Teacher of Economics and Business

The Portsmouth Grammar School is a leading co-educational school located in the historic heart of Portsmouth. The school is an IB World School and offers the IB Diploma alongside A Level.

The school seeks to appoint a well qualified teacher of Economics and Business from April  or September 2019. Candidates should be able to offer up to 0.6 FTE with some flexibility appreciated.  

The school offers excellent training and support to teachers at all stages of their career. PGS teachers convey passion for their subject and seek to maximise progress by knowing their pupils well and adapting their teaching accordingly.  

Economics is taught at both A Level and as part of the IB and Business is offered from Year 10 as a GCSE option through to A Level in the Sixth Form. The ability to teach Economics at A Level and the IB is desirable but not essential and prior experience of the IB is not required.

The department offers a very popular Money Management course as a Year 9 option in which pupils study The London Institute of Banking and Finance accredited Level 2 Award in Financial Education.

The department is well resourced, has an excellent track record in public examinations and related subjects are the school’s most popular university choices.  In addition to the Head of Department, there are three part-time and three full-time teachers.

The examination board for A Level subjects is AQA and OCR for GCSE.  At present there are some 120 pupils studying across Years 12 and 13, 130 pupils across Years 10 and 11 with 100 pupils in Year 9.  Business and Economics are very popular subjects with pupils at PGS.

Academic results at A Level are extremely strong, pupils are supported to achieve the very top grades in the new specifications with over 21% of Economists achieving A* and over 23% A* in Business.  Pupils of all ability are catered for and encouraged to achieve their potential and results reflect the successful differentiated support we offer..  The department enters teams for the Tenner Tycoon Challenge and the Faith and Football Social Enterprise Challenge as well as numerous essay competitions.  Throughout the academic year the department organises a varied schedule of guest speakers and super-curricular opportunities for pupils.  This includes hosting our PGS Target 2.0 Competition, an IEA conference and visitors from The Bank of England and The Cabinet Office.  There is also a policy of encouraging pupils at all ages outside the department to fulfil their business interests through subject related co curricular activities. 

The Department has three dedicated teaching rooms as well as a Departmental Office.  These areas are all located on the top floor of the new Sixth-Form Centre.  Each of the teaching rooms has an Active Touch Screen and access to iPads.  Flexibility of approach, a sense of fun, a readiness to respond to pupils’ individual needs and an enthusiastic, open attitude to teaching and co-curricular activities are among the qualities we are looking for.  

We seek a colleague who is passionate and knowledgeable about their subject and able to communicate this with enthusiasm.  To thrive in this busy and exciting department it is also important to demonstrate excellent personal organisational skills.  The successful candidate would need to be comfortable in a team atmosphere and willing to take on responsibility within that team from the start.  She or he will also be open to promoting cross-curricular links with other department areas as appropriate.  However, any new member of the team can expect support at every level.  The team has integrated new, experienced and NQT members in the past five years.  

The successful applicant will be expected to contribute fully to the pastoral and co-curricular life of the school.  The school provides excellent professional development opportunities and has an outstanding reputation for induction of newly qualified teachers.

PGS is committed to safeguarding children and the successful applicant will be subject to an Enhanced DBS check.