Head of Psychology (Maternity cover)

The position is for Maternity Cover for a period of up to 12 months. This position involves the leadership and teaching of Psychology to Sixth Form classes. The person appointed will be responsible for the Psychology Department. She/he will work with the Senior Team to promote the strategic direction for the Department within the context of a Selective School. The School has a demanding curriculum in which reading and the pursuit of scholarship are seen as of the first importance. The successful candidate will have strong academic background. 

ACCOMMODATION AND FACILITIES 

The teaching of Psychology is, at present, concentrated in one classroom in the Sixth Form Building.  The classroom is fully equipped with audio visual resources and access to the wireless network.  The Head of Department (on maternity leave) has prepared a wide variety of teaching resources, including Schemes of Work, PowerPoint presentations and student worksheets and all students are supplied with AQA Psychology Advanced Level textbooks: The Complete Companion (Fifth Edition) by Cardwell and Flanagan. These resources are well-structured and focus on the Advanced Level AQA specification, and also develop research and wider reading within the programme. The Options topics for Paper 3 that are taught at WHSB are Relationships, Schizophrenia and Addiction. 

CURRICULUM 

The Department prepares students to sit the AQA Advanced Level Psychology (7182) Examinations without an AS examination, over two years.  Typically, 40 students study Psychology in each of the two Year groups.   

EXAMINATION RESULTS 

Results in Public Examinations are good, and students have been inspired to take Psychology further – typically about eight students each year enrol in Psychology-related undergraduate courses. In Summer 2023, 82% of Psychology candidates at Advanced Level were awarded A*-B grades with 73% achieving A* or A grades.  

JOB DESCRIPTION 

POSITION: Head of Psychology 

TLR: 2A (Currently £3,213) 

Line of Responsibility:  

The Head of Psychology is responsible to the Director of Sixth Form Studies. 

Line Management: 

The Head of Psychology is responsible for appraising (as appropriate) and line managing the work of the Psychology Department. 

Job Content / Core Responsibilities: 

The Head of Psychology is 

1 to provide for the Department guidance, advice and leadership on: 

• aims and objectives  
• Schemes of Work (which shall reflect the values the School seeks to inculcate) 
• teaching methods 
• Assessment, Recording and Reporting 
• the classroom environment 
• differentiation  

2 to manage the Department and contribute to the School’s Appraisal arrangements, in particular to monitor standards of teaching and assessment in the Department, to make recommendations on INSET, and to seek to achieve targets on examination results set out in the Departmental Development Plan. 

3 to manage the Department's resources and to have regard to the quality of teaching materials both purchased and internally prepared. This will also involve recommending suitable library acquisitions. 

4 to ensure that the Department has in place arrangements to provide for the needs of pupils of differing abilities, including the most able and those who are within the School's Special Educational Needs provision. 

5 to organize pupils into groups, to recommend the allocation of staff and to contribute to the appointment and induction of new staff.  To be conscious of ways in which the engagement of others from outside School might enrich our curricular provision and to ensure the appropriate incorporation of such elements. 

6 to ensure that the Department uses information on prior pupil attainment in planning teaching of particular groups and that the Department respects and follows the School's procedures for pupil tracking and target setting to enhance performance.   

7 to monitor academic standards within the Department, to maintain pupil records, to identify difficulties with individual pupils and to generate solutions, to ensure that all report data is in SIMS and has been checked by published deadlines. 

8 to ensure, through the use of departmental INSET time, that the Department is familiar with School and other relevant curriculum documentation and is responsive as well to relevant national developments and initiatives bearing on the work of the Department. 

9 to have a familiarity with the School's Policy on Health & Safety (H&S), to direct the Department on H&S issues and to draw to the attention of the Facilities Manager any departmental matters covering H&S requiring attention. 

10 to have overall responsibility for quality of displays in departmental teaching rooms and to ensure that arrangements are in place (using the designated Teaching Assistant) for the periodic changing of departmental display materials.  

11 to contribute as requested to whole-school initiatives such as the Sixth Form Induction courses. 

12 to promote the Department in the School’s wider agenda, e.g. via the website, The Westcliff Diary and through participation in the School’s Outreach programmes. 

13 to produce each year, according to agreed schedules, a written review of the Department's work, covering public examination results; Teaching & Learning; staff development; departmental extra-curricular activity; departmental resources; and progress made towards meeting targets laid down in the School Development Plan. 

14 to undertake such other duties, from time to time, as the Deputy Headmaster or the Headmaster may reasonably request. 

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT 

• The above responsibilities are subject to the general duties and responsibilities contained in the written Statement of Conditions of Employment (the Contract of Employment). 

• The postholder is required to support and encourage the School’s ethos and its objectives, policies and procedures as agreed by the Governing Body.  
• To uphold the School's policy in respect of child protection and safeguarding matters. 
• The postholder shall be subject to all relevant statutory requirements as detailed in the most recent School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document. 
• The postholder may be required to perform any other reasonable tasks after consultation. 
• This job description allocates duties and responsibilities but does not direct the particular amount of time to be spent on carrying them out and no part of it may be so constructed. 
• This job description is not necessarily a comprehensive definition of the post. It will be reviewed at regular intervals and it may be subject to modification at any time after consultation with the postholder. 
• All staff members are required to participate in the School’s Appraisal Scheme.