Head of Department - computer science & ICT
Chapel-en-le-Frith High School, High Peak, Derbyshire, SK23 0TQ21 days remaining to apply
Job start date
1 September 2025
Closing date
25 April 2025 at 12pm (midday)
Date listed
25 March 2025
Job details
Job role
- Head of department or curriculum
Visa sponsorship
- Visas cannot be sponsored
Key stage
- Key stage 3, Key stage 4
Subject
- Computing
Working pattern
- Full time
Contract type
- Permanent
Pay scale
- MPS1 - UPS3
Additional allowances
TLR 2.2 - £5,655
What skills and experience we're looking for
Person Specification
Head of Department – Computer Science and ICT
Essential:
Qualified teacher status.
Successfully completed induction period (ECT years).
Experience of teaching Computer Science/ICT to students aged 11 to 16.
Knowledge and experience of curriculum development.
A strong personal background in Computer Science/ICT.
A good understanding of the use of data to identify underachievement and areas for improvement.
A good knowledge of teaching and learning strategies in Computer Science/ICT and the ability to communicate them to others.
Detailed knowledge of the GCSE specifications for Computer Science
An absolute commitment to inclusive education. The ability to relate positively to all students and show a fundamental commitment to them and their development.
Commitment to achieving high standards.
A team player who is an effective manager of people. The ability to work constructively with teachers, teaching assistants, technicians and non-specialist staff.
Desirable:
Experience in a leadership role.
A leadership qualification e.g. NPQML.
Experience of working with other schools.
Experience of working with governors.
Recent CPD or experience that supports the development of the Computer Science and ICT curriculum.
Experience of delivering Cambridge National Creative iMedia.
What the school offers its staff
Excellent CPD
Supportive and effective workplace
Considerable support, both formal and informal
Commitment to safeguarding
The school uses robust safer recruitment procedures that meet the requirements of KCSiE . These processes are designed to deter and prevent people who are unsuitable to work with children from applying for or securing employment or volunteering opportunities in the school.
Our processes form a vital part of our whole school approach to safeguarding and are an essential part of creating a safe environment for our learners. Further details on the safer recruitment of staff in school can be found in our Child Protection and Safeguarding policy.
Applying for the job
Please download the application form using the link below, and once completed send to recruitment@chapelhigh.org.uk
CVs are not accepted.
Additional documents
If you need these documents in an accessible format, please contact the school.
About Chapel-en-le-Frith High School
- School type
- Local authority maintained school, ages 11 to 16
- Education phase
- Secondary
- School size
- 951 pupils enrolled
- Age range
- 11 to 16
- Ofsted report
- View Ofsted report
- School website
- Chapel-en-le-Frith High School website
- Email address
- recruitment@chapelhigh.org.uk
- Phone number
- 01298813118
An introduction to our school
Our school is an 11-16 mixed, community, comprehensive school of around 950 students. We are lucky to be based in a relatively new building, with great facilities, on a beautiful site at the edge of the Peak District market town of Chapel-en-le-Frith. The Peak District National Park is quite literally on the school’s doorstep and provides endless opportunities for walkers, cyclists, mountain bikers, climbers, cavers and other outdoor enthusiasts.
The nearest big towns to the school are Buxton and Stockport but good transport links mean that the school’s staff travel from a wide area with many commuting from Manchester, Sheffield, Chesterfield and the towns of East Cheshire. A sizeable contingent of staff live in the villages of the Peak District. For anyone considering relocating it is a wonderful area in which to live, with a good mix of housing, decent schools, easy commutes and a good quality of life.
Chapel-en-le-Frith is a rural Peak District market town. The biggest employers in the area are however industrial, mainly manufacturing and quarrying. The school takes students from a wide rural area beyond the town with some students travelling for up to an hour by bus to reach school. There is considerable socio-economic variation across the school’s catchment.
We believe that our school is unusual in several ways; perhaps the most obvious of these is structural. The current school was formed by merging, in a new building, the local area special school with the existing high school. The special school became the current 50 place enhanced resourced SEND provision, always referred to simply as ‘Learning Support’ in school. To meet the moderate to severe special educational needs of its cohort, Learning Support operates as a ‘school within a school’ with a full independent curriculum with significant dedicated SEND trained staffing, including 7 teachers of SEND and a large team of skilled teaching assistants.
Students based in Learning Support study an independent curriculum appropriate to their needs. The curriculum is highly adapted to the social and academic needs of the individual, with a strong focus on independent living, interpersonal and employability skills. The aim is always that a student’s school life should be as ‘normal’ as possible. Almost all students based in Learning Support attend mainstream tutor groups and assemblies. All can integrate at breaks and lunchtimes and share social and eating facilities. Many students attend at least one mainstream subject and some will progress to take several mainstream subjects including GCSEs. These arrangements make for a wonderfully inclusive school with young people who are very accepting of difference.
The school’s inclusive approach spreads more widely too and we often buck local and national trends by being positive about accepting students with difficult and complex backgrounds. We have, for example, an unusually high number of looked after children in school, and we often take students who have been excluded from other schools.
In the school as a whole, raising aspirations is of critical importance, as many students in this isolated rural area are not naturally exposed to the wider opportunities that an urban area might offer. Significant resources are devoted to bridging this gap, we have good links with further education providers and, despite being an 11 to 16 school engage with a number of universities including Oxford and Cambridge. As a result of this work, and despite being in an area with few local post 16 provisions, the school maintains superb progression rates to successful post-16 education. Students in a typical year may transition to over 20 different post-16 institutions.
We think that we are different in other ways too. Our governors value the arts and creative subjects and we retain high uptake in these areas. We aren’t a top-down organisation; we are a team and we work together to do the best we can for the young people in our care. Perhaps most importantly, we recognise that happy, committed staff make for a successful school. We work really hard to look after and develop our staff.
Visitors to our school notice these differences. People frequently comment on the sense of community, the calm atmosphere, and the fact that our staff smile, joke and enjoy what they do. At the start of a recent Ofsted inspection, the lead inspector commented, after meeting the staff in briefing, that he had never met such a welcoming, smiley and relaxed staff team at the start of an inspection. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that we are always fully staffed and are often ‘cold called’ by people wanting to work here.
The school is very popular with parents and has been oversubscribed for year 7 entry for the last thirteen years. Places in the enhanced resource are highly sought after by parents and local authorities and demand for places always exceeds the space available.
Arranging a visit to Chapel-en-le-Frith High School
To arrange a visit and increase the chance of a successful application email recruitment@chapelhigh.org.uk.
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