Head of MFL

Role: Head of MFL

Start: September 2023

Reports to: Senior Team

Salary: TLR 1a (£8,290) plus AMPS £33,209-£44,274 or AUPS £46,447-£49,981

Apply here

We’re looking for an exceptional candidate to lead our thriving languages department as we embark on our fifth year as a new Ark secondary school. 

With the chance to start from scratch, we have ensured pupils love languages and experience success from year 7 onwards. Pupils benefit from three lessons a week of French, exposure to languages in enrichment time and opportunities to travel to France for multiple residential trips in Key Stage 3. This is an exciting time to join the team, as our founding year group prepare to progress into Sixth Form.

What’s special about this role?

This role is ideal for teachers who believe every child should have the opportunity to be successful, and to enjoy learning a new language. Every child has three lessons per week from year 7. Our curriculum offer is rich and rigorous, built on the principles of Gianfranco Conti’s Extensive Processing Instruction research, with a focus on ensuring repetition and recycling of high-leverage language through strategic content sequencing. Through aural and reading modelling, our pupils master core language then move to memorisation and grammatical exposition, before progressing to spontaneous production and self-expression. We enable our students to use French for both practical and intellectual purposes, to engage with the cultural differences between the Francophone world and the UK, and to experience important cultural production, whether through studying the French Revolution in Year 8 or reading a novel in French in Year 10.

Over 80% of our pupils in our founding year group have taken up French GCSE studies. Our team plan collaboratively and have the chance to learn from and moderate with colleagues across our network of schools. We offer a range of enrichment opportunities for our pupils - from French Spelling Bees, translation contests, code-breaking competitions as well as popular residential trips to France. 

Who are we looking for?

Across school life, we embed high aspirations and a growth mindset in all of our children. We believe that every single child who joins us has the potential to be knowledgeable, articulate and successful. It’s important this resonates with all candidates. Equally important is subject expertise, which is critical to support strong curriculum planning and implementation. Read more about this teaching role and our ideal candidate here: Job description & Person specification 

Why will you love our school?

There are lots of reasons! We’re lucky to be based in a brand-new building with top class facilities, including a suite of Apple Macs solely for music use and seven individual practice spaces. We serve a wonderfully diverse community - we are non-denominational, mixed gender and two fifths of our pupils receive pupil premium funding. We’re led by our values - Aim High, Have Integrity, Be Kind and Model Determination and our team truly unite behind our vision. Curriculum is incredibly important to us and we’ve planned backwards from university readiness to give our pupils the very best in every subject discipline. We timetable collaborative planning and love to engage in ‘productive struggle’. Every team member is supported with coaching and tailored professional development, whatever stage they are at in their career. Our extended school day (we finish at 4 four days a week and earlier on Wednesday) allows us to offer a broad, rich curriculum and timetabled enrichment for every child - but we never have meetings after school. Our team say: ‘All staff are incredibly supportive and positive, and it is a great environment to work in’. Read more about our school here

What are the benefits of working with Ark?

We are lucky to be part of the Ark network of schools, and to build on the successes of numerous exceptional start-up schools in our North London region. Ark offers bespoke professional development to all team members and the opportunity to plan and moderate with colleagues in the same discipline, beyond our own school gates. Joining our network opens a breadth of opportunities - many of our team have taken on leadership roles progressing from one of our sister schools. Ark employees have benefits beyond the classroom including everything from shopping discounts to a supportive and comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme. In short, you won’t find a better network of schools to join! Read more about Ark here

Would you like to visit?

We’d love you to come and see our school for yourself. We’re hosting ‘Joining Team Pioneer’ afternoons on Monday 6th February (2:30pm) - guests will meet our principal, enjoy a tour with pupils, see lessons in action and speak to members of our team - a chance to see what our school is really like and ask any questions. Please sign up here. If you’d like to speak to our principal about this role Chloe would be happy to arrange this – contact c.conces@arkpioneer.org.

Safeguarding

Ark is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people in its academies. In order to meet this responsibility, its academies follow a rigorous selection process to discourage and screen out unsuitable applicants. Ark requires all employees to undertake an enhanced DBS check. You are required, before appointment, to disclose any unspent conviction, cautions, reprimands or warnings under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. Non-disclosure may lead to termination of employment. However, disclosure of a criminal background will not necessarily debar you from employment - this will depend upon the nature of the offence(s) and when they occurred. To read more about Ark’s safer recruitment process, click here.