Deputy Headteacher (Curriculum)

The King’s School lying just east of Exeter, in the heart of the Otter valley, is an important feature of Ottery St Mary town and the surrounding villages. We have the advantage of a longstanding relationship with our community and therefore enjoy excellent support from both the town and our parent body. Many of our students have parents and grandparents who attended the school which adds to the school’s rich history and place in the community. The size and activity of our Parent, Teacher and Friends Association is a testament to the loyalty of our parental body and the enormous support they offer to the school.

We are a very high achieving school with an excellent reputation for examination success as well as offering a wealth of extra-curricular and enrichment activities. Our Sports College status allowed us to expand our sports facilities including the creation of a community based, purpose built dance studio and latterly a multi-use games area and all-weather cricket wickets. The Local Authority released well over £1million to create a new teaching and sixth form block in 2009, which has now been extended further to develop the ICT, English and Geography facilities. Following our 2011 Outstanding OfSTED judgement we converted to an academy in April 2011, have just been accepted to take a national lead in SEN and have an ambitious refurbishment programme. Following our lead role as a Training School we are now part of the Jurassic Coast Teaching School Alliance, so remain closely involved with the University of Exeter and teacher training. The successful candidate will therefore be joining us at a time of tremendous excitement and development.

We have a lively and enthusiastic staff, many of whom have worked at the King’s School for many years but increasingly the age profile of the staff is changing and we now have a large number of more recently qualified staff. We believe firmly that the most important part of the school is its staff and we have addressed fully workforce reform by increasing our team of excellent support staff. That we support our staff and offer them opportunities to develop was reported very positively in the recent Investors in People re-accreditation report and our 2011 OfSTED report.

The King’s School is in a very fortunate position in that it is located in a beautiful part of the county with a wide range of housing on offer and is situated close to the city of Exeter with its transport links across the country. We have an excellent reputation in the area and consequently are always heavily oversubscribed for student places. We are very proud of our outstanding examination results but are equally proud of the caring, supportive and friendly ethos that exists here whether you are student or member of staff. We also never forget how important it is to retain a sense of both humour and proportion.