Lead Practitioner of English

About Us

Harris City Academy Crystal Palace is a mixed Academy for 1,300 students aged 11-18, with a large sixth form of nearly 400 students.

The Academy has three consecutive Outstanding judgments by Ofsted, with the most recent inspection in 2014 finding the Academy to be Outstanding in every aspect. We are a consistently high performing school. Our motto, ‘All Can Achieve’ encapsulates our vision that all members of the Academy community are supported and encouraged to achieve their absolute potential. We believe that a well-supported and valued staff body is the key to our success.

We are the ‘Teaching School Hub’ for Croydon and Sutton and we are able to offer all teachers an extensive programme of first class professional development. Harris City Academy Crystal Palace is part of the Harris Federation and this enables us to offer you a comprehensive induction programme and training and development opportunities to support your career development including Masters and other qualifications.

We are seeking a consistently good or an outstanding teacher, with the results to prove it, who is ambitious and highly motivated to lead others. If successful, you will join our teaching and learning team and the LP process will provide a structure enabling you to develop and flourish. We welcome applicants who either have Lead Practitioner status or are aspiring to become a Lead Practitioner (full training will be provided) and we are open to full consideration of part time and job share requests. This role will support your teacher career progression and develop both yourself and colleagues at the Academy.

Main Areas of Responsibility

You will play a leading and highly visible role in the improvement of teaching and learning of the Faculty and academic success of all students, ensuring the highest standards of teaching, learning and achievement and leading in the monitoring, evaluation and review of standards and provision in the subject area.

The general expectations of this role are:

• To collaborate as a member of the Lead Practitioner Team in order to build and realise the shared vision of excellence and high standards for all students.
• To account for students’ performance in line with Academy procedures.
• To provide the Governing Body with relevant and accurate information relating to the Faculty’s performance and development.
• To support and participate in the work of the Harris Federation, including strand or subject groups as appropriate.
• To contribute actively towards the formulation of all Academy policies and procedures, ensuring their consistent implementation.
• To ensure high quality teaching and learning in the Faculty or across the Academy.
• To participate in duties at lunch, break, before, during and after school the Academy day.
• To ensure that the subject knowledge of staff in the Faculty is exemplary.
• To ensure that behaviour in the Faculty is exemplary.
• To ensure that Schemes of Learning and Independent Work books are of a high quality.

Qualifications & Experience:

The successful candidate will:

• Hold QTS (or equivalent) and a relevant undergraduate degree, and, ideally, be able to show evidence of ongoing professional development
• Demonstrate outstanding teaching practice and excellent behaviour management
• Have experience of lesson observations and giving robust feedback
• Have experience of improvement planning and of implementing a range of strategies to raise student achievement, with evidence of success
• Be able to contribute to improving on the quality of learning and teaching and curriculum
• Have a proven track record of excellent results at KS3 and 4, and, ideally, experience of teaching to KS5
• Have experience of high quality pupil tracking and feedback practices
• Ideally, have experience of working with governors and of working in more than one school

Professional Development & Benefits

Our people are at the heart of our success. We have developed a strong culture of collaboration and best practice, with professional development and career planning at its centre. We invest in our staff with support, coaching, mentoring, and a wide range of top-quality training programmes delivered at every level.

In addition to the opportunities for career development and progression, we also offer a competitive rewards and benefits package which includes our Harris Allowance for teachers on MPS/UPS, a Performance and Loyalty Bonus, Pension Scheme with generous employer contributions, a Wellbeing Cash Plan and many other benefits. Learn more about our benefits on our website.