Head of Mathematics

The Portsmouth Grammar School is a leading co-educational school located in the historic heart of Portsmouth. The school is an IB World School and offers the IB Diploma alongside A Level.

The school seeks a dynamic, well-qualified, and experienced teacher to lead its highly successful Mathematics Department from September 2019 or January 2020. The ability to teach Mathematics and Further Mathematics at A Level and to the IB is essential although prior experience of the IB is not required.  The Mathematics Department consists of 12 full-time and three part-time teachers. 

We seek a Head of Department who is passionate and knowledgeable about their subject and able to communicate this with enthusiasm. To lead this busy and exciting department it is also important to demonstrate excellent interpersonal and organisational skills.  The successful candidate would need to be open to promoting cross-curricular links with other department areas as appropriate.  

The school offers excellent training and support to teachers at all stages of their career. PGS teachers convey passion for their subject and seek to maximise progress by knowing their pupils well and adapting their teaching accordingly.  We are always looking to develop new ideas and approaches to mathematics teaching and are keen to incorporate the particular interests of new members of staff into the overall curriculum scheme.

Outstanding teaching and learning at PGS are achieved by inspirational and creative teachers with excellent subject knowledge and the ability to use ICT and interactive resources to enhance learning.  Teachers’ planning is informed by assessment for learning, ensuring all pupils make very good progress in each lesson.  Our pupils are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning and understand how they can improve using constructive feedback provided by their teachers. 

The school works to a two week timetable and Mathematics is taught for six periods per fortnight in Years 7 to 9 and seven periods per fortnight in Years 10 and 11.  Pupils sit the Edexcel IGCSE at the end of Year 11 and the most able also sit the Additional Maths OCR qualification.

Mathematics is a popular option in the Sixth Form, with around three quarters of pupils studying the subject.  There are currently two Further Mathematics sets, one Further Mathematics AS set, and six single A Level sets.  All three levels of Mathematics in the IB Diploma programme, Higher, Standard and Studies are currently taught. 

The department has an outstanding record in public examinations and has a distinguished record of sending pupils to top universities to read Mathematics.  It is usually the case that all IGCSE candidates achieve an A* to C grade, with the majority achieving an A or above.  Pupils sit the UK Mathematics Challenges and regularly qualify for the Olympiad rounds.  

The successful applicant will be expected to contribute fully to the pastoral and co-curricular life of the school.  

PGS is committed to safeguarding children and the successful applicant will be subject to an Enhanced Disclosure DBS check.