Head of English

Job Description

POSITION:            Head of English

TLR:                          1B (Currently £10,713)

Line of Responsibility:    

The Head of English is responsible to the First Deputy Headmaster

Line Management:

The Head of English is responsible for appraising (as appropriate) and line managing the work of the English Department.

Job Content: / Core Responsibilities:

The Head of English 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, feedback, marking, reporting

·        the classroom environment

·        differentiation

and to ensure that these matters are the focus of regular departmental discussion.

2            to determine, in consultation with the First Deputy Headmaster, the choice of specification, 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, those in receipt of Pupil Premium funding 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 First Deputy Headmaster.

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 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.

13         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.

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

15         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.

16         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.

17         to undertake such other duties, from time to time, as the First Deputy Headmaster or the Headmaster may reasonably request.