Head of Department - Philosophy & Ethics/Religious Studies
Chapel-en-le-Frith High School, High Peak, Derbyshire, SK23 0TQThis job expired on 13 February 2023 – see similar jobs
Start date details
Easter 2023
Closing date
13 February 2023 at 12pm (midday)
Date listed
30 January 2023
Job details
Job role
- Head of year or phase
- Head of department or curriculum
Visa sponsorship
- Visas cannot be sponsored
Key stage
- Key stage 3, Key stage 4
Subjects
- Philosophy, Religious education
Working pattern
- Full time: Monday - Friday (5 days)
Contract type
- Permanent
Pay scale
- MPS/UPS
Additional allowances
TLR 2.2 (£5,032)
What skills and experience we're looking for
Essential:
Qualified teacher status.
Successfully completed induction period (NQT year).
Experience of teaching PaE/Religious Studies to students aged 11 to 16.
Knowledge and experience of curriculum development.
A strong personal background in PaE.
A good understanding of the use of data to identify underachievement and areas for improvement.
A good knowledge of teaching and learning strategies in PaE and the ability to communicate them to others.
Detailed knowledge of the GCSE specifications for Religious Studies.
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 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 PaE curriculum.
Experience of delivering the Citizenship national curriculum.
What the school offers its staff
On site parking
Further details about the role
We have always referred to this subject as philosophy and ethics in school, because that best reflects our view of it. Under the last three heads of department, the subject has always been about big ideas, big questions, and thinking skills, not simply about learning about religion. In year 7 to 9 the subject is called philosophy and ethics on student timetables, it is very popular. At GCSE we’ve changed the subject name to religious studies to match the GCSE that we teach.
So, we have a philosophy and ethics department, which delivers year 7 to 9 philosophy and ethics, and an optional GCSE in religious studies.
The department has also recently chosen to deliver GCSE citizenship, again a very popular and very successful GCSE. Whether this continues to be offered by the department is for discussion with the successful applicant.
The location of our school means that our cohort is not the most diverse and many students do not have a faith. Throughout the year 7 to 9 curriculum, we look at Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism and Humanism,this leads to studying the AQA GCSE Spec ‘A’ course in years 10/11. Our focus until this year has been on the religions of Christianity and Buddhism, this year we have experimented by teaching Christianity and Islam.
After Easter, the PaE department will have one permanent staff member (the successful applicant) and the support of a team of highly competent non-specialists. The incoming HoD is most likely to pick up the teaching of the current GCSE RS GCSE groups. The current citizenship groups are taught by others.
The department needs, depending on whether citizenship continues, about 1.5 staff, including the head of department to run. There is the possibility of appointing a full time teacher of PaE/RS in the future.
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.
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
- View all Secondaryjobs
- School size
- 931 pupils enrolled
- Age range
- 11 to 16
- Ofsted report
- View Ofsted report (opens in new tab)
- Email address
- dhibbert@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 sizable 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.
We believe that our school is unusual in many ways. Perhaps the most obvious of these, which may even make us unique, 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 35 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’. The Learning Support department runs a full independent curriculum with significant dedicated SEND trained staffing. Whilst Learning Support can provide an independent, tailored, learning experience for students, in every other way this cohort is fully integrated into the life of the school. This arrangement makes for a wonderfully inclusive school with young people who are very accepting of difference. Our inclusive approach spreads more widely too and we often buck local and national trends by accepting students with difficult and complex backgrounds.
This inclusivity does however make the school’s published data rather tricky to interpret. The DfE data effectively merges the results of an average sized comprehensive school with that of a special school. In short, though we think our 2023 performance table outcomes look quite respectable, we are rather better than the raw numbers make us look. Some years ago, we set ourselves a challenge; “to achieve results ranking alongside the best schools nationally; whilst remaining a highly inclusive, friendly, community school”. We have not achieved this yet, but it is a mantra that has guided us since. Undoubtedly, the balance between inclusivity and excellence is a difficult one, but both governors and staff are fully committed to making it work, despite its undoubted challenges in the current educational environment.
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 are not 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. If you join us, you can become involved in developing the future of our school community. 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 our most 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. The report from that inspection, in May 2019, gives a very good picture of the organisation that we are.
Like most schools, we have our strengths and weaknesses. We are proud of the work we have done recently on curriculum development, on teaching and learning and on research-based practice, with many staff now engaged with research and further professional qualifications. Our challenges remain those of many rural schools, getting our results to be clearly above average requires that we better engage disadvantaged students and that we raise aspirations of some boys in particular.
We are in the minority of secondary schools that remain local authority run. This is by choice after careful research and consideration. We are not, however, an isolated school. We have good links with other local schools, with local further education providers and with universities. We are a member of the Peak Edge Group of local primary and secondary schools.
Arranging a visit to Chapel-en-le-Frith High School
To arrange a visit and increase the chance of a successful application email dhibbert@chapelhigh.org.uk.
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