RS 2ic Head of Department

Kingsdown School, Swindon, SN2 7SH

3 days remaining to apply

• Start date details

  September 2026

• Closing date

  13 May 2026 at 9am

• Date listed

  1 May 2026

Job details

• Job role:
  • Teacher
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Subject: Religious education
• Working pattern: Full time
• Contract type: Permanent
• Full-time equivalent salary: £32,916.00 - £51,048.00 Annually (FTE) Main scale/UP scale plus TLR 2(1) £3,527 & £2,000 R&R

RS 2ic Head of Department job summary

Start date: September 2026

Closing date: Wednesday 13th May, 9.00am

Shortlisting date: Wednesday 13th May

Interview date: Wednesday 20th May

Contract: Permanent

Working hours: Full time, 32.5 hours per week

Salary Range: Main scale/UP scale plus TLR 2(1) £3,527

Recruitment allowance: £2,000

As Second in Department, you will be a key architect of our Religious Studies curriculum, ensuring it remains academically rigorous and deeply relevant. You will work within an ambitious team at Kingsdown, where your leadership will directly remove barriers to learning and improve the life chances of our young people.

What You’ll Bring

• Proven Impact: A track record of delivering excellent outcomes for students in Religious Studies.

• Curriculum Expertise: A creative and well-researched approach to RS, with the ability to develop and refine high-quality schemes of work.

• Leadership Potential: The resilience to tackle challenges head-on and the desire to mentor and develop colleagues.

• Evidence-Informed Mindset: A commitment to using professional research to improve classroom practice.

The "Why Us" Difference

• Professional Agency: We trust you as the expert in your domain. We provide the autonomy for you to lead in your context without micromanagement.

• Leadership Training: We don’t just hire leaders; we build them. You will have access to bespoke leadership training and pathways to support your career progression.

• Workload-Sensitive Culture: We focus on what is genuinely impactful for pupils. This means prioritising effective feedback over "performative" marking and protecting your time for high-quality CPLD.

A £2,000 recruitment incentive (R&R) payment for successful candidates applying directly to RLT for this role, is payable after a qualifying period of two full terms in this role. This includes a 2-year retention period.

For more details, please see the Job Description below. If you would like to know more about this opportunity, or to arrange visit or a call please contact recruitment@kingsdownschool.co.uk

This role includes regulated activity relevant to children.

The River Learning Trust and Kingsdown School are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and preventing extremism. The Trust is required to conduct a variety of checks and online searches about you as part of their recruitment process in accordance with Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance. It is an offence to apply for certain roles within schools if you are barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children.

For all RLT Safer Recruitment Documentation candidates should click on the following link RLT Safer Recruitment Documents for Candidates Please see our website for up to date policies including our Child Protection and Behaviour Policies.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the amendments to the Exceptions Order 1975, 2013 and 2020. For further guidance for applicants click on this link List of offences that are not filtered.

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

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

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 Kingsdown School

• School type: Academies, ages 11 to 16
• Education phase: Secondary school
• School size: 1029 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 11 to 16
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report
• School website: Kingsdown School website
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/kingsdown-school-sn2-7sh

Kingsdown is a mixed 11–16 Secondary School located in Stratton St Margaret, Swindon. It offers a vibrant learning environment, one in which its students take great pride in both their learning, their behaviour and their individual aspirations. Our teachers combine a high level of academic expertise with excellent teaching skills and a real and deep concern for the wellbeing of each and every student. Taken together, these allow us to recruit and retain the very best teachers.

Thank you for taking an interest in working with us at Kingsdown School. You are joining us at a very exciting time in our school’s history. At the end of January 2020, we had a two day Ofsted Inspection and were judged to be Good in all five categories under the new framework. This marked the end to over a decade of being judged Requires Improvement.

Kingsdown is a school that has been on a transformational journey. We had a two year P8 trend of -0.50 and this year we secured a P8 score of +0.04. We have also recently been shortlisted for the TES Secondary School of the Year award. Along with the Ofsted judgement, this transformation is truly wonderful for our students, our school and community. Now we are looking for talented and experienced colleagues to join our team as we journey to Outstanding.

Our vision for our school is “a school of excellence bursting with pride and ambition” and our mission statement is that we “champion each and every student”.

School location

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