Teacher of English

Hampton School is seeking to appoint a highly qualified, inspirational and enthusiastic Teacher of English to start from September 2025. Hampton’s dynamic English Department aspires to engender a love for the written and spoken word and fundamentally believes in the power of literature to engage young minds. Hampton is an academically selective school; the challenges include stretching the most able pupils up to Oxbridge level.

English is taught in a relaxed, friendly, open-classroom atmosphere based on the foundations of good discipline, high expectations and hard work. The Department currently includes twelve teachers and provides something for everyone. From etymology to exegesis, we offer the full range of linguistic and literary opportunities.

• To develop boys’ written and verbal communication skills
• To encourage boys to read texts with an enquiring mind, enabling them to analyse in detail and with sensitivity
• To enthuse and inspire boys, fostering a love of reading

The Department is based in purpose-built accommodation with seven large rooms. These are equipped with data projectors. All staff are provided with a laptop offering wireless networking, with access to the School’s VLE containing schemes of work and LDD documentation. Other electronic and reprographics facilities are freely available elsewhere in the School.

Within the Department, we share a wide range of experience, from colleagues relatively new to teaching, to senior, experienced colleagues. Several colleagues have other school responsibilities; several are, or have been, involved in external marking of GCSE and A-level examinations. Some have outside academic or educational interests. The ability to teach History would be desirable. The post would suit a well-qualified Teacher of English with experience of teaching in a highly academic setting or an aspiring graduate.

The School has its own salary scale and offers generous non-contractual benefits, well above the maintained sector, to attract high-calibre candidates. Accommodation may also be available for the successful applicant. There is a very strong commitment at Hampton to supporting the continuing professional development of colleagues.

In the First to Third Years, English teaching takes place in ‘mixed ability’ form groups. In the Fourth and Fifth Year, boys are setted into smaller teaching groups of around 16 based on ability. Students are offered every opportunity to stretch and challenge themselves in the smaller groups under the guidance of their teacher.

GCSE English Language IGCSE focuses on pupils’ reading and writing skills, developing their ability to understand, collate and explain explicit and implicit meanings, as well as helping them to articulate opinions and feelings using language and register appropriate to audience and context. There are both analytical and creative elements to the CIE IGCSE specification, assessed entirely through external exams.

English Literature IGCSE offers the opportunity to study a variety of literature in English, including contemporary texts and global literature. The literary heritage is also well represented, with both Shakespeare and pre 1914 poetry featuring.

2024 IGCSE results: English Language 9-7 91% English Literature 9-7 96%

A Level English Literature, alongside the A Level English Language course, retains its high prestige among universities and is well served by the highly qualified teachers at Hampton. There is a real focus on the importance of the essay as a means to explore texts and we offer writing clinics on a weekly basis to help students hone their skills. We are also keen to further reading and scrutiny beyond the syllabus and boys are encouraged to participate in discussion groups at both AS and A Level.

Whilst English Literature A Level allows boys to acquire a more nuanced appreciation of literary texts, their contexts and others’ interpretations of them, English Language A Level seeks to broaden the pupils’ knowledge of the nature and effectiveness of communication in English, focusing on linguistics and therefore introducing boys to an entirely new field of study. Boys learn about issues relating to gender and power, as well as studying children’s acquisition of language and the history of the English language.

Both courses provide excellent opportunities for pupils to hone their interpretative and analytical skills, as well as developing their spoken and written communication. There is no setting at A Level and we tend to limit the size of each group to a maximum of fourteen students, in order to ensure that discussion work and preparation are as efficient as possible. Extension lessons are provided for those with the intention of studying English beyond A Level.

2024 A Level results: English Language A*/A 67% English Literature A*/A 77%

In the First and Second Year, Support Lessons run concurrently with Reading Lessons, providing extra help with topics such as written accuracy, synonyms, embedding quotations and structuring paragraphs. Those boys who attend Support Lessons benefit greatly, improving their understanding and writing, and gaining confidence. A Spelling Enhancement Programme is also offered to First Year pupils selected through the School’s screening procedures.

At GCSE level, four new classes are created to enable us to teach boys in smaller classes and to focus more closely on the needs of the individual pupils.

The English Department offers weekly lunchtime enrichment sessions on critical theory, topics and texts beyond the syllabus for pupils who are studying English Literature in the Sixth Form and is aimed specifically at those who are thinking of applying for Oxbridge or English at university or just extending their knowledge. The session is also hugely useful for work done throughout the A Level course and so all boys are encouraged to attend.

The sessions cover a whole range of literary topics; for example, we engage with a wide range of critical theories, such as Marxism, Feminism, Psychoanalysis and Socio-historicism – subsequently applying them to various texts – and also develop an understanding of the history of literature, practise unseen skills, work on interview technique and explore many other areas of interest.

The Department's results at GCSE and, in particular, at A level have been consistently strong and we hope that new colleagues will help to maintain and improve upon this level of achievement, for both exceptionally gifted boys and others, and to encourage a lively interest in reading and creative writing.

The Department works in close co-operation with the professional staff of the School Library, and some First Form periods are allocated to Library training and project-work.

It is expected that every teacher play a role in the reading of our younger pupils and will be encouraged to provide Gifted and Talented pupils with further stimulation outside the classroom; informal encouragement of reading and creative writing at all levels will be expected. Equally, support for our various clubs will be gratefully received. Naturally the person appointed will be welcome to take part in the wide range of non-subject based School activities - Games, Music, Adventure Society and many more.