Department Leader of Dance & Drama

William Edwards School is seeking to appoint an outstanding Dance and/or Drama teacher to lead our strong and growing department. The successful candidate will be an ambitious, highly motivated and enthusiastic teacher who is keen to build upon incredibly strong foundations. They will be passionate about their subject and will build strong relationships with students. They will ensure considerable academic success and will develop significant opportunity for students to foster their love of the subject and of performance.

Dance and Drama are an integral part of our school and underpin our commitment to the Performing Arts and to developing the cultural capital of students. The school is one of very few which has retained its Arts Mark Platinum status and has a long history of working collaboratively with external partners and organisations. Over the next few years the Department will lead much of our work developing the Arts Award for our Students and there will be significant opportunity for career development.

The school has a number of teaching and performance spaces including a Performing Arts Centre, a Dance Studio and specialist Drama classrooms.

Why William Edwards School?

William Edwards is a large, successful, harmonious and thriving mixed 11-16 comprehensive school. Pupil outcomes across the school are historically strong. However, attending William Edwards is about so much more than just GCSE outcomes. We firmly believe that school days should be the best days of your life and that schools have a moral purpose to extend the life experiences of their pupils. That is why we boast the largest Duke of Edinburgh cohort of any school in the East of England and we are also one of only two schools in the East of England to hold the Arts Mark Platinum Award. Character education and providing a wealth of different experiences to our pupils are important to us.

We were delighted that our last Ofsted inspection report noted that “pupils who spoke to inspectors were effusive about their experience in school” and that “the breadth of curriculum opportunities available at the school is a real ‘gem’ in the school’s offer to its pupils”.

Why SWECET?

At South West Essex Community Education Trust, we are passionate about providing the best start in life for our pupils. We are united in the belief that every young person needs and deserves an education that will maximise their future life chances.

We place our pupils’ needs at the heart of everything we do and support our colleagues in delivering high-quality education. Our vision is to establish a national reputation for the quality of education we provide.

Our academies are united by the things that make us both similar and unique – the DNA that ties us all together. The SWECET DNA is made up of the following components: djeveloping our people, nurturing our differences, and aspiring for excellence.

We believe that our colleagues are our most precious resource to provide high-quality learning experiences for all our pupils. Our colleagues work hard to support teams in their own schools and across the Trust and in return, the SWECET Wellbeing Charter sets out our actions to support our colleagues.

If you have energy and passion in abundance and would relish the opportunity to be part of our team, we look forward to hearing from you. Visits from prospective candidates are warmly welcomed and encouraged. To arrange a visit or to discuss the school and role in more detail, please email recruitment@swecet.org.

South West Essex Community Education Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Applicants for this post must be willing to undergo child protection screening, including reference checks with previous employers, online checks and an enhanced DBS check with the Disclosure & Barring Service.