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Science Technician

Science Technician

Portslade Aldridge Community Academy

Brighton and Hove

  • Expired
Job type:
Full Time, Permanent
Apply by:
19 April 2023

Job overview

Academy:                Portslade Aldridge Community Academy

Job Title:                 Science Technician

Reporting to:          Subject Lead of Science

Contract Basis        Full time, permanent. 37 hours per week, term time plus INSET days (Start & finish times flexible to fit with the department needs).

Salary:                    NJC 6, SCP 11 £22,129. Pro-rata salary £18,995


Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (PACA) is searching for a Science Technician to support our excellent science team and help take our science faculty to outstanding. ​We are seeking someone who either has experience of science teaching or working in a science laboratory and who is willing to learn to manage science resources for secondary school learning.

In the last five years, the science team at PACA has developed an outstanding curriculum which successfully builds towards examination success. In the 2022 GCSEs PACA consistently hit our targets to be in the top fifth of schools. The team are highly collaborative, developing and enhancing teaching resources for the benefit of all.

Over the same 5 year period, PACA has doubled in size. We are a strong, cohesive community school serving students from across the west of Brighton and West Sussex.  Our Good Ofsted report noted: “Pupils and staff agree that, despite the ongoing growth of the school, everyone at PACA is known. … Pupils recognise that staff want the very best for them… This is reflected in calm and purposeful lessons”.

This is an exciting time to join PACA. The Ofsted report sets out a huge range of strengths for the school, and the few areas we are excited to address to take us to a higher level.

Portslade Aldridge Community Academy is an 11-16 state funded Academy.  We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/ vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.


Key Duties:

  • To ensure science laboratories and prep rooms are maintained to comply with Health and Safety requirements and safety checks as detailed in the relevant check lists including the handling of radioactive substances and organising regular resting of apparatus such as autoclaves.
  • Preparation, maintenance and safe storage of apparatus both for demonstration and practical work in the courses taken in the school or department. This may include:
  • a. Maintenance of cultures and plants for use in experiments.
  • b. The preparation of chemical solutions. 
  • c. The checking and repairs of some electrical equipment.
  • Provide the practical resources required for lessons and cleaning and clearing of those resources in a timely manner after the lesson. This may also involve setting up experimental apparatus prior to lessons.
  • General maintenance of each laboratory or room, including the care and maintenance of services, stores, laboratory workshop equipment, drainage systems, working surfaces etc. reporting any repairs required to the appropriate person for action.
  • Maintain a standard of good cleanliness and tidiness throughout the laboratories and prep rooms e.g. work benches, whiteboards, glassware, sinks etc.
  • Maintenance of stock to meet requirements, requisitioning to the approved standards, receipt and storage of new materials, including materials requiring special care i.e. toxic chemicals, radioactive materials, the return of empty bottles and containers.
  • Keeping up to day stock records, breakage records and other such records as are required and informing the Manager when stocks are running low including stationary stocks.
  • Preparing orders for purchase in relation to the department stocks.
  • The construction of apparatus for general or demonstration use and the repair of apparatus as needed.
  • The reduction of laboratory risks, first aid treatment in the laboratory in accordance with the school procedures.
  • Assisting in class with demonstrations of practical techniques and activities and support where necessary in class practical activities.
  • Practical exams – to set up as required by appropriate exam board.
  • To undertake administrative tasks such as filing, data input, stock control, updating and photocopying as required.
  • Attend department meetings, college training and external training when required.
  • To ensure that all safeguarding policies and procedures are followed.


​Other Responsibilities

Operating at all times within the stated policies and practices of ​Portslade Aldridge Enterprise Studio and the wider Trust.

Abiding by and practicing the Aldridge Education Operating norms:

  • We are Aldridge Education
  • The standard is excellence
  • We champion equality
  • We’re in the work together
  • We behave with integrity
  • We lead by example
  • We use time well


Equal Opportunities

  • To know and adhere to the Portslade Aldridge Enterprise Studio equal opportunities policy and equalities legislation and implement in relation to job responsibilities in employment and service delivery.


Health and Safety

  • To take reasonable care for his/her own health and safety and any other person(s) who may be affected by his/her acts or omissions at work, in accordance with the Health & Safety legislation.
  • To co-operate with the Portslade Aldridge Enterprise Studio insofar as is necessary to enable it to comply with its duties under relevant health and safety legislation.


Safeguarding Statement:

Aldridge Education is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of its students and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

Where the role for which you are applying involves engaging in regulated activity, it is an offence to apply for the role if you are barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children.

A copy of Aldridge Education’s Child Protection policy is available on our website at www.aldridgeeducation.org

Following successful interview, Aldridge Education will carry out the necessary prohibition checks for all teaching staff, as well as for all candidates undertaking regulated activity.

If you are shortlisted for the position you are applying for, you will be required to complete a Declaration giving details of any relevant criminal offences and other relevant information relating to our safeguarding duty. Further information will be provided on that form.

Any offer of employment will be made conditional upon a satisfactory enhanced DBS check and barred list check (where applicable to the role in question).

If you are shortlisted for the position you are applying for, Aldridge Education will undertake online searches (including social media) in accordance with KCSIE 2022.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

About Portslade Aldridge Community Academy

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+44 1273 416300

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About Portslade Aldridge Community Academy

Welcome to Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (PACA), a thriving 11-16 school rated Good by Ofsted (2016). Our results have been consistently improving for over three years and our Progress 8 score (0.3) is now the second highest in the city. Recognised as Brighton’s Most Improved School in the local media in 2017, our KS3 student intake grew over 80% year on year in 2017, and is set for further significant growth in 2018.

PACA has developed a strong learning culture of “Expert Learner” with students actively engaged in their own progress. High standards are maintained throughout the school with strong outcomes, particularly in the fundamentals of English and maths. We also have excellent outcomes in art and a focus on STEM. The current post-16 offer, a mixture of academic and vocational, is a key development priority through partnership work with local employers, leading organisations and our sister school in the city. Our digital media academy, an exciting collaboration between the two schools and over 40 local companies, is a great example of how these partnerships can deliver for our students.

In common with all Aldridge schools we also have a strong focus on developing the enterprise skills, attributes and confidence that help our students navigate through higher education and the many employment opportunities that will be available to them in the future.

PACA is so much more than a school. We work closely with, and offer our facilities to, the wider community as well as partnering with local primary schools and employers. Those facilities, which have benefitted from an £13m investment since we became an academy, include a STEM centre, Mac suite, specialist dance and art studios, and a community library. Our positive contribution to the community in which we live and work was recognised in winning the Brighton Community School of 2016 Award and the Most Improved School in Brighton & Hove Award 2017.

Aldridge Education

PACA is a member of the Aldridge Education multi-academy trust. We work in different regions across England where the opportunities and prospects for young people are often most limited, and where the introduction of our entrepreneurial approach to education can have most benefit. 

We are a values-driven organisation with a commitment to non-selective, inclusive schools, providing children and young people with an exceptional educational experience. Our goal is that, by the age of 25, all Aldridge graduates will have experienced an outstanding and enjoyable education and be able to sustain the life of their choice.

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Applications closed