Head of Art

Location

Worcestershire | United Kingdom

Job description

This vacancy is a rolling vacancy and applications will be reviewed as they are received. Interviews and appointments may take place prior to the closing date shown.

About the Role and the Department

The current Head of Art is leaving at Easter. We are advertising externally for a Head of Art. We also have an ‘Art Teacher’ vacancy live too, which we will look to appoint to too if we have a strong candidate.

We currently have a department of approximately 2.5 full time equivalent posts.  Art is its own discrete department (with a Head of Department) and is line managed by a member of the SLT with responsibility for the Art, Music, Drama and Dance departments. There is no overarching formal faculty but collaboration is, of course, welcomed and encouraged (and this includes with the DT department too).

We have traditionally run the Fine Art and the Art Textiles courses at GCSE and A Level. We would normally have two or three Fine Art groups and one Textiles group in each year of KS4 and then a mixed group in Year 12 and the same in Year 13.

The department’s outcomes are good. At both KS4 and KS5 our value added data compares very well nationally and the department’s results are regularly amongst the strongest within the school. Lots of students have gone on to study Art (or something Art related) at university and there are professional artists amongst our recent alumni.

A new Head of Department gives us the opportunity to review whether our curriculum in KS3 is fit for purpose. Our hypothesis is that we can do more to be more inclusive, particularly with supporting and engaging LPA students in Art (and also those who haven’t enjoyed Art in Middle School) and that more freedom and variety in the curriculum could help with this. Candidates who bring experience in ceramics, digital/photography and/or mixed media are welcome and these elements may form part of a new curriculum in KS3 and beyond. A leader who is able to quickly assess what our current strengths are and shape an inspiring and challenging curriculum that includes and engages more students in Art, including into KS4, is what we are looking for.

We would also like to see a new leader ensuring that the department has a greater impact in the wider school with more frequent celebration and displays of student work and a greater contribution to the school production, which is a hugely successful part of our extra curricular offer.

Our team has a good level of experience, some of which is in other schools and contexts too. The department is central to the school and has two lovely classrooms (see attached document) showing lots of our student work (also see attached document). We also have a talented technician in the department and, if the new leader can prove an increased impact (particularly on the department’s wider profile in the school), we are open minded to expanding the number of hours in the technician post.

About Our School

We are a happy and successful High School with a Sixth Form. We serve the whole community of Droitwich and its surrounding villages, making our intake socio-economically diverse, which our entire staff play up to and thrive upon.  We take just as much pride in our Oxbridge and Russell Group acceptances as we do in enabling students who find the social side of school difficult and/or find academic work challenging to secure meaningful, high quality destinations post 16.

Our staff are talented and so incredibly supportive of one another. We have a great blend of recently qualified and then more experienced colleagues across all parts of the school. We have a new Headteacher who is determined to treasure the strengths of the school as well as being ready to address the areas where improvement is needed. We have adapted our leadership team in order to secure faster progress towards our objectives and we are particularly excited about our plans to make our staff CPD something that other schools are envious of and can learn from.

Our students enjoy our House system which gives them an authentic sense of belonging and identity, as well as providing them with opportunity for competitiveness, recognition, leadership and personal growth. Students’ personal development, in particular the willingness to be kind, compassionate and altruistic is something we place great value in; our investment in our tutor time, pastoral and PSHE programmes reflects that.

You are strongly encouraged to read our ‘Information for Prospective Colleagues.’ We expect that it will give you an even deeper feel for the community we serve, our ethos, our culture and what our school is like day to day.

It is available as a download on TES alongside this document and also on our website here:

How to Apply

You will find a , a person specification, information for prospective colleagues, an application form and further information on how to apply here:

If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to get in touch via [email protected]

Droitwich Spa High School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Job tags

Salary