Head of Music

Do you want to be part of a team where you will help make a lasting impact on our students and rapidly accelerate their progress?

Do you want to work in a school where you are free to teach, with impeccable student behaviour and unhindered by bureaucracy?

Cottenham Village College is seeking to appoint a full time Head of Music to continue the tradition of encouraging a love of music across the school. We are looking for someone who can lead the subject and further develop the role and contribution of music at the College. We believe that all students are entitled to study music to 16 and are keen to find a candidate who shares our inclusive vision and is excited by the prospect of increasing our numbers of students who take music post-14 and beyond. The successful candidate would be accountable for raising standards of student attainment and achievement within the department, monitoring and supporting student progress to meet those aims, so that all our young people experience a well-taught and ambitious music curriculum. A successful candidate would build on a rich tradition of whole-school musical concerts and smaller events across the year. There is real scope to work with other departments in thinking creatively about promoting the arts.

The successful candidate will be an experienced and excellent classroom practitioner with a track record of strong outcomes. 

We are committed to a knowledge-rich curriculum and a traditional approach to teaching, behaviour and culture. We believe that schools must teach powerful knowledge, ’the best that has been thought and said’ and an ‘entitlement curriculum’ for all. We believe in explicit instruction and have been greatly influenced by Lemov’s ‘Teach Like A Champion’, Rosenshine and recent developments in cognitive science. We believe that the creation of a scholarly culture that is warm and strict, disciplined and joyful, where there is ‘purpose not power’, ensuring impeccable behaviour, where teachers can focus on teaching and pupils can focus on learning, underpins everything.

We are value-driven, and our vision is to provide an inclusive, aspirational and academic education for all our students, so that all of them will learn, thrive and lead successful lives. We are unapologetically ambitious for every child, no matter what their background, prior attainment or needs. We want to ensure that all our students have the option to be able to go to university or an aspirational alternative. We are not going to reduce expectations because of a child’s background or home life, or because they are new to English or have a special educational need. In fact, the opposite is true. It is our job to redouble our efforts to help children overcome these barriers so that they can flourish.

We value our staff highly and treat workload very seriously. Our systems are high leverage, ensuring you can really focus on your core purpose – teaching, in a sustainable way, unhindered by bureaucracy or poor behaviour.

What we offer:

• Huge support and progression opportunities
• A knowledge-rich curriculum built on ‘powerful knowledge’ influenced by the importance of subject-specificity, and by thinking such as Rosenshine and Lemov.
• Collaborative planning with centralised, shared units of work and resources
• A feedback policy focused on whole class feedback – no onerous marking policies
• Disruption-free learning
• Highly visible/supportive senior leaders who will support you
• Centralised detentions, including homework detentions
• No formal graded lesson observations – just ongoing ‘no-stakes’ feedback cycles to develop our practice
• Excellent ongoing CPD, career development and promotion opportunities across the Astrea Cambridgeshire region
• Opportunity to complete NPQs
• An unrivalled professional progression model
• A very pleasant location in beautiful Cambridgeshire.

What we are looking for:

The successful candidate will be:

• A highly effective Music teacher.
• Aligned to our values and mission. If you are the type of person who fits with our culture, you will love working here.
• Someone who passionately believes that all children can achieve, no matter what their starting point, background or needs. Someone that does not make excuses for what children can achieve.

Interested in applying?

If this is something you are interested in, looking for a new challenge, have a passion for education or maybe all of the above, take a look at the Applicant Brief to find out more about the role and how to apply.

We actively welcome visits and would be delighted to show you around our academy to appreciate fully our excellent learning environment.

The closing date for all applications is 16 April 2023

Astrea Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All posts are subject to satisfactory background checks including references and enhanced DBS checks.