Director of Modern Foreign Languages

Required September 2023

Leadership Pay Spine 8-12

We are seeking to appoint a well-qualified, passionate and inspirational Director of Modern Foreign Languages at Boston Spa Academy. The role of Director of Modern Foreign Languages is an incredibly important one in the academy’s development as we strive towards offering an outstanding all-round provision to all students. Our standards and expectations are high and, therefore, the successful candidate will have a proven track record of raising student and professional standards. This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to lead a thriving and highly successful curriculum area, which has made a major contribution to the incredibly strong examination results achieved at both GCSE and A Level in the summer of 2022.

At Boston Spa Academy, our students are extremely passionate about their study of languages and, therefore, the role of Director of Modern Foreign Languages will be pivotal in shaping and further developing the provision of Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) across Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. The MFL department at Boston Spa Academy offer French and Spanish at Key Stage 3, GCSE and A Level. Furthermore, we are very proud to offer Mandarin Chinese at both Key Stage 3 and GCSE, which is valued greatly by the significant number of students who choose to study the language.

The MFL department currently consists of 7 teaching colleagues, 1 of whom is an Assistant Leader of MFL, as well as a Foreign Languages Assistant. The department offers a rich curriculum to all students and, as a result, an impressive number of students choose to continue their studies into GCSE and A Level. This is an exciting opportunity to lead a committed and driven group of colleagues within the MFL department and join an academy which values the students and staff within its community.

As an academy, we seek to prioritise students’ holistic development through our vision of ‘shaping character; cultivating ambition’, whilst ensuring that we secure the very highest educational standard for every student. Our students receive exceptional pastoral care, support and guidance and we would expect any successful candidate to be of a mind-set where they believe anything is possible. Likewise, our professional body also benefits from outstanding CPD and support which is personalised to your particular needs and experience.

The GORSE Academies Trust itself is a vibrant and forward-thinking teaching community which places all students, in particular those who come from the most challenging backgrounds, at the centre of its work. Within the trust we value partnership work and collaboration. The trust currently has five 11-16 academies in addition to Boston Spa, two of which are graded as Outstanding by Ofsted, and in 2016 the trust opened an Alternative Provision free school The Stephen Longfellow Academy (graded Good by Ofsted in October 2019), a direct partner to all of the academies in the trust. In addition to Elliott Hudson College and four primary academies, two of which have been graded by Ofsted as Outstanding, the trust also includes two Teaching Schools and the GORSE SCITT which is also graded Outstanding (Ofsted, 2017) adding testament to the fact that the trust is one of the highest performing Multi Academy trusts in the country.

If you are excited about the prospect of this opportunity, we would be delighted to hear from you. An application pack which provides further details of the role is available to download directly from our website at www.tgat.org.uk/jobs, or by email to susie.dubber@bostonspa.leeds.sch.uk. 

If you would like to discuss this role in further detail, please contact Susie Dubber (susie.dubber@bostonspa.leeds.sch.uk) to arrange a meeting with Peter Hollywood.

Please note if you submit an electronic application, we will not require a hard copy. CVs are not accepted.

Closing date:                                                Monday 20 February 2023 at 09:00am

Applications should be returned to: susie.dubber@bostonspa.leeds.sch.uk

Interview date:                                             TBC

We are committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be subject to full employment checks, including an enhanced DBS disclosure and barring service check. We promote diversity and aim to establish a workforce that reflects the population of Leeds.   

Employment is conditional on confirmation of the right to work in the UK – either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa. If you do not have the right to work in the UK and the role does not meet eligibility for sponsorship, please consider carefully whether you meet the eligibility to apply for this position.