Head of Department for Mathematics
Chapel-en-le-Frith High School, High Peak, Derbyshire, SK23 0TQ10 days remaining to apply
Job start date
1 January 2026
Closing date
20 October 2025 at 9am
Date listed
10 October 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
- Mathematics
Working pattern
- Full time: Full time Monday - Friday
Contract type
- Permanent
Pay scale
- MPS1 - UPS3 - £32,916 - £51,048
Additional allowances
TLR payment of 1.2 - £12,530pa
What skills and experience we're looking for
Do you have a passion for mathematics education and a keen interest in the development of teaching and learning? We are looking for a leader with the ideas, drive and enthusiasm to build on the success of an already strong department in this outstanding school. To be successful you will need a genuine interest in raising the aspirations of all young people and an absolute commitment to inclusive education.
This is a great place to work. We offer a positive and supportive working environment, well-motivated students and a chance to join the school at a very exciting time in its development.
We are lucky to work in modern well-equipped accommodation, with superb facilities, situated on a beautiful site on the edge of the Peak District National Park. We are within easy commuting distance of Manchester, Sheffield, Chesterfield and East Cheshire.
Job Description: Head of Mathematics
This document has been drawn up based on the Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document and other statutory provisions.
Reporting to: senior leadership group line manager.
Main responsibilities
Heads of department are expected to carry out the duties required of all classroom teachers with the following additional responsibilities:
Leading curriculum development
- Create a clear curriculum vision and intent for mathematics and translate this vision into everyday work and practice.
- Ensure the provision of an appropriately broad, balanced, relevant and differentiated curriculum, in line with the aims and ethos of the school and school policies.
- To keep up to date with national developments in the teaching of mathematics, in terms of curriculum content, teaching methodology and innovative practice and ensure that curriculum development reflects these.
- Ensure that curriculum development reflects and responds to the needs of students in both the local and national context.
- Maintain clear curriculum maps and schemes of work, in line with school policy and ensure that teaching resources are available for teachers to use.
- Celebrate and promote the importance of mathematics across the school community and with parents.
Leading teaching and learning
- Actively promote the school’s approaches to teaching and learning within the department; support staff in adopting them.
- Be accountable for the quality of teaching and learning in the department.
- Monitor and ensure the consistent implementation of the school’s teaching and learning policies and expectations.
- Develop rigorous assessment procedures within the department in line with school policy in order to provide regular and accurate attainment data.
- Ensure the shared and clear understanding of the relevant examination board’s specification and assessment criteria amongst subject staff.
- Ensure that all subject staff understand and make effective use of data to track student performance in order to raise their attainment.
- Rigorously monitor student progress within the department and establish effective intervention strategies to challenge underperformance.
- Develop and enhance the teaching practice of others.
- Challenge the underperformance of staff where necessary and develop strategies to support improvement.
Behaviour and attitudes
- Be responsible for maintaining a positive learning ethos within the department.
- Support staff in managing behaviour within the department in line with school procedures, including the use of departmental behaviour plans and by liaising with parents and pastoral staff as required.
Leadership and management
- Lead by example and promote an effective team.
- Ensure that all staff in the department share in the development of and support the vision and aims of the department.
- Be responsible for the line management and performance management of identified staff within the department.
- Contribute to the selection and recruitment of teachers and support staff, including the induction and assessment of new teachers and initial teacher trainees, where appropriate.
- Provide professional advice and support and identify training needs.
- Liaise with the Examinations Officer to maintain accreditation with the appropriate examination bodies and to manage exam entries.
- Manage the resources of the department within the limits of the delegated budget and in accordance with the school’s financial procedures.
- Effectively manage and deploy teaching and support staff to best meet the needs of students and the department.
- Manage the learning environment in the department and enforce school expectations for the presentation and maintenance of the classroom environment and resources.
- Ensure that Health and Safety policies and practices in the department comply with statutory and school requirements.
- Contribute to and support the implementation of school policies.
- Ensure that appropriate work has been set in the case of staff absence and liaise with the learning supervisor team during the period of absence.
- Ensure that assessment data recorded on school systems is reliable and accurate and that staff understand and adhere to whole school procedures.
- Contribute to and participate in the school’s monitoring and evaluation programme.
- Provide accurate reports to the Headteacher, governors and the LA when required.
- Represent the department at whole school events such as Open Evening.
- Lead the development of effective subject links with other schools and the community, including attendance at appropriate events.
- Lead the department’s extracurricular programme.
Whilst every effort has been made to explain the main duties and responsibilities of the post, each individual task may not be identified. You will be expected to comply with any reasonable request from the Headteacher to undertake work of a similar level that is not specified in this job description.
Person Specification
Head of Department – Mathematics
Essential:
Qualified teacher status.
Successfully completed induction period (ECT years).
Experience of teaching Mathematics to students aged 11 to 16.
Knowledge and experience of curriculum development.
A strong personal background in Mathematics.
A good understanding of the use of data to identify underachievement and areas for improvement.
A good knowledge of teaching and learning strategies in Mathematics and the ability to communicate them to others.
Detailed knowledge of the GCSE specifications for Mathematics
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 Mathematics curriculum.
What the school offers its staff
Access to training and CPD
Free parking on site
Flu vaccination clinic
Eye test vouchers
Further information about the job
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
This job requires you to download an application form, you will be able to upload the application once complete.
CVs will not be accepted for this application.
Upload 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
- 943 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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