON SPECIFICATION
This role needs an ambitious all-rounder. Our ideal candidate will already have experience of working in a creative
learning environment, leading participation programmes and creating schemes of work.

The post-holder will work alongside the other members of the Creative Learning Department to develop the
existing portfolio of clubs and classes, whilst seeking new opportunities to grow this offering.

They will manage, monitor and plan all of GSC’s subscription-based participation activities, whilst also creating the
content to be delivered. They will facilitate these clubs and classes alongside other freelance facilitators.

Our ideal candidate will be creative and inventive. An optimist, but also a pragmatist who recognises when time
and budgets mean that even the best ideas must wait their turn. Enjoy the busy nature of running multiple
projects at the same time, whilst planning for the future. Calm and good-humoured under pressure, a quick
worker and an initiative-taker willing to ask for advice.

This role will also contribute to organisation-wide initiatives including audience development and supporting
other programmes in the Creative Learning Department if required.

You will enjoy a supportive, non-corporate working environment; joining a small, hard-working team that thrives
on the difference theatre engagement can make to a community.

Essential Skills:

•  Demonstrable experience and understanding of theatre practice (performance, directing, devising, or

production processes).

•  Experience designing, delivering and evaluating creative education programmes for diverse age groups,

including workshops, residencies, youth theatres, and school partnerships

•  Experience in editing/adapting texts.
•  Strong facilitation skills in classroom and community settings.
•  Excellent organisational skills including project, time and team management.
•  Ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously.
•  Budget management and financial oversight experience.
•  Safeguarding knowledge and experience implementing child protection policies.
•  Commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion in arts participation.
•  Perceptive and compassionate interpersonal skills, and confidence talking/presenting to funders,

partners, teachers, facilitators and parents.

•  A working knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays and their context.
•  A passion for creating and delivering an ambitious range of diverse cultural opportunities.
•  An appreciation of the need to promote an inclusive culture.
•  Outstanding, clear written English, and attention to detail.

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EDUCATION MANAGER

Job Description & Person Specification

Desirable Skills:

•  An awareness of the demands of the current national curriculum.
•  Confidence in networking and developing strategic partnerships.
•  Strategic thinking aligned with organisational mission and audience development.
•  Experience working with underrepresented or marginalised communities.
•  Experience of hiring practitioners.
•  Experience contributing to funding applications and reporting to funders.
•  Data collection, analysis, and reporting skills.
•  Strong IT skills.
•  Experience embedding evaluation and impact measurement tools.

Please note, this role requires a willingness to work outside of regular ‘Office hours’.

HOW TO APPLY

Send your application to Sarah Gobran, sarah@guildford-shakespeare-company.co.uk including Education
Manager in the subject line.

Please apply in writing with the following information:

•  An up-to-date CV highlighting relevant experience, not more than 2 sides of A4.
•  Covering letter setting out how your skills and experience meet the person specification.
•  Names and contact details of two referees.

We encourage applications from global majority, disabled, neurodiverse and LGBTQIA+ candidates. If you have
specific access requirements and would like to submit your application through an alternative means, such as
video or audio file, you’re welcome to do so.

KEY DATES

Closing date for applications Tuesday 24th Feb, 5pm.

Interviews: If you have been selected, interviews will take place on 2nd & 4th March in Guildford

Start date: This role can start on either 13th or 20th April, depending on the successful candidate’s availability

Guildford Shakespeare Company Trust is an equal opportunities employer, and registered charity, no. 1139526

Updated 12th Feb, 2026

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