Curriculum Leader of Performing Arts, Hadrian Learning Trust
-
School:
Hadrian Learning Trust -
Location:
Northumberland -
Salary:
TLR 2b -
Hours:
Full-time -
Contractual Status:
Permanent -
Closing Date:
19th May 2023
Curriculum Leader of Performing Arts
For September 2023
TLR 2b, full-time, permanent
Closing date for applications: 12 noon on 19 May 2023
Hadrian Learning Trust wishes to appoint a Curriculum Leader of Performing Arts to lead the approach to teaching and learning in Performing Arts across our two schools – Queen Elizabeth High School and Hexham Middle School. This is an existing role in the trust and the successful candidate will build on the existing strengths of our Performing Arts provision to ensure that achievement, teaching, the implementation of the curriculum and leadership and management, all remain first-class, from Key Stage 3 to 5.
Our schools are friendly, welcoming, successful, mixed comprehensives with a proud history dating back to Elizabethan times. Our ‘outstanding eagerness to promote good learning’ is drawn directly from the original charter granted to the people of Hexham in 1599 to educate the town’s young people. It forms the basis of our ethos today, which centres on our belief in the highest academic standards for everyone and our valuing of education in its broadest sense.
There is much that is already very good at our schools: confident, well-behaved learners, dedicated, loyal staff and supportive parents. However, we are always seeking to improve and want you to help take us to the next level.
This is a particularly exciting time to be joining us as we have recently moved to our new high-tech school facilities on the existing high school site, where both schools are located. This provides us with an excellent opportunity to fully align approaches to teaching, learning and curriculum across our two schools to ensure a smooth and coherent learning journey for our young people through the key stages.
As the Curriculum Leader of Performing Arts with us, you will be part of a friendly, supportive and dedicated team of middle leaders as well as leading a large and high-achieving team of staff. We are looking for applications from hard-working, conscientious, creative individuals who have a track record of using their initiative to design and implement strategies to secure improvement. We are seeking an experienced drama teacher to lead the drama curriculum from Y7 to Y13. It would be advantageous to have experience of teaching Key Stage 5 drama. There is potential for this role to develop in the future to include leadership of music so it will suit someone who is ambitious and wishes to expand their roles and responsibilities in the coming years. You can find out more details in the Personal Specification and Job Description information document on our websites.
If you wish to have a confidential discussion about the role, or would like to arrange to visit the school, please do not hesitate to contact Rachael Stokes on 01434 610362 or recruitment@qehs.net.
If you wish to apply for the role, please submit a Hadrian Learning Trust application form along with a completed criminal records declaration form and supporting statement to Rachael Stokes on recruitment@qehs.net by 12 noon on 19 May 2023.
We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. An enhanced DBS check will be required for this post. Please note we reserve the right to amend or withdraw this advert at any time.
Supporting documents
Application FormOther Supporting Documents:
Job Description and Person Specification Declaration FormHadrian Learning Trust
Hadrian Learning Trust was established as an academy converter in 2016. The Trust currently comprises Queen Elizabeth High School (with circa 1300 students aged 13-19) and Hexham Middle School (with circa 460 students aged 9-13).
About Queen Elizabeth High School
Queen Elizabeth High School
Queen Elizabeth High School provides the highest standard of education to the people of Tynedale. We are an excellent school with a sixth form which outperforms most other state and voluntary-aided schools and colleges in the North East of England. Our success is due to having a shared ethos and a strong partnership between students, parents and the local community, and we want to recruit the best staff to help us achieve our vision of being the best school in the region.
Academic Performance
Our attainment is high. In 2019, our Attainment 8 score was 53.3, with a Progress 8 of 0.29. While proud of our students’ success, we are far from complacent and aspire for our Year 11 students to make the best progress possible. Our sixth form is truly outstanding and invites comparison with the best state schools in the country. With an average grade of B at A-Level, and an average vocational grade of distinction*-, over 160 students each year progress from our sixth form to a range of universities including Oxbridge and the Russell Group. A number of our students also progress to exciting apprenticeships and vocational schools / conservatoires for a range of disciplines. We have been placed 2nd out of all state schools in the North-East of England for two years running in the Sunday Times Parent Power listings (based on attainment at GCSE and A Level).
Reasons for Our Success
Our curriculum currently offers a greater choice of subjects than most schools. Our Year 9 courses prepare students for their GCSE studies whilst at the same time ensuring that students receive a broad and balanced education. The advice and guidance offered to students ensures that the GCSE courses chosen by students best suit their needs and abilities. The size of our sixth form and the subject expertise of our teachers allow us to run a range of exciting courses at KS5. Our historically strong performance in maths attracts over 60 students each year to study maths and a further 15 or more to study further maths. Our vocational offer in sport, music performance, media, IT, health and social care and business allows students the opportunity to go on to study specialist vocational degrees at university.
Our last Ofsted inspection (April 2019) recognised our achievement in producing well-rounded and happy students. Each year, physics students visit the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and our Human Rights group travels to the Tashi Lhunpo Tibetan Monastery in India. One of our great strengths as a school is our links with the local, national and international communities, whether this is through sport and arts or through our charity work, Fairtrade group, hospital concerts or foreign visits. This year our students will participate in foreign exchange visits linked to schools in Spain and Germany. We also run an annual expedition to Morocco. Our renowned commitment to the performing arts can be seen through our weekly youth theatre and fantastic productions such as “Les Miserables” in December 2019. Our musicians put on concerts in autumn and spring and we have numerous choirs (including a boys’ choir) which perform at Hexham Abbey and to the local community. The opportunities for our students to take part in sport are considerable and they compete at a very high level whether individually or in teams. Our rowing team competes and is successful nationally and the school has produced Olympic athletes and rowers.
Moving Forward
Continuing professional development is bringing about significant improvements in leadership and teaching, and a very strong Pastoral Team ensures that barriers to learning which affect outcomes for students are reduced. Our key to success in recent years has been to recruit the best staff we can and to provide a supportive but challenging environment in which they can develop as professionals.
About Hexham Middle School
Hexham Middle School is a mixed, non-selective, non-denominational, middle secondary school situated in Hexham, Northumberland. It is an academy converter that is part of the multi-academy Hadrian Learning Trust, which currently sponsors one other school, Queen Elizabeth High School.
Hexham opened as an academy in September 2016. It provides 635 places for middle school students between the ages of 9 and 13 when fully subscribed.
Executive Headteacher
Graeme Atkins
Values & Vision
Hexham is a school that prides itself on being friendly, safe and welcoming, at the same time as providing its students with an environment where they are encouraged to reach their full academic potential.
The school ethos is built on the values of mutual respect and tolerance. Teachers never underestimate the positive effect of extra-curricular activities to enhance students’ educational experience. Hexham is committed to growing students’ knowledge, understanding, skills and mindset, helping them to develop the confidence they will need to make their next steps into further education and the world of work.
Ofsted Report
“The executive headteacher, ably supported by the head of school, senior team and governing body, is determined to make the school the very best it can be. The school continues to improve at a pace. Currently, from their different starting points, pupils make good progress in most subjects, including English and mathematics. Extra-curricular activities are given a high priority, as leaders say that ‘arts, sport and other opportunities help shape pupils as individuals and as citizens of the wider world’.”
Visit School Website