Lead Practitioner for Geography

Astrea Academy Dearne, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, S63 9EW

16 days remaining to apply

• Start date details

  January 2027

• Closing date

  18 October 2026 at 11:59pm

• Date listed

  2 October 2026

Job details

• Job role:
  • Teacher or lecturer
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Subject: Geography
• Working pattern: Full time
• Contract type: Permanent
• Full time equivalent salary: £59,139.00 - £65,278.00 Annually (Actual) LP4-LP8 £59,139 - £65,278

Lead Practitioner for Geography job summary

Lead Practitioner of Geography

Astrea Academy Dearne

Salary: MPS/UPS + TLR 2D
Contract: Full Time, Permanent
Closing Date: 18 October 2026

About Astrea Academy Dearne

Astrea Academy Dearne is a thriving and inclusive 11-16 academy in Barnsley, serving around 1,100 scholars. As part of Astrea Academy Trust, we are driven by the belief that every young person can achieve excellence regardless of their starting point, background or circumstances. We are proud of our knowledge-rich curriculum, high expectations and disciplined, supportive culture, where teachers are empowered to teach and scholars are empowered to learn. Conveniently located within easy reach of Sheffield, Doncaster, Wakefield and Leeds, Dearne offers an exciting opportunity to join a school committed to transforming life chances through education.

The Role

Astrea Academy Trust is seeking an exceptional teacher and aspiring or experienced leader to become our Lead Practitioner of Geography. This is an exciting opportunity for a colleague who is passionate about improving teaching and learning, developing others and driving whole-school impact.

The successful candidate will play a key role in raising standards across Geography, supporting colleagues to deliver consistently excellent lessons and helping to ensure every scholar achieves their full potential. This role is ideal for someone ready to take the next step in leadership and contribute to the continued success and improvement of the academy.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead excellence in Geography teaching and learning across the academy.
• Model outstanding classroom practice and support colleagues to continually improve their teaching.
• Drive high standards of achievement and progress for all scholars.
• Support curriculum development to ensure a rigorous, knowledge-rich Geography offer.
• Coach and develop colleagues through collaboration, mentoring and instructional coaching.
• Use assessment and achievement data to identify priorities and implement effective improvement strategies.
• Promote high expectations for behaviour, participation and academic success.
• Contribute to wider academy improvement initiatives and the development of teaching practice across the school.

What We're Looking For

• An outstanding Geography teacher with a proven track record of securing excellent outcomes.
• An aspiring or established middle leader who can motivate and influence others.
• A practitioner who is passionate about improving teaching and learning beyond their own classroom.
• Someone who shares Astrea's vision of educational excellence and transformational school improvement.
• A strong advocate for high expectations and academic success for all scholars.
• A colleague who believes every child can achieve, regardless of background, prior attainment or need.
• An effective communicator with the ability to build strong professional relationships.
• A reflective professional committed to continual growth and development.

What We Can Offer

• Extensive support and opportunities for career progression across Astrea Academy Trust.
• A knowledge-rich curriculum built around powerful knowledge and evidence-informed teaching approaches.
• Collaborative planning supported by high-quality centralised resources and schemes of work.
• An excellent Geography curriculum with well-developed resources.
• A whole-class feedback approach designed to reduce unnecessary workload.
• Calm, disruption-free classrooms supported by a highly effective warm/strict behaviour culture.
• Visible, approachable and supportive senior leaders committed to staff success.
• Centralised behaviour systems, including detentions, reducing administrative burden for teachers.
• Regular instructional coaching and professional development with no formal graded lesson observations.
• Access to NPQs, leadership development programmes and excellent CPD opportunities.
• Outstanding promotion and progression opportunities across Astrea's South Yorkshire schools.
• An unrivalled professional development framework designed to help colleagues reach their career ambitions.

This is an exceptional opportunity to join a values-driven academy and make a lasting impact on scholars, colleagues and the wider school community. If you are passionate about Geography and eager to lead improvement, inspire others and drive excellence, we would love to hear from you.

Commitment to Safeguarding and EDI:

Astrea Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All appointments are subject to satisfactory background checks, including references and an enhanced DBS check. We value diversity and welcome applications from underrepresented groups. As a Disability Confident employer, we provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process to ensure all candidates can fully demonstrate their abilities.

In line with Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 and the statutory Code of Practice, the Trust requires all public-facing post holders to demonstrate fluent English. Within a school setting, this applies to all roles that involve direct or indirect interaction with pupils, parents, or members of the public.

Flexible Interview Dates:

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early, so don't miss out on this exciting opportunity. Please note that interview dates are flexible, and the academy reserves the right to interview shortlisted candidates during the application window.

Ready to Make a Difference?

If you're ready to take the next step in your career and contribute to our dynamic and forward-thinking team, apply today and be a part of our mission to create a positive impact!

Further information about the job

The candidate will be required to undergo a full enhanced DBS check and must be eligible to work in the UK.

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.

Commitment to safeguarding

Astrea Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All posts are subject to satisfactory background checks including references and enhanced DBS checks.

Applying for the job

This school accepts applications through their own website, where you may also find more information about this job.

CVs will not be accepted for this application.

About Astrea Academy Dearne

• Organisation type: Academy, ages 11 to 16
• Education phase: Secondary school
• Size: 1071 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 11 to 16
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report
• Website: Astrea Academy Dearne website
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/the-dearne-academy

Do you want to be part of a team where you will help make a lasting impact on our students and rapidly accelerate their progress?

Do you want to work in a school where you are free to teach, with impeccable student behaviour and unhindered by bureaucracy?

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced teacher or ECT.

Astrea Academy Dearne is an 11-16 secondary academy situated in Barnsley, with around 1150 students. We are within commutable distance from Wakefield, Leeds, Doncaster and Sheffield and are a proud member of the Astrea Academy Trust family of schools. We have the highest aspiration for our students to achieve their very best and grow both as individuals and as members of their community. We are a truly comprehensive and inclusive academy. This is reflected in our approach to all areas of our work.

We are committed to a knowledge-rich curriculum and a traditional approach to teaching, behaviour and culture. We believe that schools must teach powerful knowledge, ’the best that has been thought and said’ and an ‘entitlement curriculum’ for all. We believe in explicit instruction and have been greatly influenced by Lemov’s ‘Teach Like A Champion’, Rosenshine and recent developments in cognitive science. We believe that the creation of a scholarly culture that is warm and strict, disciplined and joyful, where there is ‘purpose not power’, ensuring impeccable behaviour, where teachers can focus on teaching and pupils can focus on learning, underpins everything

We are values-driven and our vision is to provide an inclusive, aspirational and academic education for all our students, so that all of them will learn, thrive and lead successful lives. We are unapologetically ambitious for every child, no matter what their background, prior attainment or needs. We want to ensure that all our students have the option to be able to go to university or aspirational alternative. We are not going to reduce expectations because of a child’s background or home life, or because they are new to English or have a special education need. In fact, the opposite is true. It is our job to redouble our efforts to help children overcome these barriers so that they can flourish.

We value our staff highly and treat workload very seriously. Our systems are high leverage, ensuring you can really focus on your core purpose – teaching, in a sustainable way, unhindered by bureaucracy or poor behaviour.

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