Head of Department (Religious Education) at Grace College in Gateshead

Grace College are looking to recruit a Head of Department (Religious Education) who will enthuse pupils to learn with a combination of great subject knowledge, energy and dedication; owing to the particular characteristics of the post and the ethos of the school, there is an occupational requirement that this post-holder is a practicing Christian. We have high expectations for our students as they grow and develop and all our staff provide important role models to them in terms of positive attitude, work ethic and diligence.

The Head of Religious Education is responsible to the Vice Principal. Rapid progress and exceptional academic achievement of all students in Religious Education with a particular emphasis on:

• Being a visible example of our ethos, core virtues and leadership expectations that we hold;
• Ensuring decisions are driven by data relating to quality of provision and student progress;
• Building a cohesive staff team where the development of staff as teachers (both subject knowledge and quality of instruction) and leaders (career development and succession planning) is a core part of your practice.

Implementing an exceptional Religious Education curriculum and providing opportunities for students to experience and develop their understanding of the Christian faith beyond the school classroom with a particular emphasis on:

• Ensuring the curriculum contains a clear progression from KS2 to KS4 and beyond and that all staff can articulate what is taught, why it is taught at that point in the curriculum and what it will lead to next for the students;
• Leading and developing opportunities for students to engage with the Christian faith, through supporting the development and delivery of the College's collective worship programme including the daily act of worship and whole school events such as celebrating Christian festivals such as Christmas Carol Service and the Easter Service;
• Implementing schemes of work that clearly define the substantive and disciplinary knowledge and vocabulary that students need to master and which lead to consistently exceptional teaching;
• Building meaningful curriculum links to local faith organisations, as well as a wider range of enrichment opportunities to engage all groups of students and build their cultural capital.

Ensuring Religious Education teaching is consistently exceptional with a particular emphasis on:

• Ensuring that schemes of work and lesson resources support consistently exceptional teaching and are regularly reviewed and improved through collaborative planning;
• Leading regular quality assurance of effectiveness of teaching across the department, continually identifying examples of best practice to be disseminated and areas for improvement to be addressed through collaborative planning and support;
• Creating a culture of reflective practice and improvement and professional dialogue across your team so that staff are motivated and supported to develop their own skills and subject knowledge, and to support each other;
• Ensuring that exceptional teaching and learning leads to an increased number of students studying full course RE over time.

Join us and in addition to working with committed and helpful colleagues, the Trust can offer access to the following benefits:

• Defined benefit pension scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Daily lunch allowance
• Access to our exclusive Benefits Hub
• Free parking
• Employee centred and family friendly policies and practices that support you in and beyond the workplace
• Enhanced sick pay, maternity leave and paternity leave (dependent on length of service)
• Cycle to work scheme
• Funded eye tests and glasses for DSE users (subject to T/Cs)

Grace College is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff to share this commitment. Where the post is engaged in regulated activity, and/or an opportunity for contact with children the position will be subject to an enhanced DBS check. In addition, as part of the shortlisting process, and in accordance with statutory guidance, we may carry out an online search (for publicly available material) to help identify any incidents or issues that have happened which we may want to explore with shortlisted applicants at interview.