Teacher of English

At Northolt High School, our vision, mission and values underpin everything that we do. Our aim is to enable our students to develop strength of character, to be articulate and confident and to secure the best academic outcomes possible. Our school vision is "committed to excellence". Our mission statement describes how we work to achieve this core aim - through "seizing opportunity, instilling ambition, realising potential". 

We work in partnership with an organisation called Sycol which supports us in ensuring that we have clear systems in place, which are developed and agreed by staff collectively. Termly innovation projects involve every member of staff, helping us to quickly and effectively share ideas whilst forging strong partnerships across the staff team. These projects ensure that systemic school improvement is embedded in everything we do whilst at the same time providing all staff members with a high quality leadership development programme.

Northolt High School is a Foundation School in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing schools have traditionally worked very collaboratively and it is no coincidence that Ealing’s performance in national league tables is strong. Schools in Ealing have come together to form the Ealing Learning Partnership (ELP) in conjunction with the Council. This partnership provides us with a range of networks so that Northolt High School staff are able to share and develop ideas and practice with Ealing colleagues across a range of schools.

We are a relatively small school at the moment with 866 students on roll, but this is about to significantly increase as we are supporting Ealing Council by adding three additional classes onto our school roll over the course of this academic year and a fourth class from September 2022. We also have a new building project on the horizon which we expect to make our school even more popular.

We maintain a broad and balanced curriculum offer for all students. Our intention is to develop the school so that it has STEAM specialism (the ‘A’ is for Art) whilst at the same time retaining a breadth of curriculum offer for our students. Our curriculum offer includes a broad range of extra-curricular activities as all teachers offer one after school activity a week.

We have a number of Teaching and Learning Responsibilities available which could be combined with the above post. If you are interested in applying for an additional TLR in any of the following areas, please could you indicate your interest by writing a paragraph in your supporting statement explaining why you feel that you would be a suitable candidate to take on this responsibility:

• TLR2A for developing student leadership, to lead our school council and the other student leadership committees we have set up, with the aim of ensuring that all students are able to have the experience of being a student leader during their time at Northolt High School.
• TLR2A for developing and improving our extra-curricular provision, coordinating the offer and publicising this to students and parents, with the aim of encouraging all students to take part in at least one extra-curricular activity to broaden their school experience.
• TLR2A or 2B (depending on experience) to provide additional support to our Pastoral Leaders by liaising with external providers who offer wellbeing or mental health support services for students. The aim of this TLR is that we are able to maximise our partnership with external support services and ensure that all students are signposted to and are making use of high quality support for their mental health and wellbeing.

Our English department is highly successful and stable. We are in the third year of introducing the Ark Mastery curriculum to our Key Stage 3 students which enables students to better understand the concepts of literature and writing. Part of this approach is a weekly co-planning meeting which teachers all attend, which supports our staff in being able to continually develop their subject knowledge so as to make English more accessible to students. We also place a high value on reading at Northolt High and the English department work very closely with our school Library, with dedicated reading lessons and closely tracked monitoring of students’ reading ages ensuring that students are supported to continuously improve their reading ages.

Due to the expansion of student numbers and to a reorganisation of our curriculum to provide increased teaching time in English at key stage 3, we are recruiting three additional teachers to join our team. One of these roles will also involve providing teaching and support to students who have English as an additional language, as we run ESOL lessons in option blocks in Key Stage 4.

We will be the right school for you if you are committed to:

• Ensure outstanding progress and attainment in key stage four and post 16 courses as required;
• Play a full part in termly innovation projects to contribute to the development of school- wide continuous improvement;
• Continue to promote the profile of your department through contributions to the wider life of the school.

We can offer you:

• Great support and training as you develop your career;
• The opportunity to innovate and bring in new ideas to contribute towards improving our school;
• A caring and supportive professional environment, with an early finish every Friday to promote a good work/life balance;
• A thoughtful and well-structured school calendar with careful attention paid to balancing teacher workload;
• A commitment to providing high quality opportunities for you to continue your professional learning;
• A flexible approach to your career, with increasing numbers of our teachers working on part time contracts.

Our recruitment process

One of the Ealing Learning Partnership projects we have been engaged with in the last two years is a ‘No Learner Left Behind’ project to improve the outcomes of our Black Caribbean students. Informed by our work on this project, we conduct an annual analysis of the ethnicity profile of our student body. Our long term aim is to ensure that the profile of our staff group matches that of our students. At the moment, we are underrepresented in the following ethnicity groups: Arab, Asian, Black Caribbean, Black African and Traveller of Irish Heritage. We would therefore welcome applications from candidates who would classify themselves as belonging to these groups.

We are introducing a ‘blind’ selection process this year which we also hope will support us in reducing the risk of any unintended bias during our recruitment process. You will see that our application form is in two parts. Part one, which contains details about candidates’ gender, ethnicity and age, is not shared with the staff who select candidates to bring them forward to the interview stage.

If you would like to find out more about the school prior to your application, please contact Lauren Weeks, the Headteacher’s PA at: lweeks@northolthigh.org.uk 

Closing date: 9am, Friday 4 February 2022
Interviews to be held on Friday 11 February 2022

The school is committed to safeguarding children and safer recruitment processes are always robustly followed. Successful candidates’ appointment will be subject to safer recruitment checks and satisfactory completion of an enhanced DBS check. Further information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/disclosure-and-barring-service/about