Job Description
About the role: We are looking to appoint an engaging, enthusiastic and dedicated classroom practitioner to the post of Head of Department - Geography at Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy, joining us from September 2022. Our ideal candidate will be a dynamic teacher who encourages a love for the subject through their teaching and who has both the ability and commitment to inspire and develop the practice of colleagues in the Geography department. The successfully appointed person will be an outstanding teacher; they will have a track record for achieving excellent outcomes and will possess the vision, creativity and energy to lead and drive standards in the Geography department, ensuring future success for all learners.
This is an exciting opportunity to be part of an academy where teachers are supported and encouraged to develop their classroom practice through a wide range of development opportunities. Our pedagogical approach is based on the latest evidence and research and ensures that teaching is efficient and effective whilst prioritising staff wellbeing. We ask our teachers to plan for a rigorous learning experience in which knowledge is broken down into manageable chunks so as to prevent cognitive load and allow our students to remain focused on what is important. We believe that knowledge should and needs to be taught explicitly from the front by the subject expert in the room. Working in this way allows our students to focus on the recall and activation of that knowledge and bring it to bear on conceptually focused questions. Through direct instruction, retrieval practice, low stakes testing and question level analysis in all year groups, we believe that subject gaps will be tackled as they occur and that proactively working in this manner will eliminate the need for reactive intervention in exam year groups. The academy has a zero tolerance approach to misbehaviour and low-level disruption, our behaviour systems are tightly managed so that teachers are able to focus on delivering high quality teaching in a positive classroom environment that is conducive to learning. The £50 million campus incorporates four home schools each serving 450 students, alongside a range of state-of-the-art resources for sport, the arts and digital communication. This structure has enabled us to build an academy where every pupil is able to achieve their full potential.
Being part of Leigh Academies Trust: As of 1st September 2021, our Trust comprises 31 geographically organised academies (15 secondaries, 14 primaries and 2 special) educating 20,000 students, and employing over 2,500 talented staff. The Trust is establishing four ‘clusters’ of academies: North West Kent; Central Kent; South East London; Medway. In addition, the Trust is responsible for one of the region’s biggest initial teaching training organisations, a large teaching school hub and is an accredited apprenticeship provider. Click here to view our future plans in our Vision 2025 document.
As part of Leigh Academies Trust you will have ample opportunity to collaborate with your peers both within the academy and across the whole Trust. This is an important part of our vision as we know through experience that we perform better when we work together. You are supported to undertake regular self-development to continue your professional development and hopefully progress further within the organisation.
Click here to view the range of benefits available to all LAT staff.
Our commitment to safeguarding: Leigh Academies Trust and all of our academies are committed to ensuring the highest levels of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our pupils, and we expect all our staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We adopt a fair, robust and consistent recruitment process across all academies and business units. All offers of employment are subject to an Enhanced DBS check, references, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching check.
Our commitment to equality and diversity: As a Trust we are passionate about diversity and recognise that as individuals, we all bring something unique to the role regardless of any protected characteristics which is why we treat all of our people equally, without compromise. We are committed to providing equality and fairness throughout our recruitment and employment practices and not to discriminate on any grounds.