Job Descrption
Are you seeking a new opportunity to join a highly successful comprehensive school committed to providing an outstanding education of excellence for all? Are you someone who is a passionate Social Sciences teacher? Would you thrive when working with other committed and innovative practitioners? Leigh Academy Halley is now recruiting for a Social Sciences teacher to join us in January 2025.
This is a truly fantastic opportunity for a passionate Social Sciences teacher to become part of a well-established, highly collaborative, and successful Social Sciences team that works hard to ensure that students enjoy a challenging, dynamic, and rewarding curriculum. All students study and enjoy Religious Studies as part of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme, in Years 7-9. Sociology GCSE is popular in Years 10 and 11. Whilst at Key Stage 5, we have an excellent track-record in delivering strong outcomes in Psychology and Criminology at Sixth Form.
If this sounds like an... environment within which you would like to work, apply to join our team from January 2025. The successful applicant will be enthusiastic, flexible, well-organised and able to work as part of a team, and have the ability to work alone when required.
We deem this to be a great position on the basis that;
• Our committed Social Sciences Department is passionate about supporting students through their learning journey with us and securing the best possible outcomes for them.
• We offer pupils the best learning opportunities in Social Sciences by delivering high-quality teaching via our innovative curriculum, alongside inspiring extracurricular opportunities.
• We believe in developing staff into outstanding practitioners through our excellent CPD opportunities.
• This is further supported through our membership of the Leigh Academies Trust which provides regular teach-meets and co-operative training sessions within the trust to facilitate staff and student growth.
We offer MPS commensurate with experience + Inner London Allowance. We also welcome applications from prospective colleagues who would wish to work part-time, as well as full-time.
Key responsibilities, as outlined in the job description, include;
• Set high expectations that inspire, motivate and challenge students.
• Promote good progress and outcomes by students.
• Demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge.
• Plan and teach well-structured lessons.
• Adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all students.
• Make accurate and productive use of assessment.
• Manage behaviour effectively to ensure a good and safe learning environment.
Welcome to The Halley Academy - Click here to view a message from Ben Russell (Interim Principal).
I am delighted to welcome you to Leigh Academy Halley. We are an aspirational, disciplined and inclusive academy where human-scale education, a dynamic curriculum, and excellent teaching and pastoral care, maximise student achievement.
Our core values - respect, achievement, collaboration, integrity and resilience - permeate everything we do. We believe in the potential of every student. We champion the highest outcomes for all young people. Our staff are driven by the belief that education can transform our students’ lives. We take our role as educators seriously and sincerely - we know that the culture of our academy affects the character of our students, which in turn shapes the culture of our society.
It is for this reason why we are so proud to be a caring community where everybody feels empowered and supported to be the best version of themselves. Students are inspired to work hard, play an active role with the world around them, and to achieve more than they thought possible. Safeguarding is of paramount importance; our students are happy, safe and successful in our care.
We build strong partnerships with parents and carers, working closely together to ensure all students enjoy a fulfilling and rewarding education. Our teachers lead with professionalism and scholarship; they are experts in their field and love sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm for their subject with their classes. All of us are part of a warm and compassionate family of staff, Governors and Trust colleagues who have boundless ambitions for those we work with and a deep commitment to learning and self-improvement. We know that working with children every day is the best job in the world.
Leigh Academy Halley has a diverse and dynamic staffing body of committed, creative and hardworking educators who enjoy coming to work as they benefit from:
• A calm, organised and professional learning environment;
• An academy culture that is committed to the holistic development of children;
• Evidenced-based teaching and learning policies rooted in the strongest possible evidence about how children learn best;
• A clear and consistent behaviour policy which ensures that disruption to learning is minimal;
• A visible and approachable leadership team;
• A comprehensive weekly CPD programme that supports all staff in their academic and pastoral roles;
• Opportunities to collaborate with, and learn from, colleagues across the Leigh Academies Trust.
Our ambitious world-class curriculum delivers an education of excellence for all. Leigh Academy Halley has been an International Baccalaureate World School since 2019. We are committed to students engaging deeply and comprehensively with both substantive and disciplinary knowledge so that they achieve strong outcomes throughout each phase of the curriculum: the Middle Years Programme (MYP) in Years 7, 8 and 9; a two year Key Stage 4 where students study a range of GCSE and vocational qualifications in Years 10 and 11; and the International Baccalaureate Careers Programme (IBCP) and T Level programme in our Sixth Form.
We have enjoyed unprecedented investment and refurbishment as part of joining Leigh Academies Trust, providing excellent learning facilities in an historic listed building which has real character and charm. All students at Leigh Academy Halley are given access to a personal Chromebook, which they use every day in lessons and at home to support their learning. All physical classrooms have a corresponding virtual classroom, and all teaching staff have Google Educator certification so that technology can enhance the learning experiences of students. With considerable investment from the Tallow Chandlers Livery Company, our new Engineering and Design Centre opened in June 2022. Students and staff also benefit from a modern sports complex on our 16 acre site and a number of cutting edge science laboratories. We have just opened our state-of-the-art visual and performing arts centre, and work has just commenced on modern new playground spaces.
We know that happy and supported students will be successful and engaged in their learning. This is why students between Years 7-11 join one of our three small school communities - Easley, Franklin or Turing - each with a team of staff dedicated to helping them surpass their potential. Our fourth small school - Hawking - offers bespoke academic and pastoral support to our Sixth Formers.
Our curriculum is rich and dynamic because it invests deeply in the holistic development of our students. We offer a wide range of enriching extracurricular clubs both before and after school. We maximise opportunities for learning outside of the classroom through trips, visits from outside speakers, Cultural Capital Days and careers guidance that opens our students’ minds to the possibilities and opportunities in the world around them. Our Values programme and Global Citizenship lessons help develop the global mindedness of our students, whilst IT classes ensure that they can use technology safely and responsibly.
This is an exciting time for colleagues to be joining our Academy community. Our first cohort of Leigh Academy Halley students achieved the best ever GCSE results in the school’s history in August 2023. This has recently been surpassed by our results in 2024. In a vast array of key performance indicators, our students are outperforming their peers nationally. We’re immensely proud to now be one of the top performing mixed comprehensive schools in Greenwich, and we were celebrated in Schools Week magazine as the third most improved school in the country for the progress of disadvantaged pupils, compared with pre-pandemic performance. Our Year 13 cohorts have a consistent track record of outperforming international averages in the IBCP programme, and we are becoming oversubscribed in many Key Stage 3 year groups.
Our mission here has always been to provide the gold-standard of comprehensive education, where every child, irrespective of their starting point or background, can inspire, learn and achieve. The fact that over a third of students achieved the prestigious English Baccalaureate qualification in 2024, with our average EBAC point score now noticeably above national averages, is a testament to us putting our values into practice, for the benefit of our students.
We are proud to be a local school of choice for the community we serve. Our school equips students with the knowledge, skills and experiences they need so they can lead fulfilling and successful adult lives. None of this would be possible if it wasn’t for all the hard work, expertise and professionalism of all of our staff. It’s a real privilege and pleasure to work with colleagues here at The Halley. If you feel that you want to be a part of our exciting and unique learning community, then we look forward to hearing from you.
Ben Russell (Principal)
Being part of Leigh Academies Trust: As of 1st September 2024, our Trust comprises 33 geographically organised academies (17 secondaries, 14 primaries and 2 special) educating more than 24,000 students and employing 4,000 talented staff. Currently, 14 of our academies are considered to be “Outstanding” which is nearly 50% of those which have been inspected whilst part of the Trust. The Trust is establishing three ‘clusters’ of academies: LAT Central; LAT West; LAT North. In addition, the Trust is responsible for one of the region’s biggest initial teaching training organisations, a large teaching school hub and is an accredited apprenticeship provider. Our future plans are found in our Vision 2030 document available on our website.
As part of Leigh Academies Trust, you will have ample opportunity to collaborate with your peers both within the academy and across the whole Trust. This is an important part of our vision as we know through experience that we perform better when we work together. You are supported to undertake regular self-development to continue your professional development and hopefully progress further within the organisation.
Click here to view the benefits available to all LAT employees from day one.
Our commitment to safeguarding: Leigh Academies Trust and all of our academies are committed to ensuring the highest levels of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our pupils, and we expect all our staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We adopt a fair, robust and consistent recruitment process across all academies and business units. All offers of employment are subject to an Enhanced DBS check, references, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching check.
Our commitment to equality and diversity: As a Trust we are passionate about diversity and recognise that as individuals, we all bring something unique to the role regardless of any protected characteristics which is why we treat all of our people equally, without compromise. We are committed to providing equality and fairness throughout our recruitment and employment practices and not to discriminate on any grounds.
Based on the quality and quantity of applications received, Leigh Academies Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy sooner than the specified closing date. Applicants will be notified of this where possible. Therefore, early applications are encouraged
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