Science Technician - One Year Fixed Term Maternity Cover
Monk's Walk School, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, AL8 7NL4 days remaining to apply
Start date details
January 2025
Closing date
25 November 2024 at 12pm (midday)
Date listed
22 October 2024
Job details
Job role
- Other support roles
Visa sponsorship
- Visas cannot be sponsored
Working pattern
- Part time
Contract type
- Fixed term
Full-time equivalent salary
- Scale H3: £12,305 to £12,505 inclusive per annum (actual salary based on 22.5 hours per week and paid weeks per year) dependent on experience.
Science Technician - One Year Fixed Term Maternity Cover job summary
Science Technician
One Year Fixed Term Maternity Cover
Part Time, 22.5 hours per week, term time only (38 weeks per year)
Scale H3: £12,305 to £12,505 inclusive per annum (actual salary based on 22.5 hours per week and paid weeks per year) dependent on experience.
Start date: January 2025
Monk’s Walk is a high performing, oversubscribed school seeking to appoint a Science Technician to work in its high achieving, busy science department, supporting the delivery and teaching of biology, chemistry, and physics across all three key stages (KS3, GCSE and A level). This position is initially offered on a maternity cover basis, with the possibility of it being made permanent.
Your main responsibilities will include preparing, maintaining, and designing classroom experiments to support and enhance the teaching of biology, physics and chemistry at KS3, GCSE and A level. The role will also include carrying out departmental risk assessments, maintaining equipment and inventories, ordering stock and carrying out the safe disposal of waste.
There is daily contact with students plus opportunities to assist with practical’s or perform demonstrations in class when requested. The post requires you to have a keen attention to detail and the ability to follow protocols, a willingness to learn new skills, the ability to communicate on all levels and to work as a team. A good level of computer literacy would be beneficial.
The successful candidate will ideally have an A level or higher qualification in a science discipline and experience working in a laboratory or research environment. In addition, previous experience working in a school, College or University teaching environment would be valuable.
More details about us can be found on our website and/or Facebook page (Monk’s Walk School Official). The candidate information pack gives you full details about the school, the post and how to apply.
If you would like an informal conversation about the post in advance of applying, please contact Joe Wodcke, Acting Head of Science at jwodcke@monkswalk.herts.sch.uk.
Applications should be submitted by noon on Monday 25th November 2024.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible
It would be great to hear from you.
Monk’s Walk School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We will need to obtain references and conduct online searches in advance of interview for any candidate short-listed. All job offers are subject to satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service clearance. Please note, it is an offence to apply for a role where the applicant is barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children.
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.
Applying for the job
This school accepts applications through their own website, where you may also find more information about this job.
CVs are not accepted.
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 (opens in new tab)
- School website
- Monk's Walk School website (opens in new tab)
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.
School location
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