English Teacher in City of London

The Excelsior Academy is part of Community Schools Trust. We serve a wonderfully diverse community, many of whom face challenges through no fault of their own. It is for this reason we want to level the playing field for all of our students, regardless of their background, by providing a world class education.

We care about outcomes. We know good grades lift life chances and impact health, wealth and even mortality. We know that teachers have the greatest impact on pupil outcomes and so we take professional development seriously, whatever our role in the school. Whether we have taught for two months, two years or twenty years, we believe in our capacity to always improve in the classroom.

Our professional development provision is fundamental to our commitment to improve. We invest in our own and each other's development and use principles of instructional coaching to provide feedback to each other. Our training involves deliberate practice, video models of excellent practice and lots of fun! The desire to improve a little bit every day permeates the culture in our school.

Our approach to teaching is evidence informed. We avoid 'discovery learning' methods and instead, we teach explicitly. Our teachers are experts in the classroom and lead from the front. We focus on perfecting routines for behaviour, like entry into lessons and transitions between tasks so that we can maximise time spent on learning. We have excellent behaviour systems which mean teachers can focus on what we love doing most - teaching!

As well as excellent outcomes, we want our students to be well rounded individuals who will thrive beyond school years; that's why we deliberately teach prosocial behaviours like making eye contact when greeted, listening attentively and showing gratitude. We know these skills will set all of our students up for life, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

When students fall behind, our teachers run interventions outside of their lessons. We provide an extra session after school for all year 11 students so their families don't have to worry about paying for a tutor. Teachers work hard here. Our students deserve nothing less and we expect the highest of standards from them because we know they are capable of achieving them.

But we invest in working smart too: we have a 3 week Christmas holiday, no retrospective book marking, no student report writing and a 4 and half day week.

We recognise talent and impact. There are lots of opportunities for promotions within the school and Community Schools Trust. Our staff body at all levels is a true reflection of the makeup of the community we serve - we are proud of this and welcome anyone who will add value to our wonderful school community.