Head of Curriculum Support

St Nicholas’ School is a thriving, forward-looking independent day school for girls aged 3 - 16 and boys 3 - 7. Set within 30 glorious acres of Hampshire countryside, the school enjoys modern, well-resourced classrooms, small classes and excellent academic results. Pupils at St Nicholas’ School are highly motivated and keen to learn.

St Nicholas’ School seeks to appoint an experienced, enthusiastic and well organised Head of Curriculum Support. You will be joining an established, supportive and successful department, within one of the top schools nationally. You will have a vision for further development of this area of learning in girls’ education. You will be managing a department that supports pupils from nursery to age 16.

We seek to appoint an outstanding teacher to lead a superb department whose advice is warmly received by pupils and teachers alike. The new Head of Department will be the public face of the department and will be passionate about the learning needs of all pupils, but particularly those with identified specific difficulties.

Through supporting pupils’ work habits and approaches to learning they will seek to engage pupils with the full academic curriculum. We expect our pupils with SEND to achieve strong year-on-year progress to enable them to achieve very positive value-added scores.

The successful applicant will have a track record of successful SEND practice with a strong cultural understanding of SEND, ideally from a variety of perspectives, and we would expect them to be able to engage in the wider debate surrounding the field. They will also have at least a Level 5 SpLD Specialist Teaching Qualification and National SENCO Award or NPQ for SENCOs, or at least be prepared to work towards this. The ideal candidate would therefore have both a theoretical understanding in the SEND field and the knowledge to enable them to apply for access arrangements.

The new Head of Department will be able to analyse the bigger picture of a pupil’s needs to set up the most appropriate level of support. This may include, but is not limited to; running assessments, doing observations, tracking pupil progress and then selecting or creating plans for intervention which are tailored to the pupil’s needs and desired outcomes, in-line with the graduated approach and the school curriculum. Strong communication skills, at a variety of levels, are key to this role and the teacher should be able to foster good relationships with all professionals as well as being able to successfully and sympathetically work with parents and young people.

This is a full-time post and we welcome applications from both the independent and state sectors. This is an exciting and rewarding position in a GSA School.

The School is an equal opportunities employer.

Closing date: 15 May 2024.

We will be interviewing on a rolling basis and reserve the right to close the vacancy when a suitable candidate has been appointed. Therefore, early applications are recommended to avoid disappointment.

Safeguarding

The School and its staff are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. The School is registered with the DBS and successful applicants will be required to complete successfully the Disclosure procedure at the Enhanced level. It is an offence for any person barred from working with children to apply for this post.

All applicants will also be required to complete a criminal records self-declaration form. Please note that you are not required to disclose convictions or cautions that are ‘protected’, as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2013). If you have a conviction and are not sure whether is it ‘protected’, please visit the Gov.UK link below:

https://www.gov.uk/tell-employer-or-college-about-criminal-record/check-your-conviction-caution