Teacher of Classics, Maternity Cover: 2 terms
Colfe's School
Greenwich
- Expired
- Salary:
- Colfe's own salary scale
- Job type:
- Full Time, Fixed Term
- Start date:
- April 2019
- Apply by:
- 16 November 2018
Job overview
We are looking for an enthusiastic and conscientious classicist to join our Senior School Classics Department in April 2019 for a full-time maternity cover role. This fixed-term position will initially be for two terms, until December 2019, though may be extended to a third term.
The post would suit either an experienced teacher or someone at an earlier stage of their career. The successful applicant will have a good degree in classical languages; they will be able to teach Latin up to at least GCSE level and Classical Civilisation at A-Level. A willingness to assist with other departmental activities (detailed below) is expected, as is a willingness to contribute to the school’s broad co-curricular programme.
The Colfe’s Classics Department consists of four teachers. Our priorities are to help all students achieve their full potential and to enthuse students about the classical world, sharing our ideas with each other in the process. We constantly review and improve our practice and strive to be excellent teachers; there is a strong team ethos.
All Colfeians study Latin in Years 7 and 8: students have two 50-minute lessons and one homework per week; they follow the Cambridge Latin Course (supplemented with in-house resources). In Year 9 Latin becomes optional, with roughly half the cohort deciding to continue; we use our own in-house resources. Numbers subsequently opting for Latin GCSE (Eduqas) are very healthy (there are 28 students in the current Year 10). GCSE results in recent years have been very strong. Students in Years 10 & 11 use Latin to GCSE and Latin Stories (the Head of Department is co-author of both).
All the classes are mixed-ability, and historical topics are incorporated alongside the linguistic content in our lessons. Students are offered the opportunity of studying Classical Greek in Years 10-11 via a combination of timetabled and off-timetable lessons; very able students can enter for the GCSE and continue their Greek into the Sixth Form. There are typically around 5 Latinists and 6-10 Classical Civilisation students in the Sixth Form at any one time, and the department regularly sends students on to read for degrees in classical subjects. Recent leavers have gone to a variety of universities and we have had several Oxbridge offers in recent years. During the school week we offer a range of clinics and extra sessions, including a Latin Outreach scheme for students from our local partner schools in the borough of Lewisham. In addition, we organise activities including theatre trips, visits to London museums, lecture days and house competitions. Overseas trips are arranged in alternate years.
Attached documents
About Colfe's School
THE AIMS OF THE SCHOOL
At Colfe's we aim to:
• promote excellence in all areas and to develop each pupil’s abilities and character to the full;
• provide innovative academic teaching which adds value and fosters learning and scholarship of the highest quality together with a wide range of cultural, sporting and extra-curricular activities;
• nurture an awareness of spiritual and moral values amongst our pupils in accordance with the Christian principles of our Founder, Abraham Colfe;
• maintain a balanced community of children from varied backgrounds within the context of an academically selective school;
• promote a purposeful and disciplined atmosphere in which boys and girls are encouraged to achieve their full potential, staff can find vocational fulfilment in their careers and all can use their talents for the greater good of the community and society as a whole.
Colfe’s School
Colfe’s is one of London’s oldest schools. It can be traced back to the 15th century but took its name from Abraham Colfe, Vicar of Lewisham, who re-founded the school in 1652. In his will, he entrusted the care of the school to the Leathersellers’ City Livery Company, which governs the school to this day.
In 1977 the school became independent; after 25 years as a voluntary aided boys’ grammar school. For over twenty years now, Colfe’s has been co-educational, with roughly equal numbers of boys and girls: over 1,250 pupils in all, from ages three to 18. The Leathersellers’ Scholarship programme enables us to select a number of scholars each year on fully-funded bursaries for direct entry to the Sixth Form. In so doing we draw on strong working relationships with a number of local comprehensive schools in two of London’s most deprived boroughs: 10% of pupils in a typical sixth form year group qualify for free school meals.
Colfe’s former site in Lewisham was destroyed in the Second World War. In 1963 the school moved to its present location in South East London. All parts of the school from Nursery to Sixth Form share the site. The facilities are excellent: the school has an abundance of green space on site as well as a performing arts centre, sports centre with full-size swimming pool, two additional extensive sports grounds and a dedicated forest school for younger pupils nearby.
Entrance is selective and academic standards are high, with more than 88.9% of A levels graded A*-B last year. More than 68% of pupils achieved GCSE grades 9-7, with 20% receiving the highest grade 9 - well above the national average. Pupils regularly gain places on the most competitive courses at university, including Oxford and Cambridge and Russell Group universities such as Bristol, Durham, Warwick and Leeds to study a variety of subjects from English, Economics and Maths to Medicine and Music. Sport, music and drama are strong and all staff are expected to engage with the thriving extra-curricular programme.
Colfe’s is proud of its long history but not burdened or defined by it. It is very much a school of the present day. The teachers are relaxed (without being casual) and professional (without being stuffy). The culture is one in which pupils are encouraged to respect one another and to learn from each other. Colfe’s doesn’t try to force pupils into a single mould – there is no recognisable ‘Colfe’s type of pupil’. They are lively and willing to have a go.
Locally and nationally the school enjoys a strong and growing reputation for all-round quality and innovation.
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