Teaching Fellow (Pastoral Leader)

Teaching Fellow

Salary FTE: Grade 7 £37,035 to £40,476

Actual salary: £31,855 to £34,814 (with under five years' service)

Contract term: 37 hours per week, 39 weeks per year (negotiable), permanent

Start date: September 2025

Closing date: Midnight Sunday 18 May 2025

Mercia Learning Trust

Mercia Learning Trust is a successful partnership of four primary and three secondary schools located in the south-west of Sheffield. Established in 2012, with one secondary school, our trust has grown to serving over 5000 pupils, with 650 staff.

Why do we exist?

• To empower everyone in our communities, especially the most disadvantaged, to succeed.

How do we behave?

• We are kind - showing care and supporting each other.
• We have integrity - doing the right thing and always putting children first.
• We work with diligence - overcoming obstacles and having no excuses.

What do we do?

• We run schools that focus on academic excellence, cultural capital and the development of character.

How will we succeed?

• A culture of excellence – high standards shaped by clarity, not control.
• Academic focus – empowering all children through an exceptional curriculum.
• Purposeful collaboration – relationships built on trust, reducing sub-optimisation and driving collective success.

Our staff are a crucial part of our trust, just like our pupils. We are devoted to recruiting, training, retaining and taking good care of our highly skilled and dedicated team. 

Mercia School

Mercia School (11-18) opened in 2018 in a brand-new building. Leaders and governors have an ambitious vision for the school and are determined that all pupils, irrespective of background will thrive and achieve well. The school has secured a strong reputation for educational excellence and during the last three years, has been the most over-subscribed school in the city.

Mercia School has a strong commitment to reduce workload for teachers. Within the longer day and ten training days, staff have dedicated time to complete all essential tasks and professional development. Everything is designed to ensure teachers have the time and energy to teach, and leave school at the end of the day without further work to undertake.

In February 2023, Ofsted inspected the school and graded all aspects of provision, and its overall effectiveness, to be ‘Outstanding’. Mercia School published exceptional GCSE results in the summer of 2023, achieving the highest Progress 8 score for disadvantaged pupils, this high-level of performance was repeated in 2024. 

In September 2023, Mercia Collegiate Sixth Form opened. As the school continues to grow, it is crucial that we sustain our culture and effectiveness, and this role is central to our continued success.

The role

The role of the Teaching Fellow is to support the ethos of high expectations across the school. Specifically, working with pupils who require additional support, so their academic, emotional, physical and social needs are met. This may include the use of appropriate intervention and liaising with external professionals. This role is well suited to an experienced pastoral leader who believes in high expectations and is driven by supporting pupils to achieve exceptionally well in their academic studies. We welcome applications from existing Heads of Year or equivalent roles.

The Teaching Fellow has a visible presence in all areas of the school and will assist with any issues related to the well-being of the pupils. They will work to ensure pupils are in 100% of their subject lessons. Pupils are supported superbly in our longer school day, but they do not miss lessons for interventions or informal pastoral support. The successful candidate will be an advocate for this approach.

This is also a unique opportunity to join one of the best schools in the country and make a difference to the life chances of its pupils.