Director of Learning Languages

Inspire their Remarkable with us

Firth Park Academy is proud to be a Good school and determined to become an Outstanding school. We are a wonderfully diverse family of students and staff where our vision is to inspire all students to lead remarkable lives. We offer the widest range of extra-curricular enrichment possible to ensure our students are rich in knowledge and character. We want students to achieve academic excellence, develop strength of character and above all else, be happy.  Our school is:

• A stronger-than-ever ‘Good’ school as rated by Ofsted (February 2019).
• Home of an Extended School Day for Years 7 and 11 to ensure the broadest possible curriculum of academic learning and extra-curricular experiences
• Featured on CBBC’s series Our School 3, which highlights the successful transition students make into Year 7.
• A richly diverse community with students speaking more than 30 home languages.
• A leading school in our trust – Academies Enterprise Trust – the largest trust in the UK with more career development opportunities than any other.

We love to help our students learn and value the staff who help them do so, thanks to:

• A real ethos of family where we all value strong positive relationships and support each other.
• An outstanding professional development programme for staff at all stages of their career.
• A ‘3 in 3 years’ leadership development programme for high achieving staff. This promises staff a TLR responsibility, bursary support toward Masters completion if required, and mini-secondment at a partner AET Academy to grow our future leaders. 

We are seeking to appoint a talented, inspirational Director of Learning Languages. We are committed to providing the highest academic standards which challenge pupils to achieve their very best whilst ensuring a school ethos that is caring and positive.

• The language taught at Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9) to all our students is Spanish. Spanish is a subject studied by at least 40% of all students at Key Stage 4 (Years 10 & 11), with high prior attainers expected to study Spanish as part of the English Baccalaureate.
• As a richly diverse school our Language department lead on the curriculum for the 35% of students in the Firth Park family with English as an additional language. We have a discrete New to English class for those students arriving from across the world who are yet to have a functional ability to speak, read and write English. These students are taught a range of curriculum subjects by specialists, but with a large proportion of time delivered by our Languages team to ensure they attain sufficient ability in English to graduate into the wider school curriculum. At present this class has students from Slovakia, Somalia, Syria, Vietnam and Yemen, some of whom have refugee status.
• Despite Spanish being the main language taught at Firth Park, our Languages team also run a weekly club as part of Extended School Day in the languages they are also fluent in. At present we have a French, German and Italian club, with an Urdu club run by a colleague outside of languages. We believe we have a school culture where languages are highly valued and given a really strong focus across the age ranges. 

We are looking for a Director of Learning for Languages, who really cares about helping our students succeed.

This post is suitable for Spanish teachers with talent and a drive for improving learning across classrooms and a commitment to teaching English to a diverse range of EAL students. You will be committed to ensuring students make their very best progress, through planning and delivering engaging lessons that will inspire our learners to succeed across KS3 and KS4.   

You will be joining a Languages department who:

• Have an experienced Deputy Director of Learning who also works for our Trust in creating Mastery Flow lessons at Key Stage 3 to be shared Trustwide.
• Have an EAL coordinator who oversees the curriculum for our New to English class and supports interventions and differentiation for EAL students across our school.
• Have three other teachers passionate about teaching Spanish and English for EAL students.
• Support and challenge each other’s teaching through frequent CPD, team meetings, peer observations and coaching and mentoring for all new staff. 

Come and visit us to meet the team of students and staff who are making Firth Park Academy one of the best schools in our city:

• Visits to our Academy are welcome and these can be arranged by contacting Dean Jones the Headteacher on djones@firthparkacademy.org.
• Join our team and build a wonderful career in a school you are passionate about with students you love to help learn. 

We passionately believe that every child can discover their own remarkable life. It’s what motivates us around here. We know this vision requires something extra. Which is why at AET, you’ll find more. More opportunities, so you can forge your own path. More care and support, so you can prioritise what matters most. More purpose, for you and for the children we’re inspiring. 

Closing date Sunday 12 April 2020 

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive an overwhelming response.  All candidates are advised to refer to the job description and person specification before making an application.

In line with our safeguarding practices we are unable to accept CV’s.  Come inspire their remarkable with us, apply today by clicking the apply now button.

In line with the Government’s announcement, our academy is operating on a rota basis to allow those children of workers critical to the COVID-19 response the opportunity to attend. However, during this period it is our intention to continue with essential recruitment for key positions starting in September 2020. We want to reassure applicants that effective measures will be implemented to ensure their health and wellbeing and in most cases we will use a virtual recruitment process.

Thank you for your cooperation during this difficult time.

We are committed to safeguarding and protecting the welfare of children and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.  A Disclosure and Barring Service Certificate will be required for all posts. This post will be subject to enhanced checks as part of our Prevent Duty.