Special Needs Teaching Assistant

The School

The Fallibroome Academy is a thriving and successful 11-18 mixed comprehensive school. We currently have 1,530 students, including a flourishing Sixth Form of340 which continues to grow as we expand the range of courses available to students. We are hugely popular in the local area and the number of applications for entry into Year 7 regularly exceeds the places available. Our intake is non-selective and varied, including children from a wide range of homes and backgrounds and from up to 27 different primary schools.

The school is situated in a very pleasant area on the edge of Macclesfield within easy reach of the Peak District National Park and with good access to Manchester, Chester and North Wales. Adjoining the school is Macclesfield Leisure Centre, with its excellent pool, athletics track and other sporting facilities. We are fortunate to have extensive playing fields, creating a feeling of space, and the school site is most attractive with open farmland to the rear and views of the nearby hills. By any standards, the school is a desirable working environment with well-designed buildings and an enviable situation on the western side of the town.

The Staff

The Fallibroome Academy is led by Ross Martland (Headteacher). He is assisted in this work by his Deputy Headteacher (Andy John) and seven Assistant Headteachers – Claire Burstow (Head of Teaching and Learning); Jane Knott (Head of Sixth Form); Stuart Smalley (Pastoral Leader 11-16); Alain Kyd (Head of School Operations); Karen Fay (Head of Performing Arts); Matt Priest (Head of Achievement) and Matt Dale (SENCO/Head of Inclusion). Sue Gill (Business Manager) is also a permanent member of this group.

Subjects are led by Heads of Departments, often supported by Assistant Heads of Departments. The pastoral care of each year group is overseen by their Head of Year who in turn is supported by a dedicated Pastoral Assistant.

There are currently over 100 teachers, who are supported in their work by a strong team of excellent administrative, clerical and technical staff.

Our staff are well qualified, experienced and highly committed to the needs of the children and the success of the school.

Professional Development

Professional development opportunities at Fallibroome are extensive and varied and there is a strong commitment to encouraging staff to gain further accreditation. We also have a longstanding commitment to high quality professional development. For example, we restructured our school day and our use of INSET days to provide fortnightly training sessions for all our staff. Many of these sessions are delivered by our own staff, with external expertise being brought in as appropriate.

Our approach to teaching and learning has generated much interest, both locally and nationally. We have pioneered collaborative approaches to learning, based on the work of Dr Spencer Kagan in the USA and have been engaged in creating a new pedagogical framework for the school, based on cooperative learning strategies and the principles of Assessment for Learning. It is our intention to remain at the forefront of educational reform in this country and we are sure that this will bring interesting professional development opportunities for our staff.

Excellent teaching and learning lie at the heart of everything that we do at Fallibroome. We commit significantly to the professional development of all our teachers and support staff and we are constantly seeking new ways in which to improve our practice. We regard ICT as a fundamental tool for teaching and learning and have consequently invested heavily in our infrastructure in this respect. A commitment to the development of strong ICT skills, and a willingness to engage in the use of AI tools to support learning and reduce workload is therefore a requirement for all staff who take up a post at Fallibroome. Support and training will be made available as required.

We believe that our emphasis upon excellent practice in the classroom and the investments we make to bring this about make Fallibroome a special place to work. We aspire to ensure that every teacher who joins us will improve their practice by virtue of the opportunities given to them while they are with us.

Networks

We have a proud tradition as an ‘outward facing school’ and have worked hard to be at the forefront of educational innovation both nationally and internationally.

With this in mind, we have built a significant network of relationships with other like-minded agencies. At the centre of this lies the ‘Fallibroome Learning Community’ which coordinates and develops extensive cross-phase work with our seven partner primary schools (Bollinbrook, Mottram St Andrew, Nether Alderley, Prestbury, Upton Priory, Broken Cross and Whirley).

This work has not, however, been limited by geographical boundaries. We have historically developed strong contacts with schools in Australia, China, South Africa and America and this had led to important exchanges of ideas and expertise in recent years. We were also the lead school in the establishment of the Halliard Trust and actively contribute to this now 12-strong group of primary and secondary schools.

Pastoral Care and SEN

The focus at The Fallibroome Academy is on the needs of every individual child. We have an excellent Learning Support department which helps children with learning difficulties. We employ a number of Teaching Assistants to on an individual basis with students who have an EHCP.

The role of the form tutor lies at the core of our pastoral provision. Forms are made up of about 30 students in Years 7-11 and are smaller in the Sixth Form. Almost all full-time staff are assigned to one of these groups to guide and mentor. There are approximately 240 students in each year group from 7-11 with 160 in Year 12 and 180 in Year 13. The Head of Year is responsible for the pastoral care and general academic progress of their year group. The work of the Heads of Year is managed by one of the Assistant Headteachers (i.e. either the Pastoral Leader or the Head of Sixth Form).

Behaviour

In September 2017, we launched a new behaviour policy that had the explicitly stated objective of raising our expectations for student behaviour very significantly. In particular, we set out to eradicate low-level disruption from lessons and we expected this to have major knock-on benefits for the culture of our school. The impact of this work has been remarkable. Lessons are no longer interrupted by inappropriate behaviour and incidents of serious misbehaviour are extraordinarily rare. All of this has been very well received by our teaching staff who report that it has had a very positive impact on their personal wellbeing and has also allowed them to support their students much more effectively in lessons. Support staff also comment on the increased levels of respect that is evident around school. In summary, we believe that this has made our school an exceptionally positive place in which to work.

The day-to-day operation of our behaviour policy is supported by three centres, as described below:

Inclusion Centre

This is staffed by four full-time colleagues and provides additional support to students with issues such as anxiety, mental health, anger management, etc. They are supported in this work by a professional counsellor.

Behaviour Centre

This is managed and supervised on a full-time basis by two colleagues. Students work in this centre if their behaviour falls below our expectations during the school day. Appropriate work is provided in closely supervised conditions and students are expected to work hard throughout the time they spend in this area.

Pastoral Centre

This is staffed by five colleagues. They support both the organisational issues that arise on a day-to-day basis and are also attached to one specific year group in the lower school.

Visitors usually comment on two things: the warmth of the welcome they receive and the politeness of our students. We work very hard to sustain both of these features of our school.

Academic Monitoring

Assessment data is collected on a regular basis for every year group. We have a powerful management information system in place to process this information and report upon it. Well established and effective reporting systems are in place to ensure that students, parents and staff are able to monitor academic progress effectively.

The progress made by all students in every year group is very closely tracked. We have developed sophisticated tools to allow any issues to be quickly identified and acted upon. We make it a high priority to do this in a way that is easy to understand for staff, students and parents. We do not expect colleagues to analyse data endlessly; instead we have developed tools that make this process as easy as possible so that teachers can focus upon deciding upon the appropriate course of action.

Curriculum

We provide a broad range of subjects in our KS3 curriculum so that students can ‘find their passion’ in their early years with us. We then place a significant emphasis upon the principle of maximising student choice in KS4 and KS5. We have consequently reduced the compulsory core at KS4 to an absolute minimum and we do not compel students to study the EBacc. To us, the most important principle at KS4 is that students should be able to pursue the subjects that interest them most. We have then prioritised the provision of a wide range of courses at A-Level so that students can continue to pursue their studies in their favourite subjects whenever possible. As this principle of choice is so important to us, we are also fully committed to providing excellent advice and guidance to our students so that the decisions that they make are fully informed.

Our curriculum has been meticulously planned and key documentation has been made available for every subject online (see the Curriculum menu on our website). These materials include:

Curriculum maps for every subject

Knowledge organisers for every unit in every subject

Headteacher’s video presentation explaining how our curriculum has been constructed

Young people at Fallibroome also have many opportunities for learning beyond the classroom, with numerous extracurricular activities, industrial links, an extensive range of trips, visits and exchanges and a full work experience programme for Year 12. Our links with the community are excellent.

Facilities

The Fallibroome Academy site has been extensively developed in the past twenty years to cater for the growing school population with the intention of offering the best quality educational provision possible.

Our teaching accommodation is of a very high standard and offers specialist rooms for all departments. Most subjects are taught in suites of rooms, creating for staff and students a high-quality, attractive teaching and learning environment.

• 500 seat Performance Hall with full lighting and sound system and Purpose-Built Dance Studio

• Sixth Form Centre with study and recreational facilities which also holds the school Dining Hall and Administration Centre

• Extended and enhanced ICT Teaching Suites

• State-of-the-art Media Suite, Music Recording Studio and TV Studio facility

• Pastoral Support Centre and medical facility

• Two Sports Halls, all-weather sports pitches and tennis courts

We consider ourselves to be exceptionally fortunate with respect to the quality of our site and facilities. While we have had great success in accessing grants to support our work in this area, we also work very hard to maintain our infrastructure in first class conditions. As a result, we believe that we have created an environment that is immediately impressive to visitors as well as prospective students, parents and staff.

Examination Results

Part of The Fallibroome Academy’s appeal for parents lies in our high academic standards, as exemplified by excellent examination results which far exceed the national average.

When measured against prior attainment, children at The Fallibroome Academy perform extremely well and value-added residuals are significantly positive in many subjects at both GCSE and A-Level. As a school, we pride ourselves on the quality of provision in every curriculum area. We do not return poor results in any subject.

Culture and Values

Along with all other schools in the Trust, we support the core values of trust, respect and optimism.  At Fallibroome, we have chosen to present these values to our students by emphasising the importance of three key characteristics: kindness, appreciation and commitment.

Kindness

We encourage our students to be kind and helpful to each other. We want them to do simple things like opening doors for each other and helping one another when they are having problems. We also encourage them to be supportive of students with additional needs and to be welcoming to visitors and new students/staff.

Appreciation

We ask our students to be polite and show good manners at all times. We want them to say 'thank you' when someone helps them. To encourage this, we ask our students to write 'appreciation postcards' to other students and staff that acknowledge their help and support. We want our students to be mindful of the many benefits that they enjoy by virtue of being part of our community.

Commitment

We want our students to work hard and always do their best. We also expect them to demonstrate their commitment to their studies by being highly organised at all times. We also encourage them to play a full part in the life of the school by contributing to as many extra-curricular opportunities as possible.

Halliard Trust

The Fallibroome Academy is the founding school of the Halliard Trust. The Trust currently includes eleven schools: two further secondary schools, Eaton Bank Academy, Winsford Academy, and eight primary schools, Adlington, Broken Cross, Gawsworth, Lower Park, Marlborough, Nether Alderley, Upton Priory and Whirley.

We are blessed to have three key factors in which make our school a great place to work: a high quality team of teachers and support staff; a fantastic population of students who are proud of their school and who are a pleasure to teach and first class facilities that have been very well maintained and developed over the years.

Address   The Fallibroome Academy, Priory Lane, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 4AF

Email  info@fallibroome.org.uk

Telephone  01625 827 898

Web  fallibroome.academy

Working with the Trust

Everyone who works with us is crucial to the Trust’s success and learning and development plays a vital role in how we work. Successful teams are full of people who not only care but feel cared for and valued and subsequently take care in all they do. This leads to increased job satisfaction and retention and to improved outcomes for our pupils and ourselves. Our commitment and passion, and the core purpose in all that we do in the Halliard Trust, are to create the conditions for each child to be the very best that they can be. We believe our staff are the most important resource and key to this endeavour. Bringing together capacity, skills, and the talents of our teams enables us to work together to transform the lives of young people. In order to attract and retain the best people to work with our children, we aim to ensure deliver opportunities to encourage and support every individual to develop themselves to achieve their full potential.

Putting our vision into practice

From the moment you are appointed and throughout your time in the Trust, we are keen to ensure you have the confidence in yourself and your role, feel trusted, supported, empowered and appropriately challenged.

When you join, you will have a mentor to support you alongside your line manager. Your mentor will be your informal support during your induction and will be able to answer day to day questions to help you settle quickly into the team and the routines. Your line manager will assign, oversee and evaluate your work. Your line manager also has responsibility for supporting your performance, and development. You will become part of an amazing network that makes a huge difference to children’s lives, each and every single day. Staff networks offer a place for colleagues to come together, share experiences, talents and skills and facilitate learning and development. Our established networking groups aim to reduce workload and share good practice across all Trust schools. In addition, we offer a wide range of exciting career opportunities and high-quality professional development through our bespoke school improvement services and professional development programmes.

Benefits of working with the Trust

• High quality professional development at all stages of your career
• Access to the Teachers’ Pension or Local Government Pension Schemes with a generous employer contribution rate
• 26 days holiday entitlement rising to 31 days with service
• Free onsite parking
• Cycle to work scheme
• Confidential employee counselling helpline

How to Apply

We ask all applicants to apply through SAMpeople Recruit/Face-Ed; our recruitment software. This enables us to efficiently carry out our safer recruitment checks, but we recognise it can take some time for the applicant. The good news is, you will only need to register for Face-Ed once to apply for any role in the Halliard Trust's 11 schools.

Our top tips for a painless process are as follows:

1. Because Face-Ed is cloud based software, it is possible for you to experience a break in connection and you won't necessarily know about it straight away. We therefore strongly recommend that you prepare your main application content in a different package like MS Word/Notepad and copy and paste it into your Face-Ed application form in the relevant sections.
2. If you get a message saying "Validation Error" it isn't a software fault. It means you have entered data in a format that wasn't expected and it is causing a problem with saving. This might mean you have entered words in a box that expects numbers, for example.