Head of Department/Teacher of Religious Studies

Head of Department (TLR2B Currently £5,192)/Teacher of Religious Studies

This post presents an exciting opportunity for an inspirational teacher to challenge our highly able students in a subject which attracts large Advanced Level numbers.

WHSB is a selective Academy Grammar School which has been designated Outstanding by OFSTED. Our School currently has 900 boys at 11-16 and 390 students in its mixed Sixth Form.

WHSB is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Successful candidates will be subject to enhanced DBS clearance.

HEAD OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES

TLR: 2C (Currently £7,368)

Line of Responsibility:                

The Head of Religious Studies is responsible to the Director of Studies. 

Line Management: 

The Head of Religious Studies is responsible for appraising (as appropriate) and line managing the work of the Religious Studies Department. In addition they will co-ordinate one Key Stage within the School's PSHEE programme. 

Job Content: / Core Responsibilities: 

The Head of Religious Studies is 

1    to provide for the Department guidance, advice and leadership on: 

•    aims and objectives  

•    Schemes of Work (which shall reflect the values the School seeks to inculcate) 

•    teaching methods 

•    Assessment, Recording and Reporting 

•    the classroom environment 

•    Adaptive teaching, and to ensure that these matters are the focus of regular departmental discussion. 

2     to determine, in consultation with the Director of Studies, the choice of syllabus, Examination Board and course structure. 

3    to manage the Department's staff and contribute to the School’s Appraisal arrangements, in particular to monitor standards of teaching and assessment in the Department, to make recommendations on INSET, and to seek to achieve targets on examination results set out in the Departmental Development Plan. 

4   to manage the Department's resources, human and material, and to have regard to the quality of teaching materials both purchased and internally prepared. This will also involve recommending suitable library acquisitions. 

5   to ensure that the Department has in place arrangements to provide for the needs of pupils of differing abilities, including the most able and those who are within the School's Special Educational Needs provision. 

6  to organize pupils into groups, to recommend the allocation of staff and to contribute to the appointment and induction of new staff. To be conscious of ways in which the engagement of others from outside School might enrich our curricular provision and to ensure the appropriate incorporation of such elements. 

7   to ensure that members of the Department use information on prior pupil attainment in planning their teaching of particular groups and that the Department respects and follows the School's procedures for pupil tracking and target setting to enhance performance.   

8   to monitor academic standards within the Department, to maintain pupil records, to identify difficulties with individual pupils and to generate solutions, to ensure that all report data is in SIMS and has been checked by published deadlines. 

9   to ensure, through the use of departmental INSET time, that members of the Department are familiar with School and other relevant curriculum documentation and are responsive as well to relevant national developments and initiatives bearing on the work of the Department. 

10   to motivate members of the Department and to give them the opportunity to contribute to policy. To maintain a record of matters discussed at meetings and to make a copy available for the Headmaster and the Director of Studies. 

11  to be responsible for the preparation and updating of coursework guidelines (if relevant) at GCSE and Advanced Level and to ensure that coursework submitted across the Department meets an appropriate standard. 

12  to ensure that, within the Department, one member of staff has responsibility for the effective use of ICT and to ensure that that use promotes Teaching & Learning in accordance with whole-school policy. 

13  to have a familiarity with the School's Policy on Health & Safety (H&S), to direct colleagues in the Department on H&S issues and to draw to the attention of the Facilities Manager any departmental matters covering H&S requiring attention. 

14  to have overall responsibility for quality of displays in departmental teaching rooms and to ensure that arrangements are in place (using the designated Teaching Assistant) for the periodic changing of departmental display materials. 

15  to contribute as requested to whole-school initiatives such as the Year 7 and Sixth Form Induction Courses. 

16  to promote the Department in the School’s wider agenda, e.g. via the website, The Westcliff Diary and through participation in the School’s Outreach programmes. 

17  to produce each year, according to agreed schedules, a written review of the Department's work, covering public examination results; Teaching & Learning in Years 7-13; staff development; departmental extra-curricular activity; departmental resources; and progress made towards meeting targets laid down in the School Development Plan. 

18   to undertake such other duties, from time to time, as the Director of Studies or the Headmaster may reasonably request. 

Conditions of Employment 

•    The above responsibilities are subject to the general duties and responsibilities contained in the written Statement of Conditions of Employment (the Contract of Employment). 

•   The postholder is required to support and encourage the School’s ethos and its objectives, policies and procedures as agreed by the Governing Board.  

•  To uphold the School's policy in respect of child protection and safeguarding matters. 

•  The postholder shall be subject to all relevant statutory requirements as detailed in the most recent School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document. 

•  The postholder may be required to perform any other reasonable tasks after consultation. 

•  This job description allocates duties and responsibilities but does not direct the particular amount of time to be spent on carrying them out and no part of it may be so constructed. 

•  This job description is not necessarily a comprehensive definition of the post. It will be reviewed at regular intervals and it may be subject to modification at any time after consultation with the postholder. 

•   All staff members are required to participate in the School’s Appraisal Scheme.