Head of Faculty [History & RS]

The school reserves the right to close this advert early and interviews may take place before the advertised closing date. Applicants are strongly encouraged to apply early for this role to avoid disappointment.

Ark Greenwich (AGFS)

Click here to view our school video. 

This is a rare and exciting opportunity to work at one of the highest performing schools in the country. If you are committed to making a lasting difference in our local community and want to work in a seriously ambitious, respectful and high performing school, this could be the job for you. This role is suitable for main scale teachers.

At Ark Greenwich we take the wellbeing and workload of our staff seriously. We are committed to sustainable high performance and recognise our staff are our primary resource. To find out how we approach staff wellbeing, please click here  

Ark Greenwich is a new, ambitious school model based on what we know excellent schools do. We have created a highly respectful and disciplined environment where our staff and scholars can fulfil their potential. We are one of the highest performing schools in the UK. Progress 8: +1.1, Attainment 8: 6.3, EM5 +: 81%, EBacc entry rate: 90%. 

Ark Greenwich exists to empower young people, regardless of socio-economic background, to grow and be successful. This is an ambitious and forward-thinking school that encourages innovation and values its staff. We are proud of our highly respectful and disciplined community and of the outstanding academic outcomes achieved by our scholars. Expectations for all members of our community are unashamedly sky high. We work tirelessly to impact the lives of the young people we serve. Scholars at our school are passionate about Humanities and achieve exceptional outcomes. We also place a primacy on our industry leading extra-curricular and character education programmes. 

How is Ark Greenwich different?

•        We are part of the Ark family of schools and benefit accordingly from outstanding networking and career opportunities and first-class CPD. 

•        Staff wellbeing is one of our main priorities. We provide breakfast for staff each morning, lunch for early careers staff and have a 6pm/weekend work-related communication cut off. We do not do knee jerk reactions, fads or last-minute deadlines. Our systems and processes for communication, marking and feedback and assessment are streamlined and the approaches we take are research led and based on our local context. Our full approach to staff wellbeing/workload can be found here. 

•        This is a small school model (600 scholars aged 11-16) because we believe that our close-knit family community provides the optimum conditions for success.  

•        Scholar behaviour is exceptional with clearly defined and embedded routines. This means our teachers can focus their time on the things that matter – planning and delivering brilliant lessons for our scholars. 

•        This is a strict no excuses, no mobile phone school. Phones are not permitted onsite at all. Scholars wear business dress to prepare them for a professional career. 

•        Our curriculum is traditional and academic, and we do not take shortcuts to seek to boost our position in school league tables – we do not, for example, offer equivalencies such as Btecs or Vcerts. >90% Ebacc entry rate.   

•        We put high-quality teaching at the heart of what we do. We are committed to providing staff with weekly high-quality training. We run coaching for staff who want to see rapid progress in their discipline. Live coaching and current best practice in the field of education is central to our approach. 

•        We don’t grade individual lessons or ask for lesson plans but we do place a primacy on curriculum design, independent learning and formative assessment.

•        Our scholars enjoy a compulsory co-curricular program on a Wednesday afternoon which includes a strong focus on community volunteering and we facilitate 12 drop-down days per academic year ensuring scholars benefit from a range of life-enriching experiences. 

If you are ready to add further value to our high performing humanities departments and to work alongside a brilliant school leadership team, then you will find this job extremely rewarding. 

Alignment with the school’s vision, values and approach to education is essential. 

The Role and the Departments

We've made significant investments in our exceptional Humanities departments at AGFS. As a result, over the past three years, our pupils have consistently achieved amongst the strongest results in the school, with History boasting typically over 50% grades at 7-9 and RS achieving an impressive 86%, alongside progress scores ranging between +1.3 and +2.93.

Within our curriculum, History and RS hold paramount importance and are taught as distinct subjects throughout Years 7 to 9.

In Year 9 pupils will select their GCSE option subjects and approximately two thirds of each cohort choose History. Our first-class History classrooms, which afford beautiful views across London, offer the ideal environment for our GCSE History pupils to thrive and fulfil their potential.

All history teachers contribute to the teaching of RS at Key Stage 3, with students sitting their GCSE in RS at the end of Year 10. We're in search of a candidate who can further enhance this already strong department at our school. A genuine passion for your field and a dedication to extracurricular activities are indispensable traits we highly value.

About Ark Schools

Ark is a network of high-achieving, non-selective schools and one of the country’s top-performing academy groups. We run 38 academies in London, Birmingham, Hastings and Portsmouth educating more than 26,000 scholars. 83% of Ark schools are now rated as good or outstanding by Ofsted.

To find out more about Ark Greenwich, please visit our website via www.arkgreenwichfreeschool.org

Closing Date: Monday 3rd June 2024 at 9am. The school reserves the right to close this advert early should the right candidate be found.