Job Description
About the role: The Leigh UTC and Inspiration Academy have a fantastic opportunity and are seeking to appoint a suitably knowledgeable and experienced Science Technician whose overarching responsibility is to provide technical support and assistance to our highly successful and collaborative Science department. Our Technicians play a key role in the smooth day to day running of our subject areas so it is essential that our successful candidate is confident in providing technical assistance and student support in a classroom environment within this specialism.
Duties will include setting up equipment in a laboratory environment for practical lessons, the safe disposal of chemicals, responsibility for ionisation and radioactive materials, stock taking, retrieving and putting away equipment along with any other duties deemed necessary by the department.
This role is ideal for those interested in pursuing a career in teaching in the future as this role offers great exposure and preparedness for teacher training courses. It's also a great opportunity for a current Technician to join an Academy with a STEM specialism and offer the chance to work with state-of-the-art facilities and resources.
What we are looking for in our successful Technician:
- An academic qualification, at least to A Level but preferably to Degree level, within the Science remit
- If not an academic qualification, then experience working within a Science-related role would certainly be sufficient
- Practical experience within a school environment would be advantageous
- Good organisation and communication skills
- The ability to work well as part of a team as well as independently
What we can offer in return:
- An excellent opportunity for those strongly considering a career in teaching as training routes may be made available in the future
- The opportunity to work within a department where our teaching staff are incredibly passionate about their subject area
- Fantastic opportunities for training and development
The working basis of this role is Term Time + 1 week, 37 hours per week with an actual salary of £17,881 per annum (£20,789 full time equivalent).
Working with us: Having opened in September 2014 with state-of-the-art facilities originally for Key Stage 4 and 5, The Leigh UTC provides an exciting, innovative, business-led, problem-solving curriculum, enabling students to achieve relevant academic and work-related qualifications and transferable skills for future destinations. The most unique feature of The Leigh UTC is its business ethos that are emphasised by our STEM rich curriculum and relationships with local and national employers.
In September 2017, following the request of the Department for Education due to our continued success, The Leigh UTC marked history by expanding its student intake to incorporate Key Stage 3 – the first UTC in England to do this. Furthermore, being the first UTC to have IB World School Status has enabled us to develop strong international links. Having IB Status has enabled us to further develop the mid-years programme (MYP) for our Key Stage 3 students and thus providing a joined-up pathway from ages 11 to 19. The overarching mission of the Inspiration Academy is to develop curious, academically-skilled young people who aspire to be principled, compassionate learners. Our curriculum strives to create students who are self-motivated, competent, willing to take risks and lifelong learners.
Our key successes and features that our successful candidate can be part of are as follows;
- The promotion of pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
- Pupils, including the disadvantaged and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, catch up from previous underachievement and make strong progress in a range of subjects and disciplines
- Application to learning is often exemplary.
- The Leigh UTC makes a real difference for its pupils and surrounding area. Pupils become motivated to find and follow their passions. They leave well equipped to succeed in engineering and related technical and design careers and contribute to the economy.
- The Principal, with his leaders and staff team, model a high-quality working environment. This rubs off on pupils, who value the supportive ethos, work-like atmosphere.
- Our student destinations since opening reflect the value of a UTC education, with the vast majority going into STEM careers and no NEETs
For more information about our academy, please click here.
Being part of Leigh Academies Trust: As of 1st September 2022, our Trust comprises 30 geographically organised academies (14 secondaries, 14 primaries and 2 special) educating 20,000 students, and employing 3,000 talented staff. The Trust is establishing four ‘clusters’ of academies: North 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. Our future plans are found in our Vision 2030 document available on our website.
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.
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 which is inline with Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance. This includes online checks for shortlisted candidates - you can read more about this in our Recruitment Guidance. 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 discriminating on any grounds.