Spanish and French Teacher

The Sir Robert Woodard Academy, an Ofsted ‘good’ rated academy and part of the Woodard family of schools, is a dynamic and popular 11–18 academy located between Worthing and Brighton, serving the students of Lancing, Sompting and Shoreham. 

We have an exciting opportunity for a vibrant, enthusiastic and talented Linguist, able to inspire in our students a love of Spanish and French, to join our highly successful MFL team, on a full time and permanent basis from November 2022 or January 2023. Excellent subject knowledge and the ability to teach Spanish and French at KS3 and KS4 are essential; the ability to teach at KS5 would be a desirable addition. We welcome applications from colleagues (with QTS) at any career stage, including ECTs.

At SRWA, we believe that a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum is a right for all our students and, as such, our ‘Aspire to Achieve’ curriculum seeks to prepare our students as best we can for their later lives. We value languages as a key part of our ‘Aspire to Achieve’ curriculum. GCSE uptake of languages is high at SRWA: 76% of our students currently continue with either French or Spanish.

The successful applicant will be joining our talented and driven MFL team, who are committed to meeting the needs of all students and are excited for our students’ future outcomes. As a result of their efforts, we are seeing MFL results improve year on year. Summer 2022 results saw 100% pass rate for higher candidates in both French and Spanish. The MFL team are rightly proud of the lasting legacy, which has seen multiple students going on to study languages at universities including Oxford.

The MFL department is housed in our modern main building and benefits from spacious and bright classrooms. The department also has access to a range of ICT based resources to blend with more traditional methods to enthuse a love of languages. Our past KS3 day trips have been hugely popular and we look forward to resuming them in the summer term with a view to expanding our offer to include longer trips to both France and Spain for our KS4 and KS5 groups.

At SRWA, our people are at the heart of our success. We have developed a strong culture of collaboration and best practice, with professional development and career planning at its centre. We invest in our staff with wellbeing support, coaching, mentoring and a wide range of top-quality training and CPD programmes delivered at every level up to senior leadership.

SRWA teaching staff benefit from the following:

• a collaborative approach and strong collegial relationships;
• proven student progress and excellent student behaviour;
• an extensive CPD programme tailored to skills and experience;
• strong links with Brighton and Sussex Universities;
• free employee assistance programme, dedicated staff wellbeing space and 1-1 mental health booster sessions available;
• free use of the Academy’s fitness suite;
• free on site car parking and easy access to local public transport;
• cycle to work scheme.

A Staff well-being survey commissioned externally in June 2022 for SRWA revealed these were some of the areas our staff considers outstanding:

• Staff morale
• Opportunities for professional development
• Appreciation of staff achievement/contribution

Quotes from full Ofsted inspection report October 2021: Rating of “Good” in all areas:

“The culture at this school is summed up by its motto, ‘Aspire to Achieve’. From Year 7 through to the sixth form, pupils learn to think ambitiously about their futures.”

"The school is a calm and orderly place for pupils to learn….Pupils treat each other with respect … low-level disruption is rare."

"Pupils, parents and carers feel proud of their school…one parent told us ‘we are really impressed with the school, the ethos and the staff’.”

The successful candidate will:

• demonstrate the skills of a good teacher
• be able to interest, encourage and engage students
• provide appropriate levels of challenge so that all students make good progress
• use methods and resources that enable all students to learn effectively
• use assessment information effectively to plan the next steps in students learning
• make effective use of their time
• secure consistently high standards of behaviour from students
• be able to demonstrate a proven track record of recent and successful class teaching in mixed ability classes of aged 11-18 students (or of successful completion of initial teacher training if applying as an ECT).

The Academy is committed to equality of opportunity and to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children; we expect all staff to share in this commitment. All posts will be subject to safeguarding and vetting checks including references and and enhanced DBS, so individuals on the barred list should not apply. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to complete a criminal record self-declaration form and to consent to an online check.   

We reserve the right to interview, appoint and to close this advert at any time.