Director of Learning - Maths

About the role: The Leigh UTC has a truly unique opportunity and are seeking to appoint a Director of Learning for Maths - the department has been led by an experienced and highly successful leader who has made real impact within the department and wider school. This role allows an exceptional Maths practitioner to move into a leadership role with strong foundations already in place but with the scope to put their own stamp on it, and receive fantastic support and CPD opportunities across the academy and wider Trust.

What we will expect of you: Our appointed candidate will successfully lead this area of learning across our UTC.  You will play a key role in inspiring the staff in your department as well as our students with your outstanding leadership.  We will also expect you to successfully plan and deliver outstanding lessons on a daily basis that challenge our students and significantly advance their learning.  We anticipate that you will achieve this by being passionate about your subject and transferring your knowledge in a creative, effective and efficient way in the classroom. 

Maths at The Leigh UTC: At The Leigh UTC, we have an established Maths team that works closely together to plan and deliver an engaging and extensive mathematics curriculum. We are part of a Trust wide initiative to deliver lessons through a Mathematics Mastery approach, which is supported by high level Professional Development on a weekly basis. Offering Middle Years Programme at Key Stage 3, A Level and International Baccalaureate at Key Stage 5, we are looking to develop individuals to have both outstanding foundations in traditional mathematics and also a real-world understanding of its applications. We want to develop the learner as a whole to ensure pupils are reflective in the work they are doing.

As part of our STEM-based learning approach, problem-solving and employer links are at the heart of learning. With this approach we take pride in being extremely successful in all maths courses that we offer, boasting outstanding results in GCSE maths, Core maths, GCSE Resits, AS maths and Further maths with over 80% achieving A*-B at A-level Maths for the last two years..

With the recent changes in GCSE and A-level, we have ensured that all our staff are sufficiently prepared, by encouraging them to attend relevant professional development related to mastery and problem solving. Our department is fully equipped with practitioners that are engaging in the most pioneering developments in mathematical teaching, and even leading professional development in Core maths to other centres. Staff have also attended courses led by MEI and FMSP such as Teaching Advanced Maths, Teaching Further Maths, Teaching Statistics and GCSE Problem solving.

If this sounds like an environment within which you would like to work, apply to join our team from September 2020. The duties and responsibilities associated with this post are in line with the National Teaching Standards.

Working with us: Having opened in September 2014 with state-of-the-art facilities originally for Key Stage 4 and 5, The Leigh UTC provides an exciting, innovative, business-led, problem-solving curriculum, enabling students to achieve relevant work-related qualifications and transferable skills for future training or employment. The most unique feature of The Leigh UTC is its business ethos that are emphasised by our students' behaviours and supported by our sponsors.

In September 2017, following the request of the Department for Education due to our continued success, The Leigh UTC marked history by expanding its student intake to incorporate Key Stage 3 – the first UTC in the UK to do this.  Furthermore, being the first UTC to have IB World School Status has enabled us to develop strong links in Germany and Qatar. Having IB Status will enable us to further develop the Middle Years Programme (MYP) for our Key Stage 3 students and thus providing a joined-up pathway from ages 11 to 19.  The overarching mission of the Inspiration Academy is to develop curious, academically-skilled young people who aspire to be principled, compassionate learners. Our curriculum strives to create students who are self-motivated, competent, willing to take risks and lifelong learners.

Recent Ofsted success!  We have recently been judged as Good with Outstanding Leadership in our first inspection since opening.  Our key successes and features that our successful candidate can be part of are as follows; 

• The promotion of pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding
• Pupils, including the disadvantaged and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, catch up from previous underachievement and make strong and often rapid progress in a range of subjects and disciplines
• Application to learning is often exemplary
• The Leigh UTC makes a real difference for its pupils and surrounding area. Pupils become motivated to find and follow their passions. They leave well equipped to succeed in engineering and related technical and design careers and contribute to the economy.
• The Principal, with his leaders and staff team, model a high-quality working environment. This rubs off on pupils, who value the supportive ethos, work-like atmosphere.

Being part of Leigh Academies Trust: As of September 2020, our Trust is comprised of 25 geographically organised academies (11 secondaries, 13 primaries and 1 special) educating over 15,000 students, and employing over 3,000 talented staff.  We also have three further academies in development phase, due to open between September 2020-2021. The Trust is establishing four ‘clusters’ of academies: North West Kent; Central Kent; South East London; Medway. In addition, the Trust is responsible for one of the region’s biggest initial teaching training providers and a large teaching school. 

As part of Leigh Academies Trust, you will have ample opportunity to collaborate with your peers both within the academy and across the whole Trust.  This is an important part of our vision as we know through experience that we perform better when we work together. You are supported to undertake regular self-development to continue your professional development and hopefully progress further within the organisation.

We strive to offer a range of benefits that all employees can take advantage of which we regularly review and add to - click here to view what you’d receive as a member of staff with Leigh Academies Trust. 

Diversity at our core: As a Trust we are passionate about diversity and recognise that as individuals we all bring something unique to the role regardless of age, gender, race, beliefs or disabilities which is why we treat all of our people equally, without compromise.