GSCE Maths and English Teachers in Coventry

You teach GCSE. That is the job, and we have built the role so that it stays the job.

Who you will be teaching:

PET-Xi runs a 16–19 Study Programme for young people mainstream education has not served well. Some were excluded. Some simply stopped attending and nobody chased them. Some arrived in the UK as asylum seekers or refugees and are rebuilding an education in a second language. Around nine in ten of our learners are neurodiverse. Six in ten come from low-income households, which means the cost of turning up, travel, food, kit, is itself a barrier. Some were referred with at least one contextual safeguarding concern. A few do not speak in class very much. Every one of them has sat your subject’s exam before and not got the grade. They were handed long odds. Your job is to change them.

What you will actually do:

• Teach GCSE resit groups in your subject, across the ability and attendance range, for learners who need the grade to move on.
• Assess properly. Diagnose where the subject actually broke down for each learner.
• Mark, feedback, track. Keep progress visible to the learner, not just to the spreadsheet.
• Run the exam cycle: entries, mocks, access arrangements, revision, results day. You own the outcome for your subject.
• Intervene early. Target the learners at the grade boundary and the ones a long way below it, differently.
• Be one of the adults who stays. Youth Workers hold the pastoral side. You hold the subject.

Who we are looking for:

A qualified teacher who wants to teach the young people who need teaching most. You will need QTS or QTLS and a subject qualification, and experience of teaching your subject to GCSE. That part is not negotiable, because these learners have already been taught badly once.

What we cannot train:

• One hundred per cent commitment to the young people in front of you.
• Patience with a learner on their third attempt at the same paper, and no sense that a resit is a lesser job.
• The instinct to be a role model and an ally, and to build a young person’s belief that they are worth something.
• Energy that lifts a room without needing volume.
• Grit. Some weeks the odds win. You come back on Monday.

A second language is a serious advantage. Arabic in particular, and also Romanian, Polish, Ukrainian, or another community language spoken by our learners and their families.

Building, not maintaining:

This is the second year of the Study Programme. The first year taught us a great deal and we are acting on it, a stronger team, a clearer structure, a better offer for learners. You will have real influence over how that takes shape. We are looking for people who find that prospect appealing and will enjoy the impact and challenge. The young people we work with have been let down by adults who did not stay. Consistency is the most valuable thing you can give them.

What we offer:

£28,000 – £32,000, set by experience and relevant qualifications. One subject, one cohort, and a role that is teaching rather than everything else a school hands you. A defined CPD plan and a team that backs each other.

Qualifications:

• Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) or QTLS - Essential
• A level or higher in the subject applied for, or a degree in that subject or one with substantial subject content, or a recognised equivalent - Essential
• Level 2 English and maths, or equivalent - Essential
• Recognised assessor qualification (TAQA, A1, CAVA) - Desirable

Experience:

• Teaching the subject applied for to GCSE level - Essential
• Working directly with young people aged 16-19 in education or training - Essential
• Supporting neurodiverse young people, or those with SEN - Essential
• Managing challenging behaviour and de-escalating situations calmly - Essential
• Teaching GCSE resit groups, or learners who did not achieve the grade first time - Desirable
• Working with learners who are NEET, excluded, or in alternative provision - Desirable

Knowledge and understanding:

• Current awarding body requirements for GCSE in the subject applied for - Essential
• Safeguarding responsibilities when working with young people, and the confidence to act on a concern - Essential
• The barriers facing young people who are disengaged, excluded, newly arrived in the UK or from low-income households - Essential
• The condition of funding for English and maths, and 16–19 Study Programmes more widely - Desirable
• Access arrangements and how to evidence them - Desirable

Skills and abilities:

• Teaches the subject to learners who have already decided they cannot do it - Essential
• Assesses accurately and identifies where a learner’s understanding broke down - Essential
• Engages a withdrawn group and directs a high-energy one, without shutting either down - Essential
• Organised, keeps registers, tracking and learner records accurate and to deadline - Essential
• Communicates clearly with parents, carers and colleagues, including in difficult conversations - Essential

Languages:

• Fluent spoken and written English - Essential
• Able to communicate with learners and families in Arabic, or in another community language spoken by our cohort, for example Romanian, Polish or Ukrainian - Desirable

Personal qualities:

• One hundred per cent commitment to the young people taught, sustained across a full year - Essential
• Acts as a role model and an ally, and builds a young person’s sense of their own worth - Essential
• Patient with repeated attempts, and does not treat a resit as a lesser job - Essential
• Energetic, lifts the room and sustains it across a full day - Essential
• Warm towards young people who may initially reject it - Essential
• Resilient and consistent, and comfortable in a programme that is still developing - Essential
• Collaborative, works with the Youth Workers rather than around them - Essential

Other requirements:

• Eligible to work in the UK, and able to obtain a satisfactory enhanced DBS check including the Children’s Barred List - Essential
• Available across the full academic year as timetabled, with occasional travel to other PET‑Xi sites - Essential