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English Teacher (Maternity Cover)
Highcliffe School, Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 4QD14 days remaining to apply
Job start date
17 November 2025
Closing date
29 September 2025 at 12pm (midday)
Date listed
15 September 2025
Job details
Job role
Visa sponsorship
- Visas cannot be sponsored
Key stage
- Key stage 3, Key stage 4, Key stage 5
Subject
- English
Working pattern
- Part time: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.
Contract type
- Fixed term - maternity cover - Maternity or parental leave cover
Full-time equivalent salary
- M1-UPS3
What skills and experience we're looking for
We are seeking an outstanding classroom teacher to join this successful subject area to cover a maternity vacancy. The post would suit an ECT or a more experienced colleague. Experience of teaching at KS5 is desirable.
We are looking for a colleague with a degree in English who loves working in a team and has experience of delivering creative, inspiring lessons and engaging students of all levels of ability.
What the school offers its staff
The department is led by a Subject Leader and is composed of fifteen members of teaching staff. The English Department is mainly situated in a suite of rooms in the front of the main school building. All classrooms are equipped with data projectors, a visualiser, and every teacher is provided with a laptop connected to the School Network and the Internet. The Libraryis situated on the English corridor, managed by a full time Librarian and consisting of a lending library of some 10,000 books, computers and other resources for students and staff to use. The Library is a popular place and busy with activities and readers most of the day.
The English Curriculum
At Key Stage 3, all students have eight lessons of English per two-week cycle. The curriculum is designed to cultivate skills and knowledge for GCSE studies. Literature and Language are co-taught across years 7-9, with clear links to the GCSE Assessment Objectives. Within a framework of assessed units, teachers are encouraged to develop their own approaches and utilise their personal subject interests to deliver challenging and stimulating lessons alongside the core priorities. The department takes a formal approach to end of unit assessments, implementing GCSE-style expectations from the beginning. At Key Stage 4, students study the AQA specifications for English and English Literature for eight lessons per cycle: this is split in to two subjects, and students spend five lessons on Literature and three lessons on Language. The current Year 10 students study the following texts for English Literature: ‘A Christmas Carol’ OR ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, ‘An Inspector Calls’, ‘Romeo & Juliet’ OR ‘Macbeth’ OR ‘Julius Caesar’ and the ‘Power and Conflict’ section of the Poetry Anthology. There is opportunity for teachers to tailor the choice of Literature texts to best support their class, and exploit teacher knowledge and expertise. Students complete regular end of unit exam-style assessments, to monitor progress and provide tailored support throughout their GCSE studies. GCSE Media Studies is also taught within the department.
At Key Stage 5, courses offered currently include Edexcel English Literature, Edexcel English Language and Literature, Eduqas (WJEC) Media Studies and Eduqas (WJEC) Film Studies. Students receive nine lessons per cycle, shared between two teachers.
Curriculum Enrichment
The English Curriculum Area is enriched by a range of additional activities. In the past year these have included: • Weekly ‘booster’ classes for students in Key Stage 4 throughout the year. • ‘Bookies’ Book Club – a student reading group that meets once a cycle. • Theatre, poetry and debating trips. • Two creative writing clubs: one by invitation only. • Sixth Form study days. • Visiting authors • Cinema visits
Ofsted Report
In the 2023 Ofsted inspection, the English Department received a very positive report, described as having a curriculum design that enables pupils to “know more, remember more, and can do more over time.” The Faculty is extremely well managed, a close team of individuals, aspirational and very professional. Staff at all career stages working in it speak extremely highly of their experience. English Language GCSE is one of the highest performing subjects, with outcomes consistently well above national average and positive value-added scores. The A Level suite of subjects linked to English are popular choices and every year we successfully recruit an A Level group in Literature, Lit/Lang, Media Studies and Film Studies.
Further information about the job
Commitment to safeguarding
HISP MAT is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share in the commitment. This appointment is subject to an enhanced DBS check, social media check and positive references.
Applying for the job
Apply for the job by following the link below.
CVs will not be accepted for this application.
View advert on school website (opens in new tab)Upload additional documents
If you need these documents in an accessible format, please contact the school.
About Highcliffe School
- School type
- Academy, ages 11 to 19
- Education phase
- Secondary
- School size
- 1565 pupils enrolled
- Age range
- 11 to 19
- Ofsted report
- View Ofsted report
- School website
- Highcliffe School website
- Email address
- aparsons@highcliffeschool.com
- Phone number
- 01425 282323
Highcliffe is a remarkable school with a special atmosphere. We are very highly respected in our community, with whole generations of families coming here for over 50 years from Christchurch and the New Forest. Former students, current students and their parents frequently speak of their powerful emotional bonds to our school lasting a lifetime. Always popular, and usually over-subscribed, in the last two years our identity and success has attracted a rapidly growing number of admissions requests for Year 7. Although we have raised our PAN twice in three years, demand for places still exceeds availability. This is a result of our caring and aspirational ethos combined with our engaging curriculum and excellent extra-curricular opportunities, although our track record of exam success is surely another factor. Our students are lovely young people to work with who respond enthusiastically to good teaching and are keen to learn.
Former students go on to work in international finance, law, education, politics, engineering, medicine, science, and in the Paris fashion houses, or as great chefs, carers, artists, musicians, mechanics, gardeners and much more – but not before they have thrived at Highcliffe academically, creatively and socially. We have an excellent record of success placing students into the top universities in their chosen field. Every year for the last 10 years at least one of our Sixth Form students have, for example, gone on to study at either Oxford or Cambridge universities. We have successful programmes for students accessing careers in medicine, the law and engineering. We are an outwardly focused community with extensive school links in Germany, France, Spain and Japan including a unique exchange programme with a school in Hiroshima.
Our teaching staff are highly experienced, knowledgeable professionals who work together superbly. Our SEND, pastoral, clerical, financial, technical and site staff, who form a good team, are also extremely good at their jobs and committed to the school’s success. We are a friendly, welcoming and supportive environment in which to work or learn, located in a great part of the country. As part of the HISP Multi Academy Trust we offer our team extensive opportunities for professional development; direct collaborative working with Thornden School in Chandler’s Ford and more widely across the Trust region; and career progression routes associated with our development as a regional Hub for school improvement and professional development delivering NPQs, the local ECT programme, the Science Learning Partnership. We are a happy and upbeat school, characterised by warm and trusting relationships between staff and students; one big family. We recently completed a £1.8 million capital project improving heating and hot water, and in December 2022 successfully entered the School Rebuilding Programme to replace 18 classrooms with brand new buildings.
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