9 September 2011
Dear Colleague
Re:Spanish/French Teacher - Fixed Term to April 2012
Thank you for your interest in this post, I hope the information we are sending you encourages you to make an application. It will be an interesting job .
This is a very important post which is central to the future development of StratfordSchoolAcademy. Our school is situated in Forest Gate, just a mile east of the StratfordCity development and the 2012 Olympic site. Most of our pupils live close to the school in small Victorian terraced houses. The accommodation is often overcrowded. The local area is one of the most economically deprived in the country, nevertheless the proportion of adults with higher education qualifications is close to the national average. In short our community is not well off but is committed to education. Crime rates in the area are high, but behaviour in the school is very good. The majority of our pupils’ families hail from the Indian subcontinent. Some 10% of our pupils come to the UK as refugees and some have experienced extremely traumatic events in their early lives. Most are advanced stage learners of English as an Additional Language. There is a gender imbalance in the school: boys outnumber girls roughly two to one, but we are determined to make sure that all our students prosper.
The MFL department has restructured its curriculum to ensure that the way we teach and learn is exciting and innovative. We are looking for a confident teacher who can deliver exciting engaging lessons. The successful applicant will teach Spanish to KS4 and French to KS3.
All pupils study French and Spanish in years 7 & 8. Pupils then choose to study either French, Spanish or a community language from year 9. We are phasing out the community language provision from our main provision so this means from September 2012 all students will study either French or Spanish at GCSE.
We believe that students need to be confident, happy and engaged with their learning to achieve high standards. Our teachers understand this and invest a lot of time building these relationships.
Stratford School converted to an Academy on 1 August this year. There has been no change of leadership and the school will retain its comprehensive intake as an Academy. The Academy conversion is all about trying to remain competitive in an increasingly diverse educational landscape. Our buildings are not in good order and we have to work hard to make the most of the limited amount of space that we have. We will not attract the best teachers through state-of-the-art facilities, but we hope to do so through high quality teaching and learning and by embracing those initiatives that are proven to make the most impact on student learning.
The recruitment process is likely to be as follows:
- Short listing against the person specification. References will be taken up for short listed candidates prior to interview. Referees will be asked about the candidate’s suitability to work with children and any disciplinary issues the candidate has been subject to, whether time spent or not.
- A day at StratfordSchoolAcademyduring which candidates will:
- Spend some time in the school
- Teach a lesson
- Complete selection tasks
- Have a formal interview. During the interview any questions, anomalies or discrepancies or questions raised from a scrutiny of the application form or a reading of the references will be resolved.
We will be pleased to answer any questions that you may have by telephone. Please call Fiona Lorenzi at the school on 02084712415.
The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Friday 30 September 2011.
I look forward to your application.
Yours faithfully
Andrew Seager
Headteacher
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