Permanent, part-time | 29.6 hours / 4 days per week | £34,400 per year (£43,000 FTE) | Home-based with extensive regional travel
Would you like to help primary schools transform what play looks and feels like for children every day?
Ludicology is looking for a new OPAL Mentor to join our team delivering the Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) Primary Programme.
OPAL is a mentor-supported school improvement programme. It helps primary schools make sustained changes to the way play is understood, planned, resourced and staffed so that children have richer and more inclusive opportunities for play throughout the school day.
This is not simply a training role and it is not about installing playground equipment. You will work alongside schools over an extended period, helping headteachers, OPAL leads and staff understand what needs to change, build a realistic plan, overcome barriers and embed new ways of working.
You will have your own portfolio of schools and will combine school visits, coaching, training, observation, audit and review with the relationship-building and follow-through needed to keep organisational change moving.
Who might this role suit?
There is no single route into becoming a good OPAL Mentor.
You might be a teacher, senior school leader or play coordinator who has seen the difference that better play can make and would like to use your experience across a wider range of schools.
You might come from playwork, outdoor learning, forest school, youth work, family support or another children’s service and have strong experience of facilitating adults, managing projects and influencing practice.
You may already know OPAL well, or you may bring transferable experience from another setting. Previous OPAL experience would be valuable, but it is not essential. What matters is your ability to understand children’s play, build credibility with school leaders, facilitate adults confidently and support sustained change.
The role
The post is permanent and 0.8 FTE, working 29.6 hours across four days each week, normally Monday to Thursday. The salary is £34,400 per annum, based on a full-time equivalent salary of £43,000.
The role is home-based and involves extensive travel across Ludicology’s OPAL territory, from Merseyside and the Wirral through Halton, Warrington and Cheshire to Shropshire, Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire. We aim to allocate schools in ways that minimise travel from each mentor’s home, where their location and the distribution of schools allow. However, portfolios are determined by operational need, and mentors must be willing and able to work anywhere across the territory.
You will mentor an allocated group of primary schools through the OPAL programme, helping them progress towards completion within the preferred 18-month programme period and the maximum 24 months. The role includes school visits, online mentoring, workshops, audits, reviews, action planning and follow-up. The role is planned around starting approximately 18 new schools each year and managing an active portfolio of up to approximately 36 schools at different stages of the programme.
Alongside your school portfolio, you will contribute to Ludicology’s wider OPAL work, including quality assurance, reaccreditations, training and networking events, OPAL College, Tea with OPAL, recruitment of new schools and sharing learning across the team.
What we are looking for
We are particularly interested in people who combine warmth and credibility with the confidence to challenge. You will need to build trust with school staff while being able to say when practice needs to change.
Strong candidates are likely to be able to show evidence of leading or supporting meaningful change, facilitating or training adults, managing work independently, communicating clearly with different audiences and maintaining momentum over time.
We are looking for: experience in playwork, education, youth work, family support or a related children’s service; an understanding of English primary school structures; excellent communication, coaching, presentation and workshop-facilitation skills; the ability to build trust, influence practice and provide constructive challenge; strong organisation and portfolio-management skills; confidence in planning work independently; and the ability and willingness to travel regularly.
Knowledge of play and playwork, direct OPAL experience, school improvement, organisational change, mentoring, quality assurance, outdoor learning or risk-benefit approaches would all be valuable, but we do not expect one person to arrive with every one of these.
Why join Ludicology?
This is an unusual role. It offers the opportunity to work independently while being part of a small specialist team, to build long-term relationships with schools rather than deliver one-off interventions, and to see the tangible effect of your work on children’s everyday lives.
The role also offers substantial professional variety: on one day you might be coaching a headteacher and play coordinator; on another you might be observing a playtime, facilitating whole-school training, helping a school rethink its grounds or reviewing evidence for an OPAL award.
Most importantly, the work has a clear purpose: helping schools create the conditions in which children can play well, every day.
Application information
Start date: As soon as reasonably practicable following appointment
Closing date: 11.59 pm, Sunday 1 November 2026
Interviews: Expected to take place during the week commencing Monday 30 November 2026
Please download and read the OPAL Mentor Job Description before completing the OPAL Mentor Application Form.
Return your completed application form by email to jane@ludicology.com by 11.59 pm, Sunday 1 November 2026. You may also attach a CV if you wish, but this should not be used as a substitute for completing the application form.
We particularly welcome applications from people whose experience may not fit a conventional education career path but who can demonstrate the capabilities the role requires.
Questions about the role
If you would like to ask a question or request an informal conversation before applying, please email jane@ludicology.com. Please include your name and telephone number, a brief indication of anything you would particularly like to discuss, and the days and times when you are generally available to be contacted.