Schools & Families Officer

 Role Profile

Job Title

Schools & Families Officer

Contract Type

Temporary Fixed Term 9-12 Months Maternity Cover

Salary

Hours

Holidays

Manager

Location

£27,500 per annum (FTE rate)
Actual £22,000
28 hours per week, 4 days a week 0.8 FTE (includes
regular Sundays)
Pro rata entitlement of a full-time equivalent of 33 days
including 8 bank holidays

Head of Learning & Public Engagement

Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, London
SW3 4HS

1.

Equal Opportunities

Chelsea Physic Garden is a place for everyone. As an equal opportunities’ employer,
Chelsea Physic Garden is committed to championing equality, diversity, and inclusion
in our workplace. If you are a suitably qualified applicant, we encourage your
application whatever your age, disability, gender, gender identity, race, religion or
belief, sexual orientation or socio-economic background.

2.

About Chelsea Physic Garden

Chelsea Physic Garden (CPG) is an independent charity set up in 1983 to promote and
preserve the four-acre garden of the same name. The charity’s mission is to
demonstrate the medicinal, economic, cultural and environmental importance of
plants to the survival and wellbeing of humankind. We are open to visitors six-days a
week, eleven months of the year.  There has been a teaching Garden on our site since
1673, and today we hope that all our visitors leave inspired, having learnt something
new.
3.

Our Values

We have a set of five inter linked reinforcing values that support each other

Openness and
Transparency

• Sharing and being generous

with information

• Being open to new ideas

and opinions

Respect & Care

Inclusion

• Respecting others' roles
feelings and opinions
• Listening sensitively and
encouraging dialogue

• Working collaboratively
• Reaching  out to involve
others in and outside the
organisation

Discovery &
Enrichment

• Actively seeking out new

knowledge

• Inspiring and motivating
intellectual curiosity and
learning

Sustainability

• Embracing change and

innovation

• Working to build on our

heritage

4.

About the Role

At Chelsea Physic Garden we connect people with the power of plants. The Schools &
Families Officer plays a key role in the continued growth and execution of Chelsea
Physic Garden's Schools and Family programme. The post holder will collaborate with
teachers, schools, home-educators, colleges, universities, and community groups to
deliver a broad range of engaging, high-quality learning experiences designed to
inspire and connect visitors of all ages and backgrounds. This role involves engaging
audiences both on-site and online, creating digital classroom resources to expand our
reach and impact, and fostering meaningful connections with diverse learners from
various socio-demographic groups. They will be responsible for booking in schools,
invoicing and scheduling the delivery of both the schools and family programmes.

With the support of our Learning freelance team, the postholder will be required to
meet annual income and targets for the number of learners engaged with, and
activities delivered by, or on behalf of the Garden. Our engagement programmes
complement the National Curriculum, UN Sustainable Development Goals and our
organisational mission to demonstrate the medicinal, economic, cultural and
environmental importance of plants to the well-being of humankind.

Working with the Public Programme Manager, the postholder will devise and ensure
the delivery of our programme aimed at family audiences. Building on the success of
our annual programmes including the Chelsea Heritage Festival open weekend, the
post holder will look at seasonal opportunities to maximise audience engagement to
better serve our community.

The Schools & Families Officer reports to the Head of Learning & Public Engagement.
They will be responsible for supervising volunteers and freelance educators who
undertake some direct delivery and for working with other members of staff within the
Garden to achieve their objectives.

5.

Key areas of responsibility

5.1   Direct Delivery

The Schools and Families programme at the Garden engages over 7,000 learners each
year, some of whom participate in self-guided activities. The post holder will be
responsible for preparing and directly delivering engaging, cross-curricular sessions
and workshops for all learners at the Garden, creating lesson plans for each
programme or activity. They will also ensure that feedback collected throughout the
year is carefully evaluated, proposing and implementing any necessary reviews or
adjustments to the programme.

The post holder will lead a review of the school programmes offered at the Garden,
with the aim of enhancing the range of core workshops available for Key Stages 1–5.

They will maintain up-to-date knowledge of plant science, outdoor learning practices,
and developments in the National Curriculum. The post holder will also stay current

with emerging trends in education, championing best practices across the department
and the wider Garden, and adapting the learning provision accordingly.

5.2 Family Programming:

The postholder will support the development of a dynamic and engaging annual
programme of Family activity that broadens the Garden’s reach and engages a wide
range of audiences.

Alongside activities, the post-holder also creates self-led trails for families to enjoy a
visit to the Garden. They will ensure the delivery of these activities, either directly and
with the support of volunteers and freelance educators.

To support these activities, the post holder will be responsible for sourcing, ordering,
delegated budget management and managing resources. Activities are delivered in a
way that minimises the production waste, such as our Broom Stick workshops. The
programme of family activities runs over the course of the year, with an ambition to
develop more activities celebrating cultural events across the year.

5.3 Operational Management:

The postholder will oversee the administration of learning bookings, briefing other
staff and volunteers as necessary to ensure that groups are booked, invoices raised
and paid, and details of the booking passed to relevant departments. They will support
the monitoring of delegated income and expenditure budgets.

They will seek feedback, evaluate and report on the outcome of all programmes,
reviewing and revising them in the light of feedback received.

The post holder will assist in the production of various collateral, including
publications (e.g. self-guided trails, a teachers’ newsletter, interpretive displays, and
creative projects), using both print and digital methods to support teachers and
students in exploring the Garden’s plant collections and history. This will include
developing activities for use before, during, and after a learning visit. They will also
create digital resources, such as pre- and post-visit content, to further enrich the
Schools and Families programme and enhance experiential learning for users.
Additionally, the post holder will propose and develop content for the department’s
web presence to engage our online audience.

5.4 Health & Safety, Fire and Security:

The postholder will work in accordance with health and safety legislation including
risk assessing learning activities. They will be responsible for providing information to
schools and visiting groups as required to meet their requirements.

The postholder will ensure that their own working practices and those of volunteers
being supervised have due regard to their safety and security, in particular regarding
lone working and working with children and adults-at-risk.

They will ensure that volunteers are made aware of policies and procedures and
support them by communicating changes in legislation or practice that gives them
confidence in their role and also to service users. They will ensure that working
practices promote and protect the Garden’s resources in connection with fire, safety
and the security of buildings and equipment.

5.5 Safeguarding:

The post holder will maintain a thorough and up-to-date understanding of current
safeguarding legislation and its application to the Garden’s activities, both on and off-
site. To support this, they will complete Level 2 Safeguarding training. Safeguarding is
a priority in all activities and programmes at the Garden. The post holder will ensure
that relevant information is collected, records are properly maintained, and
information is shared appropriately. They will also ensure that safeguarding is fully
considered in the development of health and safety policies and risk assessments.

5.6 Departmental Support:

As part of a small and dynamic Learning Department, the post holder engages with
wider strategic discussions about the wider programme of activities delivered by the
department.

They will support the annual review of the Learning Strategy and Plan and ensure that
aspects of this for which the role is responsible have been delivered, reviewed and
evaluated. At times they will be asked for reports by the Head of Learning & Public
Engagement. As some aspects of the Learning & Public Engagement department at
Chelsea Physic Garden are supported by external funders, the postholder may be
asked for information and insight, to support both the compilation of applications for
funding, and to ensure funders’ objectives are satisfied as necessary.

6.

Person Specification

Knowledge Skills and Experience

Proven experience delivering outdoor environmental education to

EYFS, primary, and secondary students

Essential/
Desirable
E

Ability to communicate complex information effectively for a range of
audiences and learning styles
Confidence in communicating with wide professional networks from
representatives from our partner schools to community group leads,
the CPG Youth Panel, and colleagues
Ability to write, produce and distribute lesson plans, newsletters,
reports
Ability to manage and analyse data for evaluation purposes
IT skills to update databases and contribute to the website and digital
learning resources.
Good interpersonal skills and the ability to work in a team.

E

E

E

E
E

E

Demonstrable knowledge of gardening or horticulture.
Good understanding of plant science, natural history, conservation, the
climate crisis and ecology.
An understanding of working in the charitable sector with limited
resources and able to take a collaborative approach to deliver
excellence in learning programmes.
An interest in working sustainably during the Climate Crisis

E
E

D

E

7.

Competency Framework

We have a set of eight competencies that are common to all employees and within the
framework each competency has four levels which relate to the level at which
individual roles need to operate.  The competency assessment for this role is set out
below and more information will be provided to support this assessment.

  Competency

Descriptor

1  Leadership
2  People

Management

3  Analysis and

use of Evidence

Setting the pace and behaving with integrity
Making clear what you expect and what is to be
achieved; enabling and supporting your staff to
deliver
Collecting, analysing and using information
and evidence, assessing risk and taking
decisions

4  Communication  Communicating with colleagues, visitors and

5  Collaborative
Working
6  Delivering
Results
7  Using and
Managing
Resources
8  Know How

stakeholders
Working together with people within and
outside of CPG to help us achieve our goals
Organising and managing the work to deliver
results
Using resources cost effectively

The knowledge, skills and expertise you need
to do your job and help others to do theirs

Level for this
role
2
1

2

2

3

2

2

3

8.

Terms and Conditions

This is a fixed term temporary role, likely 9-12 months, covering for a maternity leave,
part-time working an average of 28 hours per week (normally over 4 days per week).
By the nature of the role regular weekend and occasional evening and bank holiday
working will be required for which time off in lieu is given.

On successful completion of probationary period, the Company operates a
contributory pension scheme, currently 6% employer, 3% employee through salary
exchange, further details of which will be provided on request.

Application Details:

Please apply using the Application Form available to download on our website:
https://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/about/vacancies/

Application and Equal Opportunities Forms must be sent by midnight on Tuesday 10th February
2026 to jobs@chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk

Interviews will be held on Wednesday 18th February 2026 at Chelsea Physic Garden.

Preferred Start Date - 30th March 2026.