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Learning Leader of Geography

Learning Leader of Geography

Sir John Thursby Community College

Burnley, Lancashire

Salary:
MPS / UPS plus TLR 2.2 £4785
Job type:
Full Time, Permanent
Start date:
01/09/2022
Apply by:
22 February 2022

Job overview

Learning Leader of Geography 

MPS/UPS + TLR 2.2 (£4785)

Required from 1st September 2022  


As part of our journey to become ‘a truly great school’, we are looking for a highly effective and motivated Learning Leader to join our successful Geography department. Building on our current strengths, we wish to invest in a Learning Leader in Geography, in order to support our ambition to be in the top 20% of schools nationally. The successful candidate will be an excellent classroom teacher with the vision and expertise to lead the ongoing improvement of students’ outcomes in Geography.  

Leading the Geography team you will inspire staff and students to achieve beyond expectations and build on the current success enjoyed by the department. At SJT we have over 70% of students opting for EBacc subject and Geography is an important part of the challenging curriculum we offer our students.  Prior to the pandemic GCSE results were solid but there was a declining trend in the progress made by our students. However, over the last two years the geography curriculum has been rewritten and the key knowledge and understanding needed for GCSE have been embedded into Key Stage 3. This is an exciting opportunity for a new leader to implement and develop this curriculum. We understand the importance of fieldwork in Geography and are keen to develop this further to give all our students the opportunity to experience and analyse the world around them.

Sir John Thursby Community College is a good school and we are passionate about and ambitious for our students. We value and care for our staff and seek to abandon anything that hinders the preparation of great lessons and creates unnecessary workload. 

Our last Ofsted in January 2020 noted that, "Sir John Thursby Community College continues to be a good school. Staff enjoy working at this school. The pupils that we spoke to told us that they feel safe at school. They have good relationships with staff and they are well cared for. Senior leaders are determined to make the school better for pupils and staff." 

Our beautiful, state of the art building ensures that our students and staff have the best learning environment in which to achieve. We are a very positive community, with our recent staff survey showing that over 97% of our staff enjoy coming to work and are proud to be part of our school. At SJT we view the professional development of all staff as a priority and our innovative ‘Learn Together’ initiative enables all staff to be on our outstanding teacher programme. 

We are looking for a teacher who shares our drive and passion to inspire our students with the love of their subject and has the motivation and expertise to:


• To take responsibility for the leadership of the Geography department

• To ensure that achievement rises in the department by effective analysis of student performance and through the delivery of an appropriate and inspiring curriculum

The successful candidate will fully embrace our ethos of ‘Belong, Believe, Achieve’ whilst bringing fresh ideas that will build on current strengths and achievements through:


• Outstanding classroom practice and an ability to engage all young people.

• A commitment to contribute to our extra-curricular programme.

• The ability to motivate students of all abilities to achieve their full potential.

• A passion and commitment to raise standards and achievement.

• The ability to work and contribute as part of a team.

• Commitment, resilience, patience, hard work and a good sense of humour.

• The willingness to do what it takes to achieve our goals.


We welcome visitors to the school (COVID restrictions permitting). To arrange a time to visit and meet with the headteacher please contact his PA Leanne Barwell (email - l.barwell@sirjohnthursby.lancs.sch.uk. or telephone 01282 682313 ext: 21009). 

Further details and application form are available from the college website or Irene Hayhurst (on behalf of the Headteacher) as detailed below.

• Website:  www.sirjohnthursby.lancs.sch.uk

• Sir John Thursby Community College, Eastern Avenue, Burnley, BB10 2AT   Tel: 01282 682313

• email i.hayhurst@sirjohnthursby.lancs.sch.uk

Please submit your completed application form (on the version supplied with this vacancy) to Mrs I Hayhurst:  i.hayhurst@sirjohnthursby.lancs.sch.uk

Closing date:   9am Tuesday 22nd February 2022

Shortlisting: 24th February 2022

Interview date:   w/c 28th February 2022


The school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects staff and volunteers to share this commitment. You will be required to undertake an enhanced DBS disclosure and a range of other recruitment checks.



Attached documents

About Sir John Thursby Community College

Sir John Thursby Community College is a mixed 11-16, multi-cultural, fully inclusive school which values all students, staff and our community partners. We have over 1,100 students on roll and over 150 staff enjoying working together to provide the best for everyone. We are also fortunate to work in a fantastic building that was one of five community high schools within the Building Schools for the Future project in Burnley.

Everything we do is driven by our strategic vision and our ambition to be a truly great school. Three words are central to what we do: Belong, Believe and Achieve. We are committed to ensuring that all our students have bright futures and collectively, as a staff, we commit to our beliefs which are set out in our Strategic Vision (included in this pack).

In our latest Ofsted report in April 2023, the school was graded ‘good’ in every area and inspectors commented that the pupils ‘enjoy attending this thriving and popular school’ and that they ‘feel a strong sense of belonging to the school community.’ The report also identified that students ‘achieve well’ and that ‘almost all pupils successfully move on to apprenticeships, A levels or other forms of education, employment or training’.

People and relationships are at the hear of what we do. One of our key values is that all members of our school community are known, valued and loved and we work hard to ensure this happens. We were delighted that Ofsted saw this in our relationships with our young people when they commented that ‘staff know pupils very well’. We work hard to create an environment in which staff feel a strong sense of belonging to our school, our students and our families. We are firmly committed to ensuring that all our staff have a positive work/life balance and as a result we give all our teaching staff a minimum of 20% non-contact time and staff have excellent CPD opportunities.

In our 2023 staff survey, 97% of staff were proud to be a member of our school community and 95% said that they enjoyed working at the school. Staff commented that:

· ‘Leaders care and lead by example’

· ‘SJT is a great place to work’

· ‘I love being part of the SJT team and appreciate the opportunities that the school provides for its staff and pupils’

· ‘The staff are extremely positive and supportive of each other and value relationships with their students’

· ‘I do believe this is a great place to work, and I feel lucky to have this opportunity’

We have a highly ambitious curriculum with over 70% of students following the EBacc subjects. Our results are consistently strong with students Attainment 8 above expectations and Progress 8 in 2022 +0.16

We have a positive behaviour system which has ‘high expectations of pupil’s behaviour’ (Ofsted 2023).

We are proud of our achievements and continue to go from strength to strength. I would encourage you to come and visit SJT to see why we all believe that it is a special place to work and make a difference. We look forward to receiving your application and please contact us if you would like any further information.

https://youtu.be/Kgk_syuQTfA  Follow the link to watch 'Burnley By Drone' to see a beautiful area in which to live and work.

Please note that you are wholly responsible for fact checking in respect of the information provided by schools. Please also check for the latest visa and work permit requirements that may apply. Tes is not responsible for the content of advertisements or the policies adopted by advertising schools. Tes asks that all schools follow Tes' Fair Recruitment Policy.

Applications closed