EXPIRED

Head of Social Sciences

Monk's Walk School, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, AL8 7NL

This job expired on 10 February 2025 – see similar jobs

• Job start date

  1 September 2025

• Closing date

  10 February 2025 at 12pm (midday)

• Date listed

  29 January 2025

Job details

• Job role:
  • Head of department or curriculum
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Key stage: Key stage 3, Key stage 4, Key stage 5
• Subjects: Health and social care, Psychology, Religious education, Social sciences, Sociology
• Working pattern: Full time: Full Time, Monday - Friday, 8.00am - 4.00pm
• Contract type: Permanent
• Pay scale: Teachers' Pay Scale + TLR 1c
• Additional allowances:

  TLR 1c

What skills and experience we're looking for

• 
  
• To deliver the provision for Social Sciences including planning schemes of work, and ensuring that teaching and administration resources are in place
• To ensure that standards of teaching and delivery are as high as possible
• To lead other teachers to provide the best possible learning experience for our students
• To undertake lead internal verifier training so to ensure the effective co-ordination of appropriate aspects of the subject
• To teach designated classes according to the requirements of the school timetable.
• 
  
• All middle leaders are expected to contribute to the following processes:

The safety and safeguarding of students

Continuous drive for the improvement of all aspects of the school

Lead by example in teaching and learning

Strategic planning

Standards monitoring, performance tracking and intervention

Personnel leadership/management

Effective deployment of resources

Supervision

Administration/Co-ordination

Promotion of the school

Celebrating success

Key Areas of Accountability

The postholder will be accountable for:

Ensuring standards are as high as possible in Social Sciences.

Providing professional subject leadership to other teachers to ensure high quality teaching and learning and consistent implementation and improvement of courses/schemes of work.

Ensuring that robust procedures are in place to monitor the quality of teaching and learning outcomes.

Implementing effective assessment policies within the framework of those for the whole school.

Contributing significantly to planning (both short and long term) through the annual development plan which contributes to the School Development Plan to reflect both the department and school’s commitment to improvement, high achievement, effective teaching and learning, and inclusion.

What the school offers its staff

Generous Teachers' Pension Scheme

Employee Assistance Programme

Supportive Senior Leadership Team

Bike to Work Scheme

Tech Scheme

Free Annual Flu Vaccinations

Free Onsite Parking

Free Tea and Coffee at Breaktimes for all staff

Wellbeing INSET days

Commitment to safeguarding

Safeguarding at Monk’s Walk takes precedence over any other activity in the school. It’s vitally important to us that students feel safe in school so they can learn and thrive. As part of the recruitment process, we will ask about safeguarding students and obviously questions about candidates’ suitability to act as tutor. References will be sought and an enhanced criminal records check will be undertaken for this position.

This job post has expired.

Additional documents

If you need these documents in an accessible format, please contact the school.

Candidate Information Pack - Head of Social Sciences - September 2025.pdf - 707 KB (opens in new tab)

About Monk's Walk School

• School type: Academy, ages 11 to 18
• Education phase: Secondary
• School size: 1421 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 11 to 18
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report
• School website: Monk's Walk School website
• Email address: recruitment@monkswalk.herts.sch.uk
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/monk-s-walk-school-welwyn-garden-city

We are a mixed school of about 1,400 11-18 year old students in Welwyn Garden City, a Hertfordshire new town on the outskirts of London. Transport links are superb – direct rail links to London in less than 30 minutes; M1, A1(M), M11 and M25 all minutes away. WGC is a pleasant place to live – it even has John Lewis! The school is situated in a greenbelt area in the prosperous northwest corner of the city. Our grounds are magnificent and the view from the school is lovely. In September 2020 we opened a new teaching block to replace one of the more rundown ones. The DfE have just agreed funding for a new sports hall for the school.

Monk’s Walk is a genuinely all-ability school. The number of students with learning challenges is in line with the national average, with 17% supported at SEN Support or with an Education and Healthcare Plan (EHCP). Our support for students with SEND is a real strength of the school.

We have a small number of blind or partially sighted students who receive specialist support. We also work very closely with Knightsfield School, a special school for deaf children on our campus.

Parental confidence in the school is high; there were 729 applications for 240 places in Year 7 for September 2024, with 197 of those as first preference. Each year we hear appeals for students wishing to join the school.

The school has an extremely effective behaviour policy and in general behaviour is very good indeed. Our students want to learn and our parents are, on the whole, extremely supportive. Attendance is high, although in common with most schools affected by COVID. Our aim is for our students to be co-operative, courteous and kind.

There is a genuine ‘buzz’ around the school and we have a very strong reputation in the city. In September 2023, the school was judged by Ofsted to be ‘good’. We were really pleased with the comments made by inspectors and expect the report to be published any day now.

GCSE exam results in 2024 were very good. 53% of students gained the strong basics (grade 5+ in both English and Maths) and 74% standard basics (grade 4+ in English and maths). Our attainment 8 was 50.2 and progress 8 +0.25. All well above national. Students of all abilities did better than would have been expected, given their starting points. Disadvantaged students made the progress that would have been expected given their starting points – unlike in most other schools in Hertfordshire where it is often well below. Students with SEND did phenomenally well. To look at the school’s provisional results in the league tables google ‘school performance tables 2024’.
In terms of progress, disadvantaged and SEND students do better in the school than they do nationally. BAME students attain very well and have good progress, as do each of the ability groups. We pride ourselves on the fact that Monk’s Walk is an inclusive school.

The school has about 268 in the sixth form and this is the largest sixth form the school has ever had. We are also a member of a consortium with four other schools which provides a wide range of opportunities for students. Monk’s Walk has the largest sixth form of the five schools and currently we have 82 guest students in Year 12 and 61 in Year 13. At Monk’s Walk we concentrate on providing A Level only (with the exception of iMedia), with decent numbers of students studying the facilitating subjects. Vocational programmes can be taken at Oaklands College or in other consortium schools.

A Level results in 2024 were also very good , with average point score per grade at 36.2 equivalent to B-. In 2024 almost all students who applied made it to their first or second choice university, high quality apprenticeship or employment. Students access a range of universities, with over 40% accessing Russell Group in 2024. We currently have 11 former students at Cambridge University.

We do not pursue academic achievement at the expense of the wider development of the individual, however. Form tutors, heads of year and heads of house all have important roles in the social, personal and academic support of individuals. Our house system is strong, providing a range of all-ability competitions and activities for mixed age groups. Recently we have become the first school in the country to have a recycling machine with the credit going as house points. All members of staff are allocated a house.

Unfortunately, some schools are making cuts in creative subjects such as Art, Music, Drama and PE and even some DT specialisms. At Monk’s Walk, these subjects are strong as we see these areas providing important learning opportunities for our students. All of these subjects are running at GCSE and A Level. Science subjects are among the most popular subjects at A Level.

We have a full orchestra (as well as other musical groups), thriving Art, Music, PE and Sport and an outstanding Drama department. Members of other departments involve themselves in extra-curricular activities in Music, Sport and Drama.

Knightsfield School (a special school for deaf children) is co-located with Monk’s Walk School. We have an outstanding partnership arrangement; at key stage 3 Knightsfield students join classes in Art. A few students are also integrated into GCSE groups. Knightsfield students join ours for lunch every day in our canteen in B Block. One of our music teachers teaches at the school.

The school became an academy in September 2012. The decision to convert was purely pragmatic and trustees have no intention to make changes to teachers’ pay and conditions beyond those made as part of national agreements.

Induction, training and continuing professional development have a very high priority in the school. All staff have an induction programme on joining the school.

Arranging a visit to Monk's Walk School

To arrange a visit and increase the chance of a successful application email recruitment@monkswalk.herts.sch.uk.

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