Achievement Leader for English
What skills and experience we're looking for
Crestwood Community School is one school, with two campuses serving central Eastleigh. We are looking to appoint an enthusiastic and ambitious person as a Faculty Lead to start in January 2025. The English Faculty is full of subject specialists and is a forward-thinking, and innovative faculty, which is cohesive, team-spirited and collaborative.We are looking for someone who can play an active role in contributing to the already high standards within the faculty, fostering an inquisitive approach to English and inspiring a love of reading.
This post offers an exciting career opportunity. The post would suit an experienced teacher who will continue to foster a supportive and collaborative environment. We will ensure that the successful candidate has:
- comprehensive transition to the role
- continuous professional learning, development and improvement
- the opportunity to work with SLT and other ALs to ensure rapid and sustained progress across the school
As a new member of staff you will be well supported: we have a comprehensive induction process, and you will be given an Induction Mentor and a ‘professional buddy’. We hold the Investors in People Gold standard, and see professional learning as a major strategic priority.
For the successful candidate, a commitment to raising standards and a passion for developing young adults is essential: this entails a commitment to all learners, to excellence for all, and a belief that a good school makes a significant difference to learners’ life chances, levels of attainment and the wellbeing of the community as a whole.
What the school offers its staff
Crestwood Community School had an Ofsted inspection in February 2024, which confirmed that we continue to be a ‘good’ school. The report stated that at Crestwood “there is a welcoming, friendly atmosphere”. They also said that “teachers and support staff, including those in the early stages of their career, are proud to work at the school.They particularly value school leader's careful consideration of their workload and well-being so that they can focus their efforts fully on pupils’ education.” In addition, Ofsted report that “many pupils, staff and parents describe the school as a ‘big family’.
This is a happy school, where staff and students want to be. The #Crestwoodfamily pervades through everything we do.
The Faculty is made up of an exceptionally upbeat, forward-thinking, and innovative team; which is cohesive, team spirited and very well led. There are 17 teachers within the Faculty who work collaboratively with planning and curriculum development.There are 3 Assistant Achievement Leaders in post who are an integral part of the leadership of English. They have specific responsibilities for Literacy across the curriculum, KS3 and KS4 curriculum, assessment and intervention. We also have a dedicated tutor assigned to English to do specific interventions with students.
English is taught through a thematic, coherent curriculum. At Key Stage 3, we focus on themes such as Greed, Adventure, Equality and Childhood. Within each theme, students learn key skills through their exploration of a variety of texts. Each theme has accompanying vocabulary lists, knowledge organisers and wider reading suggestions to further develop students’ understanding of the ideas being explored in class.Once a fortnight, all Key Stage 3 classes also undertake ‘word study’ which further explores the meaning and use of vocabulary as well as visiting the library to explore new stock. The faculty prides itself on researching and introducing new texts with both Rat and Lightning Strike being added over recent years.
The curriculum works on a ‘spiral’ ensuring that skills are revisited and developed over the course of Key Stage 3 to prepare students for Key Stage 4. At Key Stage 4, the curriculum continues to be thematic and interweaves both Language and Literature, with An Inspector Calls, Macbeth, A Christmas Carol and the Power and Conflict cluster the current set texts.
The faculty are passionate about ensuring enriching extracurricular activities are available for students, with theatre trips and poetry workshops also part of our KS4 offering. The school, in its entirety, is forward thinking, and therefore in the role of Achievement Leader, you would have the opportunity to put your own spin on the curriculum and develop it in the direction that would best suit our learners needs - both for the current and for their future.
Within the faculty, the teachers are incredibly collaborative to ensure they are offering excellence, working together to contribute to the curriculum, their lessons and the faculty’s presence throughout the school. The English faculty lead Literacy across the whole school, working with other faculties to promote vocabulary rich teaching, delivering CPD and working with other faculties.All English teachers also work closely with the librarians to promote exploration of a range of texts and a lifelong love of reading, with monthly events and competitions. Our popular after school club, the Crestwood Journalists, creates a spectacular half termly newspaper - The Crestwood Chronicle - which is written and designed by the students to showcase both their reporting and reviewing skills.
The faculty is well resourced across both campuses with Faculty Chromebooks available on both campuses. The school has developed extensively its use of the Google Suite, both as a platform for e-learning and an effective means of communication and storing, assigning and submitting work.
We are one school over two campuses, serving the children of central Eastleigh, which is a vibrant town, with large amounts of development in both business and residential areas. There has been an expansion in the primary sector with several local schools undergoing expansion to their buildings to accommodate the growth in student numbers.Crestwood merged with the former Quilley School in 2016 to provide one secondary school for Eastleigh, something new and exciting, offering high quality education for the children of Eastleigh. In 2022 we became oversubscribed in every year group and are operating a waiting list across both campuses.
The two campuses are situated at Shakespeare Road and Cherbourg Road and both offer the same high quality education to all year groups with little movement of students. Staff are predominantly one campus based but may be expected to teach across both sites, whilst playing an active part in their innovative and high-performing teams.
Across both campuses we have been successful in establishing a strong culture and ethos, typified by the #Crestwoodfamily.
As a school we take staff well being seriously. We offer staff the following:
- wellbeing weeks, with no commitments scheduled after school
- free lunch every day
- free tea and coffee
- half termly cooked breakfasts
- accrued inset days, taken as twilights, giving staff an additional 4 days off a year
- One well being day per year (during term-time), to be taken at their chosen time (after a qualifying period)
- weekly thank you bulletin
- birthday cards
- heads discretionary leaves of absence for family events
- acts of random kindness
- access to mental health first aiders
Our Ofsted report from February 2024 stated that at Crestwood “there is a welcoming, friendly atmosphere”. They also said that “teachers and support staff, including those in the early stages of their career, are proud to work at the school. They particularly value school leader's careful consideration of their workload and well-being so that they can focus their efforts fully on pupils’ education.” In addition, Ofsted report that “many pupils, staff and parents describe the school as a ‘big family’.
As Head Teacher I have a clear vision and an absolute determination to improve the provision of education across Eastleigh. We care deeply about our school, the staff, the students and the community we serve, we are a school with a heart. We as a school are clear about our improvement agenda and we work cohesively as a school wide team.As this was our fifth consecutive “good” grading it demonstrates that at Crestwood we are continually providing a consistent quality in all we do, against a backdrop of tougher standards and criteria to be judged against.
Further details about the role
Your application should comprise a completed Hampshire teaching application form, and a letter in which you should outline your experience to date, the reasons for your interest in the post and your suitability for it. Please include a paragraph on your approach to leading English at Crestwood and what specialisms you could bring to our #crestwoodfamily.Application forms can be found on our website under School Information/Vacancies.
Applications, with the names and addresses of two referees, should be returned to me, Krista Dawkins, Head Teacher at hr@crestwood.hants.sch.uk by the closing date.
If you would like to visit the school, prior to applying, please contact Justine Sayers - justine.sayers@crestwood.hants.sch.uk.
Commitment to safeguarding
Crestwood Community School and Hampshire County Council are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We will ensure that all our recruitment and selection practices reflect this commitment.All successful candidates will be subject to Disclosure and Barring Service checks along with other relevant employment checks.