Teacher of Design & Technology

We are seeking to appoint an experienced Design & Technology Teacher who can deliver high quality learning opportunities for our students. This will initially be for 4 days per week from March 2021, increasing to full-time from September 2021 to Easter 2022. This role is offered on a maternity cover basis until Easter 2022. Every effort will be made to offer a substantive position across the LAT family of academies thereafter. 

The Design and Technology department, alongside Art, is housed within ‘Da Vinci’, a purpose built building constructed 10 years ago. The building and our workshops are large, airy and very well equipped which allow us to teach a wide array of skills to the students. Each workshop contains a universal laser cutter, interactive whiteboard, signwriting machine, band saw and pillar drills. Certain workshops have more specialist equipment like the brazing hearth, lathes, linishers and milling machines. We also have portable equipment that can be moved to workshops as and when they are required. These include compact casting machines, strip heaters, vacuum formers and die cutters. Within the building we have an IT suite of 30 new PC’s alongside a trolley of laptops to expand our teaching of the subject. There is also a prep room with 3D printers, welding area, CAM lathe and a CAM router installed, as well as a staff room for both the Design & Technology and Art departments. There are three full-time and one part-time teacher within the department, alongside a full-time technician.

Design and Technology is taught over two 1 hour lessons a fortnight during Key Stage 3, four 1 hour lessons a fortnight in Key Stage 4 and ten 1 hour lessons a fortnight in Key Stage 5. During all Key Stages the groups retain the same teacher throughout the year, with only Key Stage 5 having groups with shared teachers. Key Stage 3 groups are a maximum of 16 students, Key Stage 4 can have up to 20 students and Key Stage 5 around 18 students. The sixth form Design & Technology students also have a room of their own to utilise during their study periods, if they wish to carry on with their studies within the subject.

We are a popular subject when it comes to option choices, we regularly have numbers between 80-100 for Key Stage 4 and between 30-40 for Key Stage 5. We put these high numbers down to the teaching of Key Stage 3 being enjoyable, varied and challenging. The examination board we use is AQA for both Key Stages and we follow the Product Design specification. We have seen a large number of students carry on the subject into universities and their careers, the biggest compliment we could be given as their teachers.

Working at Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School:  Ofsted awarded the school an outstanding grade in every category in our most recent inspection, commenting that, “students thrive within its distinctive ethos, enabling them to succeed academically and to develop into confident, well-rounded individuals who are prepared extremely well for their future lives.”

The School has recently been designated one of the first 100 National Teaching Schools, has achieved a Medway Council Gold Award in recognition of excellence in its provision of CPD and is a National Support School. 

If you are interested in working with bright, talented pupils, we’d love to hear from you.