Teacher of English

Colleagues interested in teaching with us are welcome to attend our recruitment day in January 2021. Given the current situation, we will be offering a virtual opportunity for prospective candidates to become acquainted with the school's distinctive ethos, meet school leaders and talk a little about how careers are developed at Holland Park. Should you wish to attend this on line event please complete the reservation details form which you will find as follows:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdMwmGIx_0yUxaWTSCrLPpB_WUDwZuQFrM9huXQbSATVi7jVg/viewform

We are delighted that you have taken an interest in a teaching vacancy at Holland Park: It is an extraordinary school.

At the very heart of Holland Park lies the study of English; a passion for reading is at the core of all academic success, and our dynamic, rigorous, and carefully designed English curriculum seeks to nurture, strengthen, and refine this passion.

We believe that understanding language, its precision and its nuances is vital – not merely for examination success but to equip young people with the skills to navigate the professional, political, and social spheres they will encounter. In the canon of English Literature lies identity and such texts are often the lens through which students can find their alter ego and better understand those around them; we are committed to the opportunities for social, moral, spiritual and cultural education than an English curriculum can offer. The school’s calendar is redolent with literary activity, events and extracurricular provision to stimulate students’ interest (albeit an on-line provision in current times), and corridors across school are adorned with literature.

Teachers at Holland Park believe in the value of detailed planning, of creative, exciting, distinctive lesson ideas that seek not merely to be functional journeys through subject matter, but profound and transformative learning experiences. They know that successful learning is not possible without rigorous and thorough methods of assessment. Teachers recognise that behaviour management is rooted in quality relationships within the context of firm boundaries; students need to believe that teachers take warm and genuine interest in them. Emotional intelligence, warmth and sensitivity is central to good teaching.

Holland Park is a school that recognises staff talent and seeks to reward it, where people’s values, attitudes as well as skills suggest that early promotion is mutually beneficial. Such promotion is always based on skills within the classroom, and leaders are expected to be amongst the best teachers in school. In relation to matters of workload, we understand the demands placed on teachers. This is why: we provide free tea and coffee served for teachers throughout the day; we run a shorter working year with staff development subsumed into twilight sessions; plan the school year, including detailed schemes of work, far in advance; we collect data only three times a year; we minimise split classes so that teachers see fewer students more intensively within a working week. The demands of marking and planning are significant enough and it is in the extraneous pressures – rather than the tasks integral to teaching – that we lighten colleagues’ loads. Our work in culturing a motivated and committed workforce has been recognised in the award of IIP platinum (2020).

We encourage you to read the school’s website closely, to read its 2014 Ofsted report and its history of examination performance. These are independent assessments of Holland Park and therefore helpful to you. Teachers are the most important resource in the school and we take our appointments very seriously indeed. We wish for applicants to be fully briefed about Holland Park’s opportunities, advantages and even luxuries, as well as its demands and challenges. We know that a school’s ethos, priorities and values are distinctive and that these matter enormously to a sense of professional fulfilment and satisfaction; when teachers share the ethos of a school, learning is most powerfully and successfully supported. We hope that your investigation of the school reveals a place whose values you share and that you make your application with the same excitement with which it will be received.

An application form that should be completed electronically is available from the school’s website: https://www.hollandparkschool.co.uk/vacancies/vacancies. Early application is encouraged as we will seek to interview and appoint on receipt. The closing date for applications is 09.00 on Monday 1st February 2021.