Teacher of English

We are currently looking to appoint a dedicated and inspiring Teacher of English on a fixed term contract to July 2025.

At Harris Academy South Norwood, you will join a dedicated team of teachers and staff supporting our excellent students. If you are looking for an opportunity to grow, inspire and develop, this may be the role for you.

About Us

If you are looking for a diverse school with clear and effective behaviour policies and systems, a visible and supportive leadership team, useful but not onerous CPD, and frequent opportunities for promotion, then we are the school for you. We believe that our students need great outcomes to open doors that will help them make the best of their lives. Our students behave well, and so they achieve well. This is a product of our excellent behaviour systems. We have 6 non-teaching Heads of Year who support behaviour and welfare and run a fully centralised detention system. Exemplary behaviour can only be achieved through a highly visible Senior Leadership team, and they are constantly touring the Academy. CPD is bespoke, first and foremost in the subject and grounded in tried and tested methods of effective teaching such as modelling, questioning, literacy, practice and consolidation. We don't engage with the latest fads. We believe the best approach to workload and wellbeing is to run a highly effective school with gives people purpose and avoids unnecessary work. Our sizeable department teams mean that despite our excellent retention rates, opportunities for promotion are frequent and exciting. I really hope that you'll be joining our team. Our four values of endeavour, kindness, respect and responsibility are at the heart of everything we do.

Harris Academy South Norwood is an extremely popular 11-19 academy. We have 180 students in each year group, a size that enables us to know what each of our students need. We deliver a broad and challenging curriculum to all our students in a calm and well-ordered environment. We have high expectations of all members of the school community. This is reflected in our consistently high student performance at GCSE, progression to post 16 study at our sixth form and then on to some of the best universities in the country. Our sixth form is rated outstanding by Ofsted. Last year 188 of our year 11 students chose to remain with us for the sixth form.

Boasting one of the most unique school buildings in the country Harris Academy, Clocktower perfectly blends classic British architecture with modern contemporary design. With our main building built newly in 2007 HASN is a modern Academy that boasts open plan corridors and skylight panels across the main building. The classic Stanley building dating back to 1907 provides a charm and a history that compliments the new stylings of the main building and provides a reminder of the scholarly traditional values that a Harris Academy South Norwood education is built upon.

We are very fortunate to have excellent transport links to central London (some trains get to London Bridge in 11mins) and just 4 minutes on the train from East Croydon. The Clocktower campus is a 6 minute walk from Norwood Junction train station

Main Areas of Responsibility

The purpose of your role will be:

• To implement and deliver an appropriately broad, balanced, relevant and differentiated curriculum for students and to support a designated curriculum area as appropriate.
• To monitor and support the overall progress and development of students as a teacher/form tutor
• To facilitate and encourage a learning experience which provides students with the opportunity to achieve their individual potential
• To contribute to raising standards of student attainment
• To share and support the academy's responsibility to provide and monitor opportunities for personal and academic growth

Your main areas of responsibility will fall under the areas of:

• Operational and strategic planning (including lesson planning, developing resources and syllabuses, and contributing to the departmental plan)
• Curriculum planning
• Staff development (including continuing professional development and engaging fully in the Performance Management Review process)
• Quality assurance (including contributing to the process of monitoring and evaluating the subject area)
• Management of information (including maintaining appropriate records and tracking student progress)
• Communications with students, parents and other stakeholders
• Pastoral system (including being a form tutor to a selected group of students)
• Teaching, ensuring a high quality learning experience for students

Qualifications & Experience

The successful candidate will:

• Hold QTS (or equivalent) and a relevant undergraduate degree
• Have successful teaching experience at secondary level (can be teaching practice), ideally including experience in multi-ethnic urban schools and of working in an 11-18 school
• Understand the theory and practice of effective teaching and learning
• Understand the importance of high expectations and equality of access for all students, and of being a tutor
• Have knowledge of National Curriculum requirements at KS3 and KS4, and of writing lesson plans, developing resources and assessing students' work
• Be able to work as part of a team and to develop and maintain positive relationships with all staff
• Have a good level of ICT skills, ideally including innovative use of interactive white boards
• Be able to create a motivating and safe learning environment for all students
• Be able to communicate positively with parents, carers and other external agencies where necessary
• Have good written and spoken communication skills
• Be able to lead and manage their own work effectively
• Have excellent time management skills
• Be able to motivate students and raise their aspirations through a range of strategies

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.

Safeguarding Notice

The Harris Federation and all our academies are committed to ensuring the highest levels of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and we expect all our staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All offers of employment are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, references, an online search, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching check will be completed.