Curriculum Leader - Design Technology
Isleworth and Syon School for Boys, Isleworth, TW7 5LJ11 days remaining to apply
Job start date
1 September 2026
Closing date
12 May 2026 at 9am
Date listed
1 May 2026
Job details
Job role
- Head of department or curriculum
Visa sponsorship
- Visas cannot be sponsored
Key stage
- Key stage 3, Key stage 4, Key stage 5
Subject
- Design and technology
Working pattern
- Full time: Full time position
Contract type
- Permanent
Full-time equivalent salary
- Main pay range 1 to Upper pay range 3, £37,870 to £56,154 per year (full-time equivalent) - Outer London
Additional allowances
TLR 1b
What skills and experience we're looking for
Our Design Technology & Engineering Department
We wish to appoint a teacher who is keen to work with ambitious boys in a well-resourced area and with an exciting team. We can accommodate a colleague with any specialism to work in our fully equipped modern design technology and engineering department, although we prefer a product design, engineering, or electronics specialist. Our facilities can also accommodate food preparation and nutrition. We currently offer electronics and engineering at GCSE and engineering at GCE. The teaching will be across the age and ability range and there is an opportunity to teach at both GCSE and to contribute to teaching in the highly successful Sixth Form.
Our Staff
We recognise that our staff are our greatest resource. Therefore, we are ambitious for our staff and invest heavily in their development. We offer an extensive programme of professional development with a range of opportunities for training, including internally and through local and national programmes. We have strong partnerships with universities and higher education institutions and actively support staff pursuing heavily subsidised Masters degrees and other higher qualifications. There will also be opportunities to collaborate within our local partnership of schools and work across school on various projects. We constantly seek feedback and try to be “the best that we can be”. Below is a recent quote from an anonymous staff voice survey (November 2024):
“I feel very lucky to work in such a supportive workplace alongside very skilled and caring colleagues.”
Our Location
We are situated in a tree-lined neighbourhood of Isleworth, a vibrant area of West London. The school is close to Osterley Park and a short hop from central London by tube (Osterley is a 10-minute walk) or rail (Isleworth is a 7-minute walk). There is easy access to the M3, M4 and Heathrow Airport.
Visit Us
We welcome enquiries from everyone and value diversity in our workforce. We want to make sure we are attracting the widest possible range of people and ensure that they are accepted, understood and treated equally when they work here. This means we will work hard to understand that each employee is unique and ensuring that individuals or groups are not treated differently or less favourably on the basis of specific characteristics. Such characteristics include (but are not limited to) age, disability, gender including transgender, race, religion, sexual orientation, marital status, and how the school supports pregnant women and new parents.
You are very welcome to arrange to visit us and to experience why we are such a successful school and a fantastic place to develop your career.
Application details
Further recruitment details, including a School Information Pack and a role information document (with curriculum and facilities details) and an application form are on our website: https://www.isleworthsyon.org/Vacancies/.
Alternatively visit the Teaching Vacancies site at GOV.UK or click on TES ‘Quick Apply’.
Please ensure that all sections of the form are completed. Early application is encouraged, as suitable candidates will be interviewed promptly on receipt of completed forms. If we fill the post, we will bring forward the closing date.
Isleworth & Syon School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful applicant will be subject to an Enhanced DBS check, references and other pre- and post-employment checks, including, where appropriate police checks from other countries.
Our Data Protection Policy and our Privacy Notice for applicants, can also be found on the website.
More about Isleworth & Syon School
Type: Mainstream School Address: Ridgeway Road, Isleworth, Middlesex, TW7 5LJ
Phase: Secondary with Sixth Form Telephone: +44 20 8568 5791
Funding status: State – Academy http://www.isleworthsyon.org
Gender: Boys and mixed Sixth Form email: school@islewothsyon.org
Age range: 11-19 years
What the school offers its staff
Our School
Isleworth & Syon School is a great place to work and a place where all staff can develop. Our teachers are energetic, dedicated and absolutely committed to working together to ensure that our boys (and students in our mixed Sixth Form) are ambitious and highly successful. We have a history of excellence, opportunity and tradition. Our progress measures at GCSE level are significantly above that for boys nationally and at all levels progress and attainment scores are well above national scores. This is an exciting opportunity to join a school that truly cares and is passionate about high quality education for young people.
Our Ethos
Relationships are critical to our success and to our future. We empower our staff, and everyone works collegially to create shared resources so that planning time can be spent refining, rather than re-inventing lessons. Our CPD programmes are highly rated, delivering well thought-out support and development for all staff. We regularly seek feedback from all stakeholders and implement change. We participate in staff voice and benchmark against national secondary schools; on all measures, responses are positive. Across the school, students benefit from our insistence on high standards and achievement, an exceptional range of extra-curricular activities, and a focus on traditional values.
"There is a culture of appreciation, kindness, camaraderie, and mutual respect. Leaders don't ask staff to do anything they would not do themselves."
Amongst other benefits, we offer:
- Working with dynamic, innovative and supportive colleagues, and in a school where student behaviour is described as “outstanding”.
- Induction into the school, a continuing professional development schemes and carefully considered succession planning.
- Superb ICT facilities and the free use of a laptop.
- Investment in staff physical and mental health through a subscription to APL Health.
- The opportunity to work with colleagues from a range of external partnerships.
- A chef-led canteen service.
- Access to schemes such as: childcare vouchers; cycle to work and free flu jabs.
Click here for a full list of Our Benefits.
“Staff feel well supported by leaders to manage their workload and well-being.”
- Ofsted Report
Further information about the job
The Role
DEPARTMENT ETHOS
Our Design & Engineering department has high expectations and offers a well-designed learning experience for all students. The key aim is to provide an excellent education in a variety of disciplines across the age and ability profile and the commitment to meet the abilities, skills and attributes of all allows our students to work towards and achieve their maximum potential. At the present time there are three full-time members of staff. The current Curriculum Leader is supported by a Deputy Curriculum Leader. Staff teach all age groups with as wide a range of abilities as possible. All teaching staff are supported by an experienced and dedicated technicians. Our current teaching team is a dedicated group of individuals committed to see all students achieving their potential. Colleagues collaborate closely and work exceptionally well together with a clear philosophy of openness, sharing and mutual support. Collaboration across the school takes place and technology and creative arts are used to working together.
CURRICULUM
Design and technology is the inspiring, rigorous and practical subject which prepares all young people to live and work in the designed and made world. Technology at Isleworth & Syon focuses on all the things people make and do to their natural environment in order to get the things they want and need. Students learn about engineering and electronics, and how to apply mathematics and science to solve real-world problems. Students develop enduring ideas of Design and Technology, such as knowledge of materials, functionality, manufacturing, design and critique, and they explore the relationship between Design and Technology and the society in which they live. Students develop their ability to plan and organise their work effectively; to self-assess; and to work both independently and within groups. Members of the department employ a flexible variety of teaching and learning strategies using a range of differentiated resources. Teaching methods involve individual, pair and group work, and within each Key Stage, students work either at or above their current level of attainment. Students are clear as to the nature and purpose of the tasks they undertake, and confidence is maintained through effective use of assessment for learning and student self-evaluation of progress. ICT is an integral part of the programme of study, and colleagues teach using a variety of ICT resources; notably using 2D design software, 3D CAD software such as SolidWorks, and circuit simulation software such as Circuit Wizard. Staff are expected to contribute to the development and production of resources through the department’s areas on Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive.
SCHEMES OF WORK
All students at Key Stage 3 follow the National Curriculum for Design Technology and have one 60-minute lesson per week in KS3. During this time, they have the opportunity to study Electronics, Engineering, and Product Design. At KS3 pupils are taught how Design and Technology has a large impact on the society and culture in which we live. Students learn how to investigate design situations, how to present their design ideas to a high standard, how to develop their design ideas into high-quality functioning products, how to make high quality products, and how to evaluate all elements of the design and make process. At Key Stage 4 students have three 60-minute lessons when they may currently opt for one of the following courses: AQA Engineering GCSE, or Eduqas Level 1 / 2 Vocational Award in Engineering. In the Sixth Form, students may follow OCR Design Engineering. All these courses are very popular amongst students, and many of our students go on to pursue related courses at university.
TEACHING GROUPS
Throughout KS3 and KS4 students are taught in mixed-ability groups of approximately twenty two students. Our aim is to set challenges and provide support to enable students to make progress and achieve their full potential. We foster success by using half-termly assessment tests with commendation related to improvement in performance.
FACILITIES
The school has four purpose-built rooms which cater for a variety of different courses. These include an electronics room, a food room, and a variety of engineering/manufacturing-based rooms. The department is equipped with a wide range of modern and traditional machinery from lathes, milling machines, bandsaws, pillar drills and planer/thicknessers to highly used laser cutters and CNC routers with a selection of 3D printers that are in constant use. There is also access to ICT facilities which allow students to use complex university level software on high spec computers, e.g. SolidWorks. Display boards are plentiful and students’ work is displayed and updated regularly to encourage motivation and continue to engage student interest.
EXTENDED SCHOOL
Our extra-curricular provision includes highly popular opportunities for students to bolster their practical skills, including in textiles and food. Booster classes and revision sessions are offered to students at Key Stage 4 and 5. Students thoroughly enjoy their involvement in these additional opportunities. Parents/carers are supportive and are kept informed of all aspects of their child’s life at school through, for example, the school website, new stories, weekly parent/carer newsletter, social media, and the Annual Review. The Student Planner and Insight App records all homework set and is also a means of communicating positive comments, commendations and important dates.
Commitment to safeguarding
Isleworth & Syon School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful applicant will be subject to an Enhanced DBS check, references and other pre- and post-employment checks, including, where appropriate police checks from other countries.
Our Data Protection Policy and our Privacy Notice for applicants, can also be found on the website.
Applying for the job
Please complete the online application.
CVs will not be accepted for this application.
Apply for this jobAdditional documents
If you need these documents in an accessible format, please contact the school.
About Isleworth and Syon School for Boys
- School type
- Academy, ages 11 to 18
- Education phase
- Secondary school
- School size
- 1021 pupils enrolled
- Age range
- 11 to 18
- Ofsted report
- View Ofsted report
- School website
- Isleworth and Syon School for Boys website
- Email address
- jobs@isleworthsyon.org
- Phone number
- 02085685791
We are an 11-18 boys' school with a mixed sixth form.
Arranging a visit to Isleworth and Syon School for Boys
To arrange a visit and increase the chance of a successful application email jobs@isleworthsyon.org.
School location
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