Library Manager

Strood Academy is seeking to appoint a forward-thinking, motivated and enthusiastic Library Manager, to join from September 2024. The role requires the librarian to maintain and facilitate our student's use of the library and motivate them to read and embed a love of reading into their daily lives. In addition, the librarian will ensure that online resources are in place so that students can further their own development and learning, allowing them to realise their aspirations. 

The successful candidate will be responsible for building excellent working relationships with students, staff and parents. You will have a high standard of attention to detail since you will be organising books and other materials throughout the day. Over time, this quiet and relaxing environment can help students with their overall grades and improve their self-studying skills. You’ll also have the scope to work with our Inclusion team to provide reading intervention sessions to groups of students, as well as contribute to our wide-ranging extra-curricular programme. 

We pride ourselves on having a diverse and dynamic staffing body of committed, creative and hardworking support staff who enjoy coming to work as they benefit from: 

• A committed, supportive and successful team.
• Encouragement for professional development, innovation and creativity.
• Opportunities to collaborate with, and learn from, colleagues across the Leigh Academies Trust.

Previous experience of a role in an educational setting is desirable. The successful candidate will have to meet the person specification in order to be offered the post and will be subject to an enhanced DBS check.

This is a permanent role working 37 hours a week, term time + 1 week of inset and offers an actual salary of £20,461 per annum (£23,893 full-time equivalent).

Working with Strood Academy: Our vision is to be an inclusive community where we are all kind, respectful and resilient in our journey towards excellence. Our students thrive through an enriching and diverse curriculum that offers a global perspective, empowering all to become inquisitive lifelong learners.

Our core values are to be:

• Inquisitive
• Respectful
• Resilient
• Kind

Our purpose at Strood Academy is to:

• nurture students’ aspirations and build resilience within an environment of tolerance, respect and empathy;
• shape leaders within a global community;
• develop and celebrate knowledgeable and inquiring minds to promote lifelong learning and;
• help young people develop into well educated, considerate and caring citizens.

We have a growing roll call of 1400 children, including 200 in Sixth Form. Working in our academy takes a lot of dedication and hard work, but for the right individuals, it can be an incredibly rewarding experience and contribute significantly to personal and professional development. 

Why work at Strood Academy?

• Our recent OFSTED inspection has confirmed that the academy continues to be judged ‘Good’ and is very strong in many aspects and areas. The full report can be found on our website and I would like to share a quote which reflects the culture and ambition we all have for our students. 

‘The principal advocates a culture of high expectations, aspirations and traditional values. Leaders’ high expectations are reflected in the ambitious International Baccalaureate curriculum. This provides a global perspective which encourages pupils to be inquisitive lifelong learners’. To read the full report please click here.

• Centralised behaviour system and detentions - simple for teachers to follow allowing disruptive free classrooms.
• Our commitment to the development of all staff - CPD on Wednesday afternoons and the opportunity to collaborate with staff from other schools in the LAT. Also all staff at Strood receive regular coaching feedback through our on-line platform on-track.
• Strood academy is easily accessible by A2 and the high speed train can allow for travel into London in less than 30 minutes.
• We have a common sense approach to workload. All teachers are expected to feedback or live mark. We also work closely as a Trust allowing for centralised resources to be shared across our secondary schools.

Being part of Leigh Academies Trust: As of 1st April 2024, our Trust comprises 32 geographically organised academies (16 secondaries, 14 primaries and 2 special) educating more than 20,000 students and employing 3,000 talented staff. Nearly 40% of our academies are judged outstanding overall by Ofsted, versus 15% nationally. The Trust is establishing four ‘clusters’ of academies: North Kent; Central Kent; South East London; Medway. In addition, the Trust is responsible for one of the region’s biggest initial teaching training organisations, a large teaching school hub and is an accredited apprenticeship provider.

Our future plans are found in our Vision 2030 document available on our website.

Click here to view the benefits available to all LAT employees from day one. 

Our commitment to safeguarding: Leigh Academies Trust and all of our academies are committed to ensuring the highest levels of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our pupils, and we expect all our staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We adopt a fair, robust and consistent recruitment process across all academies and business units which is inline with Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance. This includes online checks for shortlisted candidates - you can read more about this in our Recruitment Guidance. All offers of employment are subject to an Enhanced DBS check, references, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching check.

Our commitment to equality and diversity: As a Trust, we are passionate about diversity and recognise that as individuals, we all bring something unique to the role regardless of any protected characteristics which is why we treat all of our people equally, without compromise. We are committed to providing equality and fairness throughout our recruitment and employment practices and not discriminating on any grounds.

Based on the quality and quantity of applications received, Leigh Academies Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy sooner than the specified closing date. Applicants will be notified of this where possible. Therefore, early applications are encouraged.