Teacher of Spanish with KS3 French

We are seeking an outstanding and well qualified classroom teacher to join this popular subject area.  The post would suit a NQT or a more experienced colleague with the ability to teach to A Level essential.

Highcliffe is a remarkable school with a special atmosphere.  We are very highly respected in our community, with whole generations of families coming here for over 50 years.  Former students, current students and their parents frequently speak of their powerful emotional bonds to our school lasting a lifetime. This is a result of our caring and aspirational ethos combined with our engaging curriculum and excellent package of extra-curricular opportunities.  Former students go on to work in the Paris fashion houses, in international finance, law, education, politics, engineering, medicine and science, or as great chefs, carers, artists, musicians, mechanics, gardeners and much more – but not before they have thrived at Highcliffe academically, creatively and socially. Our students are lovely young people to work with. Our record of success means we are significantly oversubscribed in the main school. We have an excellent record of success placing students into the top universities in their chosen field. Sixth Form students go on to study at either Oxford or Cambridge universitiesWe are an outwardly focused community with extensive school links in Germany, France, Spain and Japan. Our Ofsted in October 2017 confirmed the school as Good and identified the Sixth Form as a particular strength.

Our teaching staff are highly experienced, knowledgeable professionals who work together superbly.  Our SEN, pastoral, clerical, financial, technical and site staff are also extremely good at their jobs and committed to the school’s success, and form a great team. We are a friendly, welcoming and supportive environment in which to work or learn, located in a great part of the country. Our strategic plan aims to improve examination results still further by developing more effective ways of tracking and intervening on student progress (including our new assessment system at Key Stage 3); by further developing our teachers’ professional skills through our extensive in-house staff CPD programme; and by deepening our distinctive Highcliffe teaching and learning pedagogy.  We work collaboratively within the Christchurch Learning Federation on a range of common school improvement issues.

MFL Curriculum Area Information

The languages curriculum area is a vibrant department with a longstanding history of excellence in the delivery of languages.  Highcliffe School offers French and Spanish to A-Level.  In addition, French and Japanese are offered as twilight courses and Latin is also offered as an extra-curricular activity for able linguists. 

The curriculum is supported by an extensive range of international experiences both within the department and also across the wide school.  

There is also an impressive range of international dimension opportunities which supports our international focus: we exchange students with a school in Hiroshima, Japan.  World Challenge students have visited Venezuela, India, Madagascar, Vietnam and Nepal.  We have international days, business and enterprise MFL days and foreign film cinema visits which also enrich the curriculum. Advanced level students in French spend a week working in Normandy on work-placements. 

The department is very well-resourced with two language laboratories and the common teaching area means that all staff teach close to each other allowing ongoing support. Commercial textbook resources are supported by software in the language laboratory, an extensive bank of online resources and data projectors and speakers in every classroom. We also have two small rooms for small conversation classes. 

An important part of our work is the close links with our family of primary schools where we teach and support language learning across the various languages.  We are the lead school for School Centred Initial Teacher Training in MFL and have successfully trained many MFL trainee teachers, many of whom have completed one of their teaching placements at Highcliffe. 

The post offers a unique opportunity for an able linguist to work in a school where language learning has real status and maintains a high profile on the school curriculum.

Highcliffe School is ideally situated minutes from Highcliffe and Avon beaches, Mudeford Quay and Christchurch Harbour.  A few minutes’ drive or cycle away are the beaches of Bournemouth while Poole Harbour, a mecca for watersports, is approximately 12 miles away.  As a result, sailing, kitesurfing, kayaking, paddle boarding, surfing and beach life are prominent parts of life in the area.  

Highcliffe School is easily accessible from the urban centre of Bournemouth and Poole.  With its large student population Bournemouth uniquely offers a multicultural city buzz combined with the relaxed South Coast surfing and holiday culture.  London, the South East and the South West are easily reached by road or rail links.  The European mainland is easily reached by ferry from Weymouth, Poole, and Portsmouth, while Bournemouth and Southampton airports offer continental and worldwide flights.

Information about the School

We encourage potential applicants to explore in depth the School’s website which includes recent publications and a prospectus.  Potential applicants are also encouraged to read both the most recent Ofsted reports which are available via the school website or directly from www.ofsted.gov.uk and the published performance data available on the DfES performance tables site. www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance