What skills and experience we're looking forJob DescriptionJob Title: Teacher of Music Salary: MPS/UPS Purpose: To ensure hi.....
What skills and experience we're looking for
Job Description
Job Title:
Teacher of Music
Salary:
MPS/UPS
Purpose:
To ensure high-quality curriculum delivery to students in Music; to support subject developments; provide a range of extra-curricular opportunities for students; monitor, assess, and report upon student progress; and contribute to raising subject standards.
Responsible to:
Head of Faculty
Dimensions:
Students:
(i) To ensure that students' prior attainment data is used to inform the planning and teaching of assigned classes
(ii) To maintain records and monitor and report upon student progress and attainment in assigned classes
(iii) To contribute to the development of effective teaching and learning practice
(iv) To ensure high standards of behaviour for learning with your teaching groups
(v) To contribute to the extra-curricular programme delivered within Music
(vi) To plan and implement a range of extra-curricular activities in Music
Staff:
(i) To assist the Head of Department in ensuring that teaching in your subject is of high quality and contributes to the department's improvement plan
(ii) To participate in staff development activities provided within the department and the whole school
Principal Accountabilities:
(i) To deliver, as directed, syllabuses, resources, schemes of work, assessment and marking policies, and teaching strategies so that student needs can be met
(ii) To report student progress in your subject to the Head(s) of Department and to parents/carers
(iii) To contribute to the department improvement plans so that the quality of teaching and learning in your subject can be continuously improved
Competencies:
Passion for learning:
Creating a learning environment that supports students in their learning and encourages them to become confident, independent learners
Challenge and support:
Caring for the students and expressing positive expectations
Managing students:
Directing, enthusing, and motivating students so that effective learning takes place in an orderly learning environment.
Confidence:
Show confidence and a willingness to take on challenges
Team working:
Work with others in the department to achieve shared goals
Knowledge and Experience:
• Degree in a relevant subject
• Teaching qualification
Other Specific Duties:
• To continue personal development as agreed at appraisal reviews
• To engage actively in the appraisal review process
• To address the appraisal targets set by the line manager each Autumn Term
• To play a full part in the life of the school community, to support its distinctive aim and ethos, and to encourage staff and students to follow this example
• To support the school in meeting its legal requirements for worship
• To promote the school's corporate policies actively
• To comply with the school's Health and Safety policy and undertake risk assessments as appropriate
• To show a record of excellent attendance and punctuality
• To adhere to the school's Dress Code
• To undertake any other reasonable duty delegated by the Principal
While every effort has been made to explain the post's main duties and responsibilities, each individual task undertaken may not be identified.
Employees will be expected to comply with any reasonable request from a manager to undertake work of a similar level that is not specified in this job description.
Employees are expected to be courteous to colleagues and provide a welcoming environment to visitors and telephone callers.
The Trust will endeavour to make any necessary reasonable adjustments to the job and the working environment to enable access to employment opportunities for disabled job applicants or continued employment for any employee who develops a disabling condition.
This job description is current at the date shown, but following consultation with you, it may be changed by Trustees to reflect or anticipate changes in the job which are commensurate with the salary and job title.
What the school offers its staff
Information about Goffs-Churchgate and the Generations Multi Academy Trust
Goffs-Churchgate Academy was the first school to join the Generations Multi Academy Trust. The school is now in its seventh year of operation and continues to go from strength to strength.
The school is a fully mixed comprehensive school from 11-16 years of age, with 600 on roll. The school has rapidly established a very strong reputation in the area, and is now consistently oversubscribed. In addition, the school recently received its OFSTED report from May 2022, which graded the school as “good” with outstanding features.
One of the school’s key strengths is its highly cohesive and supportive community. As such, the decision to cap student numbers at 600 is entirely deliberate, enabling us to maintain a strong sense of community where everybody knows everybody else - if you visit, you cannot fail to be struck by this. It is a very special part of who we are.
The post offers a genuine opportunity to work in a school community that changes the lives of the young people we care for.
Professional Working and Learning Environment
The school has benefited from brand new facilities, opened in October 2016, including professional teaching and learning facilities for all subjects. The school also benefits from a recently installed 3G playing surface for PE; a gym with a professional sprung floor; a Dance Studio; recent refurbishment of additional classrooms and an indoor swimming pool. The new facilities provide a light, modern, professional, and fit for purpose working environment for all. The Trust has also invested significantly in modernising additional teaching spaces, providing a fantastic environment for our students and staff.
The Generations Multi Academy Trust
Generations Multi Academy Trust is a cross-phase Multi Academy Trust based in Cheshunt, currently comprising two secondaries and one primary - Goffs, Goffs-Churchgate and Flamstead End School. It is our hope that a further primary, Andrews Lane School, will join our partnership from November 2024. Across the piece, GMAT currently has just under 3,000 students in its care and employs just under 400 staff. From Spring 2023, the MAT opened nursery provision on the Goffs-Churchgate site, with subsidised and term-time only places for staff. The nursery is run by Ashbourne Nurseries - https://ashbournedaynurseries.com/
The MAT is extremely clear about its daily purpose, reflected in its motto of “No Set Destiny for Any Child.” All of our schools, leaders and staff fiercely believe in the life-changing nature of education and work tirelessly to that end, day in and day out. There is no set destiny for any of the children in our care; rather, our daily work across the piece allows children to forge new futures and destinies.
Flamstead End School is a thriving primary school in Cheshunt with approximately 485 children on roll. It has a Preschool, 60-place nursery offering 30 hours provision and two classes per year group from Reception to Year 6. Flamstead End is a 'Therapeutic Thinking' school and seeks to understand and support children's behaviour so that they are able to learn and achieve to the best of their ability. The school is a tight knit community, with a well-established staff who care for one another and the children in their charge.
Goffs-Churchgate is a fully mixed comprehensive school for 11-16 year olds, with just over 600 students on roll. The school has rightly established a very strong reputation for both its academic outcomes and its close-knit, nurturing community, receiving over 600 applications for 120 places for 2024 admission. The decision to cap student numbers at 600 is entirely deliberate, enabling us to maintain a strong sense of community where everybody knows everybody else.
Goffs is a mixed 11-18 comprehensive Academy with approximately 1,600 students on roll, including a thriving and successful Sixth Form. The school is also extremely popular in the local area, with an average of over 800 applications annually for the 240 places available, and significant waiting lists for places across the year groups.
All of our schools enjoy extremely high levels of applications and are over-subscribed. The schools are within close proximity of each other and share many activities, including CPD for staff. One of the Trust’s fundamental principles is that no one school is in any way more important or successful than the other. As such, CPD and other events are rotated through schools in the Trust, with everyone learning from and sharing with each other. This collegiate and collaborative approach permeates our Trust.
Staff and students work in modern, professional environments, with all schools benefitting from recent building projects including a full, £20million rebuild at Goffs. The facilities provide light, modern, professional and a fit for purpose working environment for all.
Notwithstanding a highly challenging funding situation for schools generally, the MAT remains financially secure. Finances are overseen by a Chief Finance Officer with considerable financial expertise in the private sector. The Trust deliberately created an Income Generation function, and extensive lettings and business development work now takes place across all sites in the MAT. This additional income – now yielding in excess of £500k per annum – underpins generous levels of staffing at our schools, plus many “extras” that would otherwise be unaffordable in the current funding climate.
Our schools pride themselves on their sense of community – both within the school itself, and in the wider locality. Visitors to our schools unfailingly comment on a very real sense of community, coupled with warmth and pride. Our schools are members of Cheshunt Extended Services (ChExS), offering a variety of extended school and community-based activities for both students and parents. Our students actively support local charity work such as the Isabel Hospice and maintain strong links with our local primary schools.
Our schools are proud to be truly community-based schools, with students and staff from different religions and a number of languages spoken in each school. As a Trust we recognise and celebrate what makes us unique and different, and acknowledge that we are also part of one community. Our aim is for everybody to feel valued and respected and we strive hard to ensure we create a positive culture within the schools to enable this to happen.
We are looking forward to further widening our Trust and to working in partnership with both primary schools and further secondaries. Further information about GMAT can be found here: https://generationsmat.com/
Outcomes
Our strategy for continuous school improvement has had huge success and we are actively committed to ensuring that our very popular and successful schools continue as centres of excellence in the community.
Exam results in 2024 have once again produced an overall estimated progress score significantly above the national average and reflect the continued success the school has achieved since joining the Trust in 2017.
• Exceptionally strong progress scores across the headline measures, with the overall progress 8 score significantly above the national average for a third year in a row. (Estimated progress 8 score: 0.38).
• Excellent outcomes were achieved in Maths and the performance in English was phenomenally strong (Estimated Maths progress score: 0.33. Estimated English progress score: 0.63).
• The outcomes at the top end were particularly impressive with the progress score for the students with high prior attainment very significantly above the national average.
• There was a 12% increase in the percentage of students entering the full Ebacc to bring the overall entry figure to 67% which is significantly above the national average of 39%, and the Hertfordshire average of 47%.
Community
Goffs-Churchgate prides itself on its sense of community – both within the school and in the wider locality. We are members of Cheshunt Extended Services (ChExS), offering a variety of extended school and community-based activities for both students and parents. Our students actively support local charity work and maintain strong links with our local primary schools.
We firmly believe in every student feeling a strong sense of community, and on entering the school, each student is placed in one of four Houses: Attenborough, Rashford, Seacole, and Trott. Each House is led by a team of student House Captains and has a clear sense of identity. Regular competitions and assemblies strengthen this sense of community.Students within each House arrange a variety of fundraising events throughout the school year. The House raising the most money in the year for our school charity is awarded the annual Charity House Shield. Our new House names were introduced in September 2021. This was part of a wider school project on diversity to ensure that our school community reflects the diverse culture that it serves. An example of this project, is the impact that it has had in English. As a result of the diversity project, there has been a complete overhaul of the Key Stage 3 curriculum, with students now studying books representing a very diverse range of authors.
Our students have a wide range of student leadership opportunities open to them as part of actively encouraging leadership development. These student-led groups include:
• Student Executive
• Community Captains
• Wellbeing Champions
Across the Multi Academy Trust, a large variety of annual school trips give students the opportunities to sample different cultures, while an extensive programme of off-site visits provides opportunities for students to experience the diversity that exists within the UK, including theatre, galleries, and museum visits.
Goffs-Churchgate is proud to be a genuinely comprehensive school, with students and staff from different religions and several languages spoken in the school. We recognise and celebrate what makes us unique and different and acknowledge that we are also part of one community. Our aim is for everybody to feel valued and respected, and we strive hard to ensure we create a positive culture within the school to enable this to happen.
Care, Guidance and Support
Successful learning occurs when students feel safe, confident, respected, valued, and are engaged. Goffs-Churchgate believes in supporting and nurturing all students in their quest to become successful learners. As such, we place a high value on pastoral care as an integral part of the school's life. We have an extensive pastoral care system to support the welfare and progress of all our young people.
Staff Development
The Trust has an extremely strong reputation for staff development, for both teaching and support staff. Developing the next generation of school leaders, both middle and senior, plus future Headteachers for those who wish to pursue this, is a responsibility that we take very seriously. We have a full suite of staff leadership development which staff can join be they an ECT or highly experienced colleague.
In addition to whole staff training days, we disaggregate a number of hours for training every year. This allows staff development to be highly personalised as staff can opt for the training which best meets their needs, including the opportunity to do a research project in partnership with Cambridge University. Many use their disaggregated time to coach others or to receive coaching. Moreover, there are specific training sessions for ECTs and other interested staff which run each week after school.
We also place a lot of emphasis on ‘on the job’ training and support. A thorough induction scheme is available to all new staff, and mentors/buddies are assigned to guide you through those new routines. Finally, external courses can of course be booked if, on very rare occasions, we cannot cater for a particular training need in house.
Staff Benefits
Alongside our very strong focus on outstanding professional development and promotion opportunities, we also offer a range of benefits including:
Competitive base salary with a tailor made development plan aimed at enhancing your future [earnings] potential through:
• High quality, personalised CPD
• Bespoke leadership development programmes
• Subsidies for Masters and Degree courses
• Secondment and shadowing opportunities
• As part of our Multi Academy Trust, “Generations”, potential to work across more than one school to develop career enhancing skills and knowledge.
• Supported Nursery provision with Ashbourne at any of their nurseries in the Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Bedfordshire area:
• 15% discount for all Trust staff
• Term time only places are available.
• A school day would be 9.00am – 3.00pm
• “Sundries” would be applied to a child taking up a funded only space (e.g. 30 hours funding only). This covers the cost of: meals, snacks, nursery resources
• All staff have access to a wide range of health and wellbeing resources which includes an Employee Assistance Programme via Spectrum.Life who offer a wide range of health and wellbeing resources, plus access to counselling for staff and their immediate family. The EAP service is accessible 24/7, 365 days a year and is a completely free and confidential service
• The MAT adheres to the STPCD for its teaching staff
• Cycle to work scheme
• Onsite car valeting at a reduced price for Trust staff
• Substantially discounted membership to Lifestyle Fitness’s state of the art purpose built gym, at Goffs Academy
Additional financial incentives and tax efficient benefits, including:
• Exam marker payment of £400 plus 2 days paid leave to do the marking (1styear)
• Payments for staff taking weekend sporting fixtures: staff paid £200 for leading a minimum of six Saturday fixtures plus 6 weekly training sessions.
• A daily allowance of £50 for school trips taken over a weekend or any school holiday.
• A £1,000 Employee Referral Scheme (i.e. finder’s fee) for anyqualifying positionsthat you refer the successful candidate for: £500 on the person starting, and £500 if the person is still at the school 12 months later.
Access to a wide range of health and well-being resources including:
• New, professional, and fit for purpose working environments
• Free use of a range of sports and leisure facilities including a fully equipped gym and swimming pool.
• Occupational Health & counselling support
• Free flu jabs
• Subsidised social events
• Free tea, coffee, and milk for staff
Julie Richardson
Principal
Commitment to safeguarding
Our organisation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff, volunteers and trustees to share this commitment. Our recruitment process follows the keeping children safe in education guidance. Offers of employment may be subject to the following checks (where relevant): childcare disqualification Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) medical online and social media prohibition from teaching right to work satisfactory references suitability to work with children You must tell us about any unspent conviction, cautions, reprimands or warnings under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975.
