Assistant Headteacher: Key Stage 3 Behaviour, Inclusion and Standards

Monk's Walk School, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, AL8 7NL

17 days remaining to apply

• Job start date

  1 September 2026

• Closing date

  6 March 2026 at 12pm (midday)

• Date listed

  16 February 2026

Job details

• Job role:
  • Assistant headteacher
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Key stage: Key stage 3
• Working pattern: Full time: Monday to Friday, 32.5 hours per week
• Contract type: Permanent
• Pay scale: L14 - L18

What skills and experience we're looking for

Educational Qualifications/Training

• Honours Degree

• DfE recognised Qualified Teacher Status

• Relevant and recent CPD

• Further degree/professional qualification

Professional Experience

• A highly effective teacher with successful teaching experience (all ability, 11-18 age range) gained ideally in more than one school

• Track record of raising the achievement of his or her own students as well as working through others to raise standards of student achievement

• Experience of leading a staff team which has a track record of raising student achievement

• Experience of working with support staff to effect improvement (D)

• Leading/managing a whole school initiative/whole school change (D)

• Experience of managing student behaviour

• Experience of constructive co-operation with parents

• Experience of constructive co-operation governors (D)

• Experience in the use of ICT

Professional Knowledge and Understanding

The successful applicant will need to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The latest Ofsted framework

• Effective behaviour management for the whole school

• How to develop others into better teachers and support staff

• What outstanding teaching and learning look like

• How to help middle leaders impact on student achievement

• Lesson observation practice and judgement

• How to use data to monitor standards and drive up standards

• Effective line management of others, including appraisal

• Whole-school strategic leadership (D) and how to manage change

• Current educational trends and thinking

• School self-evaluation processes

• Use of the stakeholder voice to inform school improvement initiatives

Personal Qualities and Skills

We are looking for someone who:

• Has a strong track record of effecting improvement in themselves and others

• Has well developed emotional intelligence and can get people on board easily

• Is resilient, hard-working willing to give of their time

• Can make tough decisions and have courageous conversations

• Can lead, motivate, enthuse and inspire staff and students, and win the confidence of parents and governors

• Will contribute to our SLT and the corporate leadership of the school

• Isan effective communicator and presenter

• Has the ability to think strategically with imagination, vision, creativity and originality

• Is reflective, self-critical, motivated and ambitious

• Has passion and believes that every student can succeed at Monk’s Walk School

• Can plan, organise and delegate effectively

• Is looking for future promotion to Deputy Headship/Headship

• Has a good sense of humour!

What the school offers its staff

Free onsite staff car parking

Free Annual flu vaccinations

Free Tea and Coffee at breaktimes

Generous pension scheme

Salary sacrifice schemes including Bike to Work and Tech Schemes

Employee Assistance Programme

Support in your continuous professional development

Further information about the job

The candidate will be required to undergo a full enhanced DBS check and must be eligible to work in the UK.

Visas cannot be sponsored.

If you're interested in teaching or training to teach in England as an international citizen, we can help you understand your next steps.

Commitment to safeguarding

Safeguarding at Monk’s Walk takes precedence over any other activity in the school. It’s vitally important to us that students feel safe in school so they can learn and thrive. As part of the recruitment process, we will ask about safeguarding students and obviously questions about candidates’ suitability to act as tutor. References will be sought and an enhanced criminal records check will be undertaken for this position.

Applying for the job

Apply for the job by following the link below.

CVs will not be accepted for this application.

Additional documents

If you need these documents in an accessible format, please contact the school.

Assistant Headteacher Candidate Information Pack February 2026.pdf - 415 KB (opens in new tab)

About Monk's Walk School

• School type: Academy, ages 11 to 18
• Education phase: Secondary school
• School size: 1436 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 11 to 18
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report
• School website: Monk's Walk School website
• Email address: recruitment@monkswalk.herts.sch.uk
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/monk-s-walk-school-welwyn-garden-city

We are a mixed school of about 1,400 11-18 year old students in Welwyn Garden City, a Hertfordshire new town on the outskirts of London. Transport links are superb – direct rail links to London in less than 30 minutes; M1, A1(M), M11 and M25 all minutes away. WGC is a pleasant place to live – it even has John Lewis! The school is situated in a greenbelt area in the prosperous northwest corner of the city. Our grounds are magnificent and the view from the school is lovely. In September 2020 we opened a new teaching block to replace one of the more rundown ones. The DfE have just agreed funding for a new sports hall for the school.

Monk’s Walk is a genuinely all-ability school. The number of students with learning challenges is in line with the national average, with 17% supported at SEN Support or with an Education and Healthcare Plan (EHCP). Our support for students with SEND is a real strength of the school.

We have a small number of blind or partially sighted students who receive specialist support. We also work very closely with Knightsfield School, a special school for deaf children on our campus.

Parental confidence in the school is high; there were 729 applications for 240 places in Year 7 for September 2024, with 197 of those as first preference. Each year we hear appeals for students wishing to join the school.

The school has an extremely effective behaviour policy and in general behaviour is very good indeed. Our students want to learn and our parents are, on the whole, extremely supportive. Attendance is high, although in common with most schools affected by COVID. Our aim is for our students to be co-operative, courteous and kind.

There is a genuine ‘buzz’ around the school and we have a very strong reputation in the city. In September 2023, the school was judged by Ofsted to be ‘good’. We were really pleased with the comments made by inspectors and expect the report to be published any day now.

GCSE exam results in 2024 were very good. 53% of students gained the strong basics (grade 5+ in both English and Maths) and 74% standard basics (grade 4+ in English and maths). Our attainment 8 was 50.2 and progress 8 +0.25. All well above national. Students of all abilities did better than would have been expected, given their starting points. Disadvantaged students made the progress that would have been expected given their starting points – unlike in most other schools in Hertfordshire where it is often well below. Students with SEND did phenomenally well. To look at the school’s provisional results in the league tables google ‘school performance tables 2024’.
In terms of progress, disadvantaged and SEND students do better in the school than they do nationally. BAME students attain very well and have good progress, as do each of the ability groups. We pride ourselves on the fact that Monk’s Walk is an inclusive school.

The school has about 268 in the sixth form and this is the largest sixth form the school has ever had. We are also a member of a consortium with four other schools which provides a wide range of opportunities for students. Monk’s Walk has the largest sixth form of the five schools and currently we have 82 guest students in Year 12 and 61 in Year 13. At Monk’s Walk we concentrate on providing A Level only (with the exception of iMedia), with decent numbers of students studying the facilitating subjects. Vocational programmes can be taken at Oaklands College or in other consortium schools.

A Level results in 2024 were also very good , with average point score per grade at 36.2 equivalent to B-. In 2024 almost all students who applied made it to their first or second choice university, high quality apprenticeship or employment. Students access a range of universities, with over 40% accessing Russell Group in 2024. We currently have 11 former students at Cambridge University.

We do not pursue academic achievement at the expense of the wider development of the individual, however. Form tutors, heads of year and heads of house all have important roles in the social, personal and academic support of individuals. Our house system is strong, providing a range of all-ability competitions and activities for mixed age groups. Recently we have become the first school in the country to have a recycling machine with the credit going as house points. All members of staff are allocated a house.

Unfortunately, some schools are making cuts in creative subjects such as Art, Music, Drama and PE and even some DT specialisms. At Monk’s Walk, these subjects are strong as we see these areas providing important learning opportunities for our students. All of these subjects are running at GCSE and A Level. Science subjects are among the most popular subjects at A Level.

We have a full orchestra (as well as other musical groups), thriving Art, Music, PE and Sport and an outstanding Drama department. Members of other departments involve themselves in extra-curricular activities in Music, Sport and Drama.

Knightsfield School (a special school for deaf children) is co-located with Monk’s Walk School. We have an outstanding partnership arrangement; at key stage 3 Knightsfield students join classes in Art. A few students are also integrated into GCSE groups. Knightsfield students join ours for lunch every day in our canteen in B Block. One of our music teachers teaches at the school.

The school became an academy in September 2012. The decision to convert was purely pragmatic and trustees have no intention to make changes to teachers’ pay and conditions beyond those made as part of national agreements.

Induction, training and continuing professional development have a very high priority in the school. All staff have an induction programme on joining the school.

Arranging a visit to Monk's Walk School

To arrange a visit and increase the chance of a successful application email recruitment@monkswalk.herts.sch.uk.

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