Head of Science

Goffs - Churchgate Academy, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, EN8 9LY

Deadline is today

Job start date
1 September 2024
Closing date
20 May 2024 at 9am
Date listed
8 May 2024

Job details

Job role: Head of department or curriculum
Visa sponsorship: Skilled Worker visas can be sponsored
Key stage: Key stage 3, Key stage 4, Key stage 5
Subject: Science
Working pattern: Full time: 32.5
Contract type: Permanent
Pay scale: MPS/UPS
Additional allowances: TLR1c - £9272

What skills and experience we're looking for

Job Title:

Head of Science

Salary:

Head of Science

MPS/UPS + TLR1C (£9,272)

Purpose:

To be responsible for raising achievement at Key Stage 4 in Science
To be responsible for developing innovative learning and teaching in Science
To overtly and positively lead on and support all whole school policies and ethos
To work in close collaboration with the school’s leadership team to ensure that the school exceeds expectations and targets. This will include being part of the extended SLT including attending key meetings both within school and with Trustees

Responsible to:

Principal

Key Areas

The post holder will:

Demonstrate on a daily basis a clear sense of passion and excitement for learning and teaching
Work across the Science department to raise achievement and outcomes in Science
Coach and lead, learning and teaching in Science, and support the Vice Principal in whole school learning and teaching
Ensure the Department achieves its performance targets, and play a lead role with SLT in ensuring that the school performs to expectation
Work with the SLT and Trustees to implement the school’s vision and values, demonstrably underpinning the school’s move to outstanding
Contribute to the wider leadership of the school (position remunerated on the Leadership pay scale)
Take a leading role at all times in promoting excellence, equality, high expectations and aspirations amongst all members of the school community
Work within the school community to translate the vision and ethos into agreed objectives and operational plans that will promote and sustain school improvement
Take a leading role in creating a safe learning environment that is engaging and fulfilling for all students
Be accountable for designated areas of the self-evaluation process
Contribute to the strategic development of all colleagues’ professional development
Attend SLT and Trustees meetings if asked to do so to discuss achievement in Science

Specific Responsibilities

Within Science:

Lead on driving forward outstanding/best practice across the department, working with the Science leadership team and SLT
Lead on all aspects of raising achievement in Science
Lead on driving forward innovative and high impact CPD across the department
Ensure a high and positive Science profile with all key stakeholders via events, the website, newsletters, student voice panels etc.
Own, lead and develop staff leadership coaching in Science

Member of the Wider SLT

To work with the Vice Principal to support raising the quality of teaching across the school, including undertaking individual and group mentoring and coaching
Lead on a designated whole school priority area, being fully accountable for progress and outcomes
Observe lessons, provide feedback to staff and implement improvement plans across the school to consistently raise the standard of learning and teaching, including supporting with formal capability procedures if required
Provide 1:1 support for staff and students to secure improvement
Support staff who experience difficulties and challenges as requested by SLT
Coach others within the school to be at least consistently good in their teaching
Develop/design, lead and deliver training programmes designed to improve the quality of learning and teaching – whole school, subject and support staff training programmes
Play a lead role in delivering the school’s strategic plans for ensuring consistently

Within the Wider School:

Be a clear example of consistently outstanding practice in the classroom, modelling and demonstrating innovative teaching methods and practice, and delivering consistently outstanding outcomes for students
Remain fully up to date with local and national learning and teaching initiatives and policy, advising SLT, Trustees and staff accordingly
Disseminate to school staff ‘best practice’ in learning and teaching gathered from research locally, nationally and around the world
Lead groups of staff dedicated to improving the quality of learning and teaching across the school
Have an overview of school wide lesson planning and Schemes of Learning to ensure consistently high quality learning is delivered across the school
Lead on researching and developing high quality learning and teaching materials across the school
Play an active role in assessing, monitoring and evaluating the progress of students across the school, taking the initiative to secure positive outcomes for students where under performance is identified by groups or individuals
Actively seek out opportunities to raise the profile of learning and teaching at Goffs-Churchgate

Developing Self and Working with Others:

Attend regular meetings to discuss, initiate, implement, monitor and review whole school policy and practice; carry out a share of supervisory duties; ensure excellent standards of student behaviour and discipline at all times
Continue to develop own professional knowledge and skills to support the development of learning and teaching at the school
Participate in all internal and external reviews that relate to areas of responsibility, leading them where appropriate

Knowledge and Experience:

Honours degree in a relevant subject
Teaching qualification
Excellent time manager with the ability to work to tight deadlines
Highly organised and efficient
The ability to communicate effectively
Excellent interpersonal skills
The ability to demonstrate initiative
Proven ability to build positive relationships with students, parents and staff
Good team member
Ensures they, and others, follow the policies, systems and procedures of the school

Other Specific Duties:

To continue personal development as agreed at appraisal reviews
To engage actively in the appraisal review process
To address the appraisal targets set by the line manager each Autumn Term
To play a full part in the life of the school community, to support its distinctive aim and ethos and to encourage staff and students to follow this example
To support the school in meeting its legal requirements for worship
To promote actively the school’s corporate policies
To comply with the school’s Health and Safety policy and undertake risk assessments as appropriate
To show a record of excellent attendance and punctuality
To adhere to the school’s Dress Code
To undertake any other reasonable duty delegated by the Principal

Whilst every effort has been made to explain the main duties and responsibilities of the post, each individual task undertaken may not be identified.

Employees will be expected to comply with any reasonable request from a manager to undertake work of a similar level that is not specified in this job description.

Employees are expected to be courteous to colleagues and provide a welcoming environment to visitors and telephone callers.

The school will endeavour to make any necessary reasonable adjustments to the job and the working environment to enable access to employment opportunities for disabled job applicants or continued employment for any employee who develops a disabling condition.

This job description is current at the date shown, but following consultation with you, may be changed by Trustees to reflect or anticipate changes in the job which are commensurate with the salary and job title.

What the school offers its staff

Goffs-Churchgate Academy was the first school to join the Generations Multi Academy Trust. The school is now in its sixth year of operation and continues to go from strength to strength.

The school is a fully mixed comprehensive school from 11-16 years of age, with 605 on roll. The school has rapidly established a very strong reputation in the area, and is now consistently oversubscribed. In addition, the school recently received its OFSTED report from May 2022, which graded the school as “good” with outstanding features.

One of the school’s key strengths is its highly cohesive and supportive community. As such, the decision to cap student numbers at 600 is entirely deliberate, enabling us to maintain a strong sense of community where everybody knows everybody else - if you visit, you cannot fail to be struck by this. It is a very special part of who we are.

The post offers a genuine opportunity to work in a school community that changes the lives of the young people we care for.

Professional Working and Learning Environment

The school has benefited from brand new facilities, opened in October 2016, including professional teaching and learning facilities for all subjects. The school also benefits from a recently installed 3G playing surface for PE; a gym with a professional sprung floor; a Dance Studio; recent refurbishment of additional classrooms and an indoor swimming pool. The new facilities provide a light, modern, professional, and fit for purpose working environment for all. The Trust has also invested significantly in modernising additional teaching spaces, providing a fantastic environment for our students and staff.

The Generations Multi Academy Trust

Generations MAT, GMAT, was established from 1st September 2016. Subsequently, the Trust took over the former Cheshunt School and established Goffs-Churchgate Academy, which is now a thriving secondary.

Recognising that not all children thrive in large secondary schools, the Trust made a deliberate decision to offer both a larger and much smaller secondary school for local parents to choose between. As such, the decision to cap student numbers at 600 is entirely deliberate, enabling us to maintain a strong sense of community where everybody knows everybody. Both secondaries enjoy extremely high levels of Year 6 applications, with both being fully over-subscribed.

Flamstead End Primary joined the MAT from 1st January 2023, and is another highly successful, thriving and nurturing community, rated “Outstanding” by Ofsted.

All of the schools are within close proximity of each other and share many activities, including CPD for staff. One of the Trust’s fundamental principles is that no one school is in any way more important or successful than the other. As such, CPD and other events are rotated through all schools in the Trust, with everyone learning from and sharing with each other. This collegiate and collaborative approach permeates our Trust.

In Spring 2023, the MAT opened nursery provision on the Goffs-Churchgate site, with subsidised and term-time only places for staff. The nursery is run by Ashbourne Nurseries - https://ashbournedaynurseries.com/.

The MAT is extremely clear about its daily purpose, reflected in its motto of “No Set Destiny for Any Child.” All of our schools, leaders and staff fiercely believe in the life-changing nature of education and work tirelessly to that end, day in and day out. There is no set destiny for any of the children in our care; rather, our daily work across the piece allows children to forge new futures and destinies.

The MAT is extremely financially secure. Finances are overseen by a Chief Finance Officer with considerable financial expertise in the private sector, plus a highly experienced Finance Manager. The Trust deliberately created an Income Generation function, and extensive lettings and business development work now takes place across all sites in the MAT. This additional income – now yielding in excess of £500k per annum – underpins generous levels of staffing at both schools, plus many “extras” that would otherwise be unaffordable in the current funding climate. As one example, all teacher loadings were reduced from 19/20 as a direct result of the additional monies coming into the Trust via this income generation work.

Further information about GMAT can be found here: https://generationsmat.com/.

Outcomes

Our strategy for continuous school improvement has had huge success and we are actively committed to ensuring that our very popular and successful schools continue as centres of excellence in the community.

Goffs-Churchgate secured an impressive set of GCSE outcomes in 2023. For the third successive year of published performance measures, the score achieved outstanding progress measures which are significantly above National Averages (2023 +0.32, 2022 +0.47, 2019 +0.47).

The overall P8 of 0.32, remains significantly above the national average
The outcomes across all the headline measures are comfortably above the national average
English and Maths progress scores, continue to be comfortably above the national average
The outcomes in the ‘other’ element are very strong, and significantly above the national average, with an overall P8 score of 0.62
Male outcomes are significantly above the national average, and above female outcomes. This is in contrast to the national trend where an achievement gap of around 0.50 remains with Females outperforming Males
SEND outcomes are significantly above the national average and comparable to non-SEN.
The combined pass rate for English and Maths at grade 4+ was 62%
The proportion of students who achieved English and Maths at grade 5+ was 45%, a 28% increase in the last three years

To achieve such fabulous progress in such a short period of time, is testament to the school’s staff and students. We know that this success represents just the start of their journey, and that very exciting times lie ahead.

Community

Goffs-Churchgate prides itself on its sense of community – both within the school and in the wider locality. We are members of Cheshunt Extended Services (ChExS), offering a variety of extended school and community-based activities for both students and parents. Our students actively support local charity work and maintain strong links with our local primary schools.

We firmly believe in every student feeling a strong sense of community, and on entering the school, each student is placed in one of four Houses: Attenborough, Rashford, Seacole, and Trott. Each House is led by a team of student House Captains and has a clear sense of identity. Regular competitions and assemblies strengthen this sense of community.Students within each House arrange a variety of fundraising events throughout the school year. The House raising the most money in the year for our school charity is awarded the annual Charity House Shield. Our new House names were introduced in September 2021. This was part of a wider school project on diversity to ensure that our school community reflects the diverse culture that it serves. An example of this project, is the impact that it has had in English. As a result of the diversity project, there has been a complete overhaul of the Key Stage 3 curriculum, with students now studying books representing a very diverse range of authors.

Our students have a wide range of student leadership opportunities open to them as part of actively encouraging leadership development. These student-led groups include:

Student Executive
Community Captains
Wellbeing Champions

Across the Multi Academy Trust, a large variety of annual school trips give students the opportunities to sample different cultures, while an extensive programme of off-site visits provides opportunities for students to experience the diversity that exists within the UK, including theatre, galleries, and museum visits.

Goffs-Churchgate is proud to be a genuinely comprehensive school, with students and staff from different religions and several languages spoken in the school. We recognise and celebrate what makes us unique and different and acknowledge that we are also part of one community. Our aim is for everybody to feel valued and respected, and we strive hard to ensure we create a positive culture within the school to enable this to happen.

Care, Guidance and Support

Successful learning occurs when students feel safe, confident, respected, valued, and are engaged. Goffs-Churchgate believes in supporting and nurturing all students in their quest to become successful learners. As such, we place a high value on pastoral care as an integral part of the school's life. We have an extensive pastoral care system to support the welfare and progress of all our young people.

Staff Development

The Trust has an extremely strong reputation for staff development, both teaching and support staff. Developing the next generation of school leaders, both middle and senior, and future Headteachers for those who wish to pursue this, is a responsibility that we take very seriously.

We have a full suite of staff leadership development which staff can join be they an ECT or highly experienced colleague, whilst I chair the national Leadership Partner School network, a group that brings together schools dedicated to developing outstanding leadership skills throughout their communities, and which allows us to visit other network schools, to attend national conferences and to share best practice.

In addition to innovative whole staff training days, we disaggregate a number of hours for training every year. This allows staff development to be highly personalised as staff can opt for the training which best meets their needs, including the opportunity to do a research project in partnership with Cambridge University. Many use their disaggregated time to coach others or to receive coaching. Moreover, there are specific training sessions for ECTs and other interested staff which run each week after school.

We also place a lot of emphasis on ‘on the job’ training and support. A thorough induction scheme is available to all new staff, and mentors/buddies are assigned to guide you through those new routines. Finally, external courses can of course be booked if, on very rare occasions, we cannot cater for a particular training need in house.

Staff Benefits

Alongside our very strong focus on outstanding professional development and promotion opportunities, we also offer a range of benefits including the following.

Competitive base salary with a tailor made development plan aimed at enhancing your future [earnings] potential through:

High quality, personalised CPD
Bespoke leadership development programmes
Subsidies for Masters and Degree courses
Secondment and shadowing opportunities
The potential to work across more than one school across the Trust to develop career- enhancing skills and knowledge

Access to a wide range of health and wellbeing resources including:

Employee Assistance Programmevia a market-leader offering a wide range of health and wellbeing resources plus access to counselling for staff and their immediate family
Occupational Health service providing guidance on managing health conditions in the workplace
New, professional and fit for purpose working environments
Access to a range of sports and leisure facilities including a fully equipped gym and swimming pool
Free flu jabs
Subsidised social events
100% attendance reward – day in lieu, taken at each school’s discretion

Further benefits:

Supported Nursery provision with Ashbourne at any of their nurseriesin theBuckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Bedfordshire area:

15% discount for all Trust staff
Term time only places are available
A school day would be 9.00am – 3.00pm
“Sundries” would be applied to a child taking up a funded only space (e.g. 30 hours funding only). This covers the cost of meals,snacks, nursery resources and consumables

Onsite car valeting at a reduced price
Substantially discounted membership to Lifestyle Fitness’s state of the art purpose built gym at Goffs Academy
Free tea and coffee for staff

Additional financial incentives including:

Exam marker payment of £400 plus 2 days paid leave to do the marking (1styear)
Payments for staff taking weekend sporting fixtures: staff paid £200 for leading a minimum of six Saturday fixtures plus 6 weekly training sessions
A daily allowance of £50 for school trips taken over a weekend or any school holiday
A£1,000 Employee Referral Scheme (i.e. finder’s fee) for anyqualifying positionsthat you refer the successful candidate for: £500 on the person starting, and £500 if the person is still at the school 12 months later

Julie Richardson

Principal

Commitment to safeguarding

Our organisation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff, volunteers and trustees to share this commitment.

Our recruitment process follows the keeping children safe in education guidance.

Offers of employment may be subject to the following checks (where relevant):
childcare disqualification
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
medical
online and social media
prohibition from teaching
right to work
satisfactory references
suitability to work with children

You must tell us about any unspent conviction, cautions, reprimands or warnings under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975.