Head of Year

Aldridge School - A Science College, Walsall, West Midlands, WS9 0BG

16 days remaining to apply

• Job start date

  1 September 2025

• Closing date

  29 April 2025 at 9am

• Date listed

  11 April 2025

Job details

• Job role:
  • Head of year or phase
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Key stage: Key stage 3, Key stage 4, Key stage 5
• Working pattern: Full time: 32.5 Hours, 52.143 Weeks
• Contract type: Permanent
• Pay scale: MPS/UPS
• Additional allowances:

  TLR 1a

What skills and experience we're looking for

Job Description

Post: Head of Year

Non-Contact: 10/25 lessons taught plus one 35min assembly per week

Responsible to: Assistant Headteacher Pastoral/Behaviour

Salary: MPS/UPS TLR 1a

The post-holder will be expected to undertake duties in-line with the professional teacher standards for qualified teachers.

The Year Leader will lead a year team of form tutors and associate staff taking overall responsibility for the organisation, welfare and discipline of the year group. The Year Leader will have responsibility for the identification of students who require guidance and support, using their year team.

The Year Leader is expected to embrace a sense of “ownership” of the year group as a whole and requires a candidate who is robust, rigorous and who believes it is important to pay attention to detail. The position is both demanding and rewarding and requires a teacher with the ability to multi-task, prioritise demands and go the extra mile. Liaising with parents and external agencies is an important aspect of the job, as is focusing on the academic achievement of all learners in your year group.

Each Year Leader will take on at least one whole school responsibility from the list below:

• Reward
• Student Leadership
• Anti-Bullying
• Primary Liaisons and transition
• Lead the House Champions and the extra-curricular offer for Aldridge School

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Attendance

• To ensure outstanding attendance is promoted across the year group by rigorous scrutiny of registers, working alongside the Attendance Officer, associate year staff, form tutors and any outside agencies. The minimum target for Aldridge School is 96% attendance.
• With the Attendance Officer, identify the correct level of intervention for those students who fall below the given values in the Attendance Policy and ensuring the required actions are taken.

Form Tutors

• To ensure the team of form tutors meet regularly and understand and implement the policies and protocols of Aldridge School.
• To lead, assist and monitor form tutors.
• To support and take assemblies.

Students and achievement

• To address students in a suitable style and tone for occasions such as congratulating them for achievements, counselling them on their actions, social times, transitions and weekly assemblies.
• The Year Leader must monitor students’ academic progress and help devise strategies for any particular groups who may need further intervention, such as PP, LAC, SEN, HPA, MPA, LPA, boys or girls.
• To support assessment and monitoring procedures, specifically Parent Consultation Evenings for their year group or other calendared events.
• To meet with the SENDCo regularly and maintain a sound knowledge of the students in the year group on the SEN register.
• To meet as a year team with the associate Pastoral Year Lead to

  review the support for students in the year group, evaluate the impact and plan further interventions as necessary.

• To closely monitor the points of students on Class Charts, to identify any students who need further pastoral support, such as a fixed term behaviour report, attendance report, punctuality report, parental meetings, initiate offers of Early Help.

Record keeping

• To ensure student pastoral records are kept in good order, such as SIMS for information on serious misbehaviour and any communication with parents/carers, physical files for investigations and suspension/exclusion information, records of any pastoral support processes.
• To lead on any investigations into serious misbehaviour within the year group, using the guidance and ensuring all paperwork is complete before presented to the Assistant Headteacher for Behaviour/Pastoral for further consideration.
• To lead on any reintegration meetings following a suspension, ensuring key data is used in the meeting such as attendance, academic progress, behaviour summary and a plan for the successful reintegration into main school, such as time in IER, fixed term report, temporary timetable adjustments.
• To prepare the paperwork for any referrals to other relevant professional external agencies when necessary, such as change of school, Managed Moves, Clinical Team.

Parents

• To maintain flexible and appropriate communications with parents/carers. To listen to them when they are unhappy and deal with issues calmly and objectively. To arrange meetings with parents/carers to acquaint them with school policy or to discuss the welfare and general problems arising with any child. Meetings should take place before or after the school day has finished.

Whole school discipline

• Year Leaders are key people in the maintenance of good order and discipline in the school and must understand that their role extends beyond their year group. They must be active and involved around the school at all times, particularly at vulnerable times in the school day, such as the start of the day as students arrive, break and lunch times, transitions and the end of the day as students leave site. Therefore, the maintenance Year Leader of a high profile in corridors and playgrounds is essential.
• Year Leaders should also involve themselves in other important areas:
• Detentions at the end of the day.
• Break and lunch time duties, deploying the staff to supervise the areas of highest need and ensuring full coverage of the inside and outside areas.

Key Performance Indicators

The key performance indicators, or KPIs, are based on the Aldridge Learning Habits. You will show how you are working with your team to improve the numbers across the following KPIs:

• • Attendance, target of 96%
  • Punctuality to school, target of less than 3 lates per term
  • Punctuality to lessons, target of less than 5 lates per term
  • Correct uniform, target of 98% minimum
  • Correct equipment, target of 98% minimum

The Mercian Trust is committed to equal opportunities, safeguarding, and promoting the welfare of children and young adults. We expect all staff to share this commitment. As this post involves working in regulated activity unsupervised with children all post-holders are subject to satisfactory pre-employment checks including an online search check, Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Closing Date for Applications – 9am on Tuesday 29th April 2025

Please note we will not accept CVs for this post.

What the school offers its staff

About Aldridge School

Thank you for taking the time to find out more about Aldridge School. This pack is intended to give you information about this role and our school's broader vision and ethos. Further background information is available in our Prospectus and Sixth Form Prospectus on our website.

We are a comprehensive school of over 1500 students situated near the centre of Aldridge village. We believe that it is our responsibility to work to meet the needs of every individual student, challenging them to achieve their best, supporting them to become responsible young adults and preparing them for their next steps into the world of work or further education.

Aldridge School is a good school (Ofsted 2022). It is a school which is proud of its traditions and successes which have been achieved through hard work and high expectations. In particular, we encourage our students to be Respectful, Responsible, Resilient and Ready to learn in order that they will be happy and successful at school and in the wider world beyond.

Aldridge School has a dedicated, talented and conscientious team of staff who work together to provide a high standard of teaching, excellent pastoral care and professional support services. Our broad curriculum is designed to meet national expectations, be relevant and interesting, support our students in achieving the best possible standards in external examinations and to equip them with the skills they need to be successful in adult life.

At Aldridge School we have a popular and thriving Sixth Form. We are very proud of our students' success with over 80% securing places at some of the top Universities and on Higher Apprenticeships last year. We offer a very broad range of both academic and vocational courses at level 3, ensuring that Aldridge School Sixth Form is an option for a wide range of students.

We also enjoy strong links with surrounding primary schools, working with students in Years 5 and 6 including work in Science, Maths, English, Performing Arts and Enterprise. We are proud of our community and we work hard to promote this pride in all our partnerships, so that we can make sure that future students from these schools enjoy an easy, enjoyable transition to Aldridge School.

Students at Aldridge School are friendly, polite and respectful. Strong relationships between staff and students contribute significantly to ensuring that students are happy and feel safe.

If you would like to find out more, please contact us to arrange a visit to see our school at work. We look forward to meeting you.

Benefits of Working at Aldridge School

• Teachers are all provided with a laptop to support their teaching
• No pressure to "put on a show" in lessons. A culture of typicality is reinforced by no lesson grading (outstanding, good etc.)
• No need to write lesson plans of any kind
• Everyone has the highest expectations of behaviour, with all staff reinforcing those expectations
• A clear system of sanctions which is applied consistently so staff don't have battles with students
• Senior Leadership are very visible
• Excellent pastoral support offered through Year Offices
• CPD tailored specifically to staff needs, based off their feedback
• Time for staff to put new things into action
• Non-hierarchical approach to professional development - there are things a senior leader can learn from an ECT and vice versa
• Targeted support plans for teachers who are struggling
• Regular Staff, Faculty and Pastoral briefings to support good communication
• Comprehensive support for ECTs with dedicated mentors and regular meetings
• Performance Management is tailored to faculty and individual needs. Data targets are not used punitively but aspirationally. We begin from the assumption that everyone will get the pay rise unless they haven't done all they can to improve student outcomes
• We are constantly streamlining all systems and processes so they take less time
• Open door Senior Leadership Team - no concern is ever too small
• Countless opportunities to get involved with the wider life of the school - Duke of Edinburgh, school performances, sports teams, music
• Contributions of staff recognised through 'Above and Beyond' draws each half term
• MAT ‘Employer of Choice’ opportunities such as Simply Health Healthcare plan, an electric car scheme and access to mylifestyle with a wide range of employee perks.

The Mercian Trust

What we can offer you

Getting the basics right

• We are proud to be a Living Wage employer.
• When appropriate to the role, we are very happy to offer the right candidates with specific recruitment and retention incentives.
• We follow the teacher and NJC pay scales, including the awarding of nationally agreed pay increases.
• We have a range of pioneering HR policies that we are particularly proud of – from our flexible working policy to our menopause policy. We always take an informed approach to ensuring our policies are fit for purpose and represent the most equitable deal for all parties.
• We are a committed apprenticeship employer. Many of our current apprentices are former students from our schools, growing our own talent from within.
• We have developed a newly-designed annual professional growth review underpinned by our cultural blueprint.
• We are very proud of our time-back scheme to thank staff who provide students with valuable enrichment opportunities such as regular clubs and educational visits.

Additional benefits

All staff employed by The Mercian Trust are now able to access a fantastic range of additional employee benefits.

These include:

• Discounts on everyday purchases via EdenRed
• A comprehensive free of charge health plan via Simplyhealth
• A salary sacrifice electric car scheme via Tusker
• A cycle to work scheme via Halfords

A sector-leading CPD offer

• We offer a truly comprehensive training programme featuring exclusive Mercian Trust content from the world’s leading education professionals.
• You can be assured of getting the very best mentoring and support for all external professional qualifications and programmes such as ECT and NPQs.
• We are proud of our package of goals-focussed training for non-student facing associate staff.
• Our Digital Champions support all staff to maximise the benefits of our multi-million pound digital infrastructure and to transform the way we teach, we learn, we lead and we operate.
• We hold an annual staff development conference for all staff that is packed with content, valuable resources, and networking opportunities.
• Staff can join our wide range of Professional Learning Communities, led by Trust Lead Professionals to develop collaborative practice across our schools and wider sector.
• All staff are invited to have articles published in our half-termly education journal, The Education Exchange, and to be supported to write and speak for external audiences via our excellent links with leading publications and training organisations.

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.

Applying for the job

Apply for the job by following the link below.

CVs are not accepted.

Visas cannot be sponsored.

If you're interested in teaching or training to teach in England as an international citizen, we can help you understand your next steps.

Additional documents

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

JOB PACK Head of Year v1.docx - 6.75 MB (opens in new tab)

About Aldridge School - A Science College

• School type: Academy, ages 11 to 18
• Education phase: Secondary
• School size: 1593 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 11 to 18
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report
• School website: Aldridge School - A Science College website
• Email address: lara.bridgett@merciantrust.org.uk
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/aldridge-school-a-science-college-walsall

We are a comprehensive school of over 1500 students situated near the centre of Aldridge village. We believe that it is our responsibility to work to meet the needs of every individual student, challenging them to achieve their best, supporting them to become responsible young adults and preparing them for their next steps into the world of work or further education.

Aldridge School is a good school (Ofsted 2022).  It is a school which is proud of its traditions and successes which have been achieved through hard work and high expectations. In particular, we encourage our students to be Respectful, Responsible, Resilient and Ready to learn in order that they will be happy and successful at school and in the wider world beyond.

 Aldridge School has a dedicated, talented and conscientious team of staff who work together to provide a high standard of teaching, excellent pastoral care and professional support services. Our broad curriculum is designed to meet national expectations, be relevant and interesting, support our students in achieving the best possible standards in external examinations and to equip them with the skills they need to be successful in adult life.

Arranging a visit to Aldridge School - A Science College

To arrange a visit and increase the chance of a successful application email lara.bridgett@merciantrust.org.uk.

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