Teacher of Physics

Location

Edgbaston, West Midlands | United Kingdom

Job description

King Edward’s School is seeking to appoint a full-time or part-time Teacher of Physics to teach across the full age range from 1st September 2024. It is an opportunity to join a strong, enthusiastic department in an exceptional school. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and no experience of working in the independent sector is required. The school teaches IGCSE and the International Baccalaureate Diploma; no experience of the IB is necessary as full training will be provided. A willingness to participate in the wider life of the School with pastoral care duties and help with co-curricular activities is expected. 

Science at King Edward’s School

King Edward’s has a long tradition of scientific excellence, having educated Nobel laureates such as Maurice Wilkins and Sir John Vane. Science remains at the heart of the academic life of the school today.

As all Sixth Former’s at King Edward’s study for the IB Diploma Programme, all students will, almost uniquely in the country, study at least one science subject throughout their time at school. Many elect to take two science subjects at IB. Biology, Chemistry and Physics are taken by the vast majority of pupils at IGCSE, and DT is one of the most popular option choices at GCSE.

Many pupils continue to study science subjects at university, with high numbers successfully applying for Engineering and Medicine, as well as Natural Sciences, Biomedical Sciences and other related subjects.

There is a strong spirit of collaboration in the experimental science faculty, which comprises Biology, Chemistry, Design Technology, Environmental Systems and Societies, Physics and Sport Science. 

The Physics Department

The Physics Department consists of a team of five full-time teachers and two full-time, well-qualified Physics technicians.  Members of the department are highly experienced and enthusiastic teachers of Physics.  They set high standards in their teaching and continually seek the best for and from the pupils.

The Department has use of four well-equipped specialist laboratories, with a further two laboratories available for Year 7 and 8 science classes, when required.  The department is extremely well resourced for practical work, be this demonstrations or class experiments, and benefits from a full class suite of computers in one of the laboratories and a smaller number of computers in a second laboratory for Sixth Form classes.

In Year 7 all pupils follow our in-house combined science course, but from Year 8 onwards the three sciences are taught separately. Pupils begin studying Edexcel IGCSE Physics in Year 9 and at the end of the year have the option of continuing with the three separate sciences or two sciences and further non-science GCSE in Year 10 and 11.  At the end of Year 11 over 50% of pupils have achieved grade 9 in IGCSE Physics, on average, over the last three years.

In the Upper School (Y12 and Y13) the department offers Higher Level Physics and Standard Level Astronomy as Group 4 Experimental Science options for the IB.  There are currently seven HL Physics sets and three SL Astronomy sets across the Upper School year groups.  Results are strong with the three-year average of 6/7 (equivalent to A*/A at A level) grades being 70% for HL Physics.

Extension and enrichment are important aspects of the department.  Pupils are encouraged and supported to participate in the British Physics Olympiad, the Senior and Intermediate Physics Challenges, with many pupils achieving gold, silver, and bronze awards. A STEM club is run for younger pupils, with the help of older students, and there are weekly extension sessions for students in the Sixth Form considering applications to top universities, such as Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial, to study Physics or Engineering.  We are also in the fortunate position to be so close to Birmingham University, with the Physics Department a five minutes’ walk away, providing several opportunities for pupils, including a program of IOP lectures.  Each year following an essay competition we take three boys to CERN for a week to attend a Particle Physics School run by the University of Liverpool, which gives them an incredible insight into the workings of the Large Hadron Collider and the computational skills required analyse the data produced.

For the full and details of how to apply, please visit our website:

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