Work with Us

Mandarin Chinese Language Teachers

Permanent Part-time and On-Call Casual Relief Positions

We’re looking for experienced, enthusiasticand creative educators to join our non-profit community language school. Enjoy working with children and making learning experiences relevant and fun? Passionate about languages? Have a good voice and don’t mind dancing to songs in front of children and parents? Looking for part-time employment? Flexible work hours and the ability to work from home?

About us

Ni Hao Children’s Community charitable trust is a fun and friendly place for children and families to learn Mandarin Chinese as an Additional (or Foreign) Language. The majority of our learners have no previous Mandarin Chinese background and come from a variety of ethnicities.

We run a community language school on Saturdays during school terms and are located in Wellington City (currently the suburb of Mount Cook).

We believe that Additional Language learning is easier and more natural if you include relevant, everyday topics, and make the learning experience interactive, social and fun. In our classes, we move and sing a lot! We don’t use electronic devices in class as our focus is kept on real-life human interactions and social settings.

We’re looking for talented and experienced educators with passion, expertise and commitment to teach our classes at a high standard, further our students’ language skills, and to grow this charity in the language education space and as a learning community.

We want to recruit two permanent Part-time Teachers to start in early Term 4, and to build a pool of On-call Casual Relief Teachers who can cover Saturday classes if teachers are unavailable. (Note: On-call casual relief teachers won’t be required to assist with planning, but are expected to learn from the other teachers, be familiar with lessons for relief classes, and communicate well with teachers about their covered classes.)

Our website is a great place to find out more about the school: www.nihaocc.org.nz

What will you do?

• Teach Mandarin Chinese as an Additional/Foreign Language in a fun and interactive way. Our main programme classes are split into age groups and language levels:
  • Early Learners (up to 3 years old, with parents involved)
  • Prep (4 and 5 year olds / Year 1)
  • School Aged (Year 2 to 8).
  • We may also run high school age and adult classes outside of this.
• Build positive relationships with students, their families, and the wider community.
• Work with the team on the language curriculum and programme development, and its continuous improvement.
• Assist with clear, structured planning for the school term classes. Self-evaluate and modify where needed during the term.
• Work with the Teachers and Education Program Coordinator to review lesson plans, prepare class resources (such as videos and songs) and materials, ensure that everyone has understand plans, and provide good support to each other to deliver the lessons to a high standard.
• Liaise with trial students and new families to help them settle in and to seek feedback.
• Track your class students’ progress and provide clear evaluations / reports for each student every term.
• Other student administration such as communications with parents, class rolls, absences, future roll planning.

The permanent Part-time Teacher roles are between 5 to 10 hours a week, depending on the candidate and skills. There may be more hours in some weeks during planning or report-writing time.

• You must be available on Saturdays. It is our school day, with classes currently 9am to 2:45pm. Class schedules may change subject to demand, so flexibility on Saturday is needed. Have a look at our current term schedule and term dates on our website. Our school year usually follows the NZ primary school year, but sometimes we may start the term earlier (e.g. in the last Saturday of a school mid term break).
• Non-contact time for planning, resource making, admin etc can be worked from home. Work hours are very flexible as long as the work is done as required, to standard and deadlines.
• There are weekly staff meetings (currently Mondays 6:30-8pm), usually during term time only.
• You need to be available for other staff meetings, usually for annual planning or event planning. These are usually once a term, held on Saturday afternoons, after classes have finished for the day.

The on-call casual relief Teacher roles are up to 5 hours cover on a Saturday, with about an extra hour to prepare and liaise with the current teacher.

What we offer:

• A rewarding position and opportunity to have a valuable, positive influence on children and families in Mandarin Chinese Additional/Foreign Language education.
• The exciting opportunity to assist in the innovation, development and growth of our Mandarin Chinese language program.
• Work/life balance and flexibility as you are able to work from home outside of the class contact times. It gives you the chance to sit outside in the garden to work and soak in the sun, while everyone else is indoors! *see Note below.
• A passionate, fun-loving and hard-working team who strive to make Mandarin Chinese learning a useful and enjoyable experience for children and families.

*Note: To be able to work from home – you will already have:

• A laptop with the Microsoft Office suite installed. It needs to be compatible with Office 365 online and able video conference.
• A mobile smartphone
• Reliable, fast Internet access at home (preferably with a high data limit).

What we’re looking for:

• Applicants with NZ residency / a valid NZ work visa, who will pass police vetting.
• People who are able to commit at least 1+ full school year to the role (preferably longer). It makes a big difference when stable teacher-student relationships are developed with the children and parents.

Experience

• Teaching, ideally teaching an Additional Language (the language does not need to have been Mandarin Chinese). 
• Working with children and classroom management.

Skills

• A fluent Mandarin Chinese and English speaker, with excellent oral and written language skills in both languages (including full knowledge of pinyin).
• Awareness of and attention to children’s needs, abilities and strengths, in a group class setting and language learning context.
• A confident communicator and leader in groups of children and parents, with a clear speaking and singing voice that you can project. (A sense of rhythm / able to keep a beat will also help!) Open communication with the team is also very important.
• Able to creates strong relationships with students, families and the wider community in Wellington. You are also culturally aware and sensitive.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel) and cloud-based computing (e.g. Dropbox, Mailchimp, WordPress). Video-making / editing on mobile phones and use of Vimeo (or able to learn).

Strengths

• A fun personality with a positive outlook on life! You are able to be funny, animated, and show enthusiasm and energy during class.
• You can work independently and also collaboratively as part of a close-knit team. It is important to have flexibility and an understanding of working in a start-up charity.
• Good ethics, works with honesty and transparency.
• A can-do attitude to work, having initiative and taking ownership. You take pride in producing good quality work, even if challenging or on tight timeframes.
• Commitment to growing professionally, with a willingness to learn and grow the educational knowledge base e.g. researching and trying new things to continually improve the language learning process and outcomes.

Qualifications

• Ideally, an Early Childhood or Primary teaching qualification, or working towards one.

How to apply?

• Applications close Saturday 5 October 2019, 9am, and must be submitted via the SEEK website.
• Applications must include
  • a cover letter
  • current CV
  • and Lesson Plan Sample (max. length: 2 pages) on teaching about the four seasons of weather. Be creative but also practical.
• The Lesson Plan Sample must include ONE class activity (lesson objectives and detail) for EACH of these separate age group classes: 1.5 to 3 year olds; 4 to 5 year olds; Years 1 to 8. (Therefore, a total of three class activities will be included in your Lesson Plan.)

Next steps

• Please apply now if you think you’re a good candidate! We look forward to meeting you if you are successfully shortlisted.
• If you are shortlisted, the interview process may include a short practical assessment.
• If you need more info about this role, please contact Li Ling Ho, Programme Director, at liling@nihaocc.org.nz.