Head of English Department

Salary: Teachers Pay Scale Fringe plus TLR 2c £8307

Working Hours:  Full Time – Term Time Only

Closing Date: 7 September 2025

Starting Date: January 2026

Can you make the difference to the lives of our students?  Do you like to be challenged?   Do you love developing your team’s approach to teaching and learning and enjoy creating lessons that engage and inspire your students?

Do you want to be part of our SEMH school?

This could be the job for you.

West Heath School is a challenging place to work, but our dedicated staff rebuild lives through education. Teaching respect, encouraging responsibility, building relationships, and developing resilience in our students is an integral part of the role. Our committed, dynamic, and resourceful staff find working at West Heath School rewarding.

The Head of Department will inspire and lead a department of teachers and Specialist Learning Support Assistants to teach students in line with the School’s mission statement, ‘Rebuilding Lives through Education’. They will encourage teachers to both improve students’ academic outcomes and to promote students’ wellbeing by understanding and improving their social, emotional and mental health needs. All Heads of Department are responsible for creating a varied, engaging curriculum that can adapt to the individual needs of the students and promote the values of the 4Rs- Respect, Relationships, Resilience and Responsibility.

A Head of Department at West Heath School will be committed to a positive, fair and transparent leadership style; they will be imaginative and adaptable and strive for all students to enjoy their lessons and develop skills that they can use both in and outside of the classroom. They will conduct lesson observations, learning walks and book scrutinies, as well as participate in and organise whole school events and drop-down days. To enable staff the time to focus on the students and develop the department as a while Heads of Department will teach 16 lessons (45 minutes) out of 35.

Every member of staff plays a significant part in the students’ ability to achieve their full potential and positive outcomes whilst at West Heath School. To do this we need to work collaboratively and always as a team, which is essential to the students’ success and achievement.

We are a therapeutic community we are on an exciting journey to be registered as a therapeutic community and welcome staff who follow this ethos.