Primary English Lead

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February 2018

Dear candidate,

Thank you for taking the time to find out more about King Solomon Academy in

Westminster and the possibility of joining us. Included in this information pack is

information about the academy, and the role of KSA English Lead.

We are looking for an inspirational classroom teacher who wants to develop as a middle

leader, who will work collaboratively with the rest of the primary teaching team, the

secondary English teaching team, and English specialists across the Ark Network. This role

will help define how our all-through curriculum realises the mission of our school, and also

informs best practice within our school and our network and our country. We seek a teacher

with genuine expertise in their planning of teaching and learning in English. We are also

looking for an individual with a genuine passion for working at King Solomon Academy, a

belief in the potential of every child and that through hard work all pupils can access and

benefit from a university education.

KSA is a pioneering school looking to hire exceptional people. This role provides the

opportunity to excel in a supportive environment and contribute to the ongoing

development of our school community. By doing so they will push boundaries in terms of

the ambition and outcomes of our pupils’ achievements, and be prepared for senior

leadership in our school, and in other Ark Schools.

In 2019, it is planned for KSA to join with Ark Paddington Green to create one all-through,

three form entry school. As such, ahead of September 2019, the roles and responsibilities in

the school will be reviewed. Therefore this post is initially structured as a one year fixed

term role, allowed the needs of the larger school to be reviewed at this point. There are

exciting opportunities to work with Ark Paddington Green to build collaboration and impact

in 2018 and beyond.

To apply, and to see more information about the school and this role please visit

http://arkpaddingtongreen.org/our-vacancies. The deadline is 11am on Friday 2nd

March 2018. To discuss the role, please feel free to email the Executive Principal’s PA,

Shaheen Riaz (s.riaz@kingsolomonacademy.org) or phone on 02075636901.

We wish you the best with your application.

Yours sincerely,

Max Haimendorf

Principal

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Job Description: Primary English Lead

Reports to: Appropriate Senior Leader

Start date: September 2018

Role type: Teaching role is permanent – English lead role is fixed until September 2019, when the structure of the school will likely change due to the joining of KSA with Ark Paddington Green Additional time out of class: Equivalent to half a day a week

Salary: £29,377 - £39,982 - Ark Mainscale (Inner London + 2.5%) + TLR 3 - £2,609 for the academic year 2018-19 The role

The English Lead is a classroom based role which allows an excellent classroom teacher to

develop as a leader. The English Lead will be responsible for the leadership of an excellent

primary English curriculum, ensuring all our pupils make excellent progress in English

through key leadership actions. They will also model excellence through their own

classroom practice.

The English Lead will lead on ensuring that our English curriculum across EYFS, KS1 and

KS2 is truly preparing our pupils to be successful in secondary and at university and

beyond.

Key responsibilities

The precise areas of responsibility for this post will be agreed based around the skills of the

English lead and the needs of the school, but it is anticipated that you will:

• Model excellent teaching in your own class

• Provide feedback through coaching to other staff

• Monitor and evaluation of books and the quality of English teaching

• Organise electronic and physical resources

• Lead PD sessions

• Take an active role in organising special curriculum events

• Review the curriculum to embed a culture of backwards planning in primary English

which enables our pupils to be prepared for secondary school, university and beyond

• Ensure that long term planning is in place.

• Support teachers with medium and day to day planning.

• Monitor and evaluate the work and improve all areas of responsibility over time

• Use data analysis effectively (national, local, school data and inspection data) to

inform policies, teaching and learning and whole school improvement.

• To write an English action plan as part of the Academy Development Plan, and

evaluate the effectiveness of the plan on a half-termly basis

• To advise and inform staff about assessment, recording and reporting procedures

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• To assist SLT in the monitoring and evaluation of the quality of learning through

observations and lesson, work and planning reviews where appropriate

Other

• Play an active part in the performance management cycle

• Undertake other various responsibilities as directed by the Principal or the line

manger

Role review

This job description sets out the main duties of the post at the time of drafting. It cannot be

read as an exhaustive list. These responsibilities will be discussed annually as part of the

postholder’s annual performance review and are subject to change. However, it may be

altered at any time subject to need in consultation with the postholder subject to the

Principal’s approval.

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Person Specification: Primary English Lead

Necessary qualification criteria

• Qualified to degree level and above

• Qualified to teach in the UK

• Right to work in the UK

Essential experience

• Experience of writing a long term curriculum, excellent medium term plans and

excellent lesson plans and training other staff to do so

• Experience of raising attainment in a challenging classroom environment

• Evidence of continually improving the behaviour and culture of groups of pupils

• Experience of leading, coaching and managing staff is desirable

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Skills and attributes

We are looking for these skills and attributes or at the very least, a candidate’s clear, demonstrable capacity to develop them:

Alignment with KSA vision

• Relentless drive to do whatever it takes to ensure all students succeed.

• The belief that with the right environment all pupils are able to excel at university

and beyond.

• The courage and conviction to make a difference.

Communication skills

• The ability to listen and communicate effectively.

• Empathy and the ability to understand the needs, aspirations and motivation of

diverse individuals and groups.

• The ability to influence and motivate others.

Working with others

• Develop and communicate a shared vision.

• Model desired behaviour and values.

• Empower, support and coach others.

• Hold others to account for high standards of performance.

• Understand and resolve conflict.

Problem solving

• Identify, analyse and resolve problems and issues.

• Develop plans with concrete outcomes and effective solutions.

• Evaluate results and identify necessary actions.

• Make fact-based decisions.

Resilience

• Sustain energy, optimism and motivation in the face of pressure and setbacks.

• Stay calm in difficult situations and maintain clarity of vision.

• Be adaptable in the face of adversity.

Results and learning orientation

• Awareness of own strengths and limits.

• Commitment to ongoing improvement and learning.

• A passion for teaching subject.

• Focus on achieving challenging goals and results.

• Resourcefulness and flexibility in delivering outcomes.

Leadership

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• Effective team worker and leader.

• Demonstrates resilience, motivation and commitment to driving up standards of

achievement.

• Acts as a role model to staff and students.

• Vision aligned with KSA’s high aspirations, high expectations of self and others.

Leading culture

• Able to model the importance of effectiveness of joy in learning environments and of

nurturing relationships with pupils

• High expectations for accountability and consistency.

Leading the learning

• Excellent classroom practitioner and coach.

• Effective and systematic behaviour management with clear boundaries, sanctions,

rewards and praise.

Other

This post is subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Services check.

Principal

Max Haimendorf graduated from Oxford and joined the first

cohort of the Teach First programme, teaching Science in

West London. Following work at Teach First central office he

joined the consultants Oliver Wyman where he worked in

finance strategy. Whilst there he wrote about the importance

of small schools in Teach First’s first Policy Paper, Lessons

from the Front. In 2008 he was appointed as Secondary

Headteacher of King Solomon Academy, starting the

Secondary part of the school in September 2009. He has now

led KSA through two outstanding Ofsted inspections and to

achieve the highest GCSE results in the country for a non-

selective school in 2015. He became all-through Principal of

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KSA and Executive Principal of Ark Paddington Green Primary Academy in September

2016.

“We are dedicated to doing whatever it takes to ensure each of

our pupils has the chance to attend an academically rigorous

university.”

Head of Primary and Leader of Curriculum

Beth Humphreys graduated from the University of Edinburgh

with an MA in English Literature and French and then

completed a second Masters’ degree in Educational Leadership

at The Institute of Education. She joined KSA in 2012 and is

All-through Vice Principal, leading on curriculum and

professional development across the academy, based in primary

as Head of Primary. She is a passionate teacher of English and

loves nothing better than seeing young people reading, writing

and talking about brilliant texts.

About the primary curriculum at KSA

Everyone who works at King Solomon Academy is motivated to achieve our mission: to

provide a rigorous and transformational education which prepares our pupils for success at

university and beyond. We know that our biggest lever is the choices we make about what to

learn and how to learn it.

In EYFS, we begin a play based curriculum ensuring pupils have the very best start to their

education through addressing all seventeen of the prime areas. We focus on building secure

relationships, building confidence and curiosity and setting the foundations for a lifelong

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love of learning. We start phonics in reception; we follow the Read Write Inc phonics

programme very successfully so pupils learn their sounds fluently and build their

confidence as they learn to read and access all the riches of reading independently. We

follow the Ark Maths Mastery curriculum prioritising number and confidence in problem

solving by applying multiple different mathematical approaches. Our reading and writing is

driven by a love of great stories and great non-fiction texts and we work hard to ensure

pupils are learning the excellent habits of being a great reader from the very beginning of

their school career. We teach science, PE, art and music in Year 1 and Year 2 to complement

the core curriculum.

In the Junior School, whilst still prioritising rapid and sustained development as readers,

mathematicians and writers, we start to introduce specialisms into the curriculum.

Alongside wonderful art provision, we are extremely proud of our unique music specialist

programme: every pupil starts to learn a strings instrument in Year 3 and is given their own

violin, viola or cello and is taught in a small group of 2-5 pupils. By Year 7, pupils begin to

play as a whole year group orchestra twice a week – it’s a thing of great beauty! We also

begin French in Year 3, with three 30 minute sessions a week for every pupil throughout

Junior School by specialist secondary French teachers.

Alongside learning in the classroom, we know that for our curriculum to be truly transformational, our pupils have to learn beyond the confines of our site. Each year group runs at least one trip a half term linked to the curriculum so that pupils can build their cultural capital and knowledge of the world around them.

We are currently in the midst of a full primary curriculum review and are aligning our

reading, writing and topic teaching more coherently so that we are challenging our pupils as

much as possible and preparing them for the rigour of our Middle School curriculum too.

This is exciting work and we look forward to welcoming an experienced teacher and leader

to join us as we make these developments.

Being a Leader in the Ark network

Ark is an international charity, transforming lives through education. Ark exists to make

sure that every child, regardless of background, has access to a great education and real

choices in life. The highly-successful network of 34 schools educates over 20,000 students

across Birmingham, Hastings, London and Portsmouth. They are achieving some of the best

results in the country despite being largely in areas of historic academic underachievement.

As a leader at KSA, you become part of a growing cohort of leaders who work together and

learn from one another to build the best possible schools. The opportunities for further

growth and responsibility, inside KSA and beyond are significant.

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Ark runs a number of additional leadership programmes which provide structured support

for our leaders to develop. This includes coaching and the opportunity to visit other

successful schools inside and outside the Ark network.

Ark Safe Recruitment Procedure

Ark is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people

in its academies. In order to meet this responsibility, its academies follow a rigorous

selection process to discourage and screen out unsuitable applicants.

Disclosure This post is classified as having substantial access to children, and appointment is subject to

an enhanced police check of previous criminal convictions (DBS). Applicants are required,

before appointment, to disclose any conviction, caution or binding over including ‘spent

convictions’ under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exemptions) Order 1975. Non-

disclosure may lead to termination of employment. However, disclosure of a criminal

background will not necessarily debar individuals from employment – this will depend

upon the nature of the offence(s) and when they occurred.

Reference checking References from the previous and current employer will be taken up for shortlisted

candidates, and where necessary employers may be contacted to gather further information.

Probation All new staff will be subject to a probation period of six months (which may, in certain

circumstances, be extended by up to 10 weeks). The probation period is a trial period, to

enable the assessment of an employee’s suitability for the job for which they have been

employed. It provides the academy with the opportunity to monitor and review the

performance of new staff in relation to various areas, but also in terms of their commitment

to safe guarding and relationships with pupils.