Head of History & Politics
Northwood College
Hillingdon
- £56,424 - £71,825 per year
- Expired
- Salary:
- Middle Leader Band 3 (£56,424 - £71,825)
- Job type:
- Full Time, Permanent
- Start date:
- September 2025
- Apply by:
- 4 February 2025
Job overview
The role:
Northwood College for Girls is looking for a talented, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic teacher to lead our History & Politics Department from September 2025.
As Head of History & Politics, you will oversee the smooth running of the department, ensuring that high standards of teaching and learning are delivered, resources are used efficiently and effectively and the curriculum is managed and developed in accordance with school policy across the faculty.
The successful candidate will be able to communicate their enjoyment of the subjects to students, strive to maintain the highest academic standards and promote a genuine passion for History and Politics. They will be a passionate subject advocate, both an inspiring leader and flexible team player, who is committed to getting the best out of their departmental colleagues and working more broadly with the other Humanities Heads of Department.
The Department:
The History and Politics Department is a flourishing department with a dedicated and driven team. All students study History from Year 7 with a broad and diverse curriculum, covering traditional topics such as William the Conqueror and Medieval England, alongside learning about Genghis Khan and Mansa Musa. In Year 8 our curriculum currently includes The Reformation and Elizabethan England, alongside a deep study of enslavement in Africa and the legacy of slavery across Europe. The Year 9 curriculum focuses on the 20th Century, with topics including Women’s Suffrage, World War I and key events of World War II (including the Holocaust and use of the atomic bomb).
History is one of our most popular option subjects in Year 10/11. We follow the Edexcel IGCSE specification and students achieve exceptionally highly, with the average grade of 8.11 in the Summer 2024. For their depth studies paper, we cover Germany: development of dictatorship, 1918–45 and A world divided: superpower relations, 1943–72, and for investigation and breadth studies we cover The USA, 1918–41 and Changes in medicine, c1848–c1948. Many of our students continue to pursue the subject at A Level (and beyond) where we follow the OCR specification, with topics including: England 1445–1509, The Cold War in Asia 1945–1993 and Civil Rights in the USA 1865–1992, alongside a 4000 word topic based coursework essay. Politics is offered as a new subject at A Level, following the Edexcel specification (Option A – Comparative Politics).
The Department is well-resourced with plentiful supplies of ICT resources, books and subscriptions. There are two History classrooms in our Manor block (alongside other Humanities and English classrooms) as well as a dedicated A Level Seminar Room in our Old School block. The Department has a large office also located in Old School.
The Department runs plenty of visits, commonly including a World War I battlefields trip to France or Belgium for all Year 9 students and a visit to either Warwick Castle or the Tower of London in Year 7. Our Sixth Form Politics students have also visited Parliament, in conjunction with other GDST schools. The Head of History & Politics also leads our annual Remembrance Assembly and organises whole-school mock elections.
Professional development and life-long learning are essential to our school, and we ensure variety, motivation and CPD opportunities. We value collaboration and work well as a team to provide the very best careers provision for our students. We expect Heads of Departments to take responsibility and ownership for providing CPD opportunities for their teams in their subject areas, and regular extended department meetings are factored into our after-school training programme throughout each year, alongside a dedicated academic CPD focused INSET day.
About the School:
Northwood College for Girls is an independent, academically selective day school for approximately 880 girls aged 3-18. At NWC, we value character and academic rigour equally. Our curriculum ignites intellectual curiosity and fosters emotional intelligence, building resilience through challenge. An NWC education enables every girl to lead a purposeful life and feel successful in their learning.
Both pupils and staff are encouraged to find and develop their passions and talents, through clubs, societies and an extensive programme of CPD. All members of the NWC community are expected to act with compassion and integrity, with respect for others and the environment and an awareness of global responsibility.
Everyone is equally valued in our NWC family and our dynamic young women are proud of their school. Looking after one another and rejoicing in one another’s successes comes second nature to a NWC girl as does her ‘can-do’ attitude and drive.
NWC is at an exhilarating moment in its evolution, with a dynamic and ambitious Senior Leadership Team and a range of new developments (including a Sixth Form Centre and the Alvarium science building). The successful candidate will be similarly ambitious for the school and ready to make an impact in our vibrant learning community.
Benefits:
As part of the GDST, the UK's leading network of independent girls' schools, we can offer a variety of benefits, such as:
- Competitive salaries and pay progression
- Access to extensive professional development opportunities
- Good transport links
- Training grants for qualifications
- Generous pension schemes
- Free life assurance benefit
- A discount of up to 50% on fees for children at GDST schools
- Childcare vouchers, interest free loans for training, computer purchase loans and travel season ticket loans
- A Cycle to Work scheme
- Competitive terms and conditions of employment
For further details and an application form please click the apply button.
Studies have shown that women and people from under-represented ethnicities are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single aspect of a job description and person specification. At NWC we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so we encourage you to apply even if your past experience does not align perfectly with every qualification or experience in the information provided.
Applications must be received by 9am on Tuesday 4th February 2025.
Interviews will take place prior to half-term.
We reserve the right to appoint prior to this deadline, so early applications are encouraged. Interviews will take place shortly after receipt of applications. References for shortlisted candidates will be taken up before interview.
Northwood College for Girls and the GDST are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service.
About Northwood College
"Northwood College is EXCELLENT in every category" - ISI inspection report, March 2012.
Northwood College is an independent day school for girls, which was founded in 1878 in Central London. By 1892 it had moved to its present site on Maxwell Road. Careful, planned development over the decades has ensured that the College has facilities which enable it to provide a high quality of education appropriate to modern needs. Further development is outlined in the school's strategic building plan over the next ten-year period.
The completion of a new Performing Arts block, comprising drama studio, recital hall, three teaching rooms including an ICT suite of 16 MAC computers, 10 smaller practice rooms, offices, assembly area and conservatory, in October 2004, marked the beginning of this development. Two new ICT suites opened in September 2005, providing four suites throughout the school plus a mobile bank of laptops. A new Early Years Centre, called Bluebelle House, containing 14 PCs for Nursery and Reception classes, opened in April 2009. In addition, there are approximately 60 interactive classboards.
Our Ethos
Teaching at Northwood College is a very rewarding and enjoyable experience. Girls are of above average ability, motivated and keen to learn. They come from a wide variety of social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds and all the world’s major religions are represented by the girls – as well as a number of the minor faiths. The atmosphere at Northwood College is unique. Relationships between girls and between girls & staff are excellent. We are an extremely harmonious community that places great emphasis on valuing the individual and expecting the highest standards of behaviour in order to maintain the principles of mutual respect, tolerance and consideration for others which characterise our community. There are approximately 750 girls aged 3-18 on roll, with approximately 100 in the Sixth Form.
As girls are able, the pace of teaching is brisk. Our unique “Thinking Skills” initiative challenges us all to consider the way we teach so that we enable our girls to be able to think critically and creatively, and thus help to prepare them for the rigours of the future. Staff are expected to be committed fully to this programme and training is provided in support of this.
We believe that it is important for every girl to develop her individual talents – whether academic, musical, dramatic, artistic, sporting or organisational. Every girl, from our youngest nursery pupil to our most sophisticated sixth former, is valued for her own unique contribution to the school community.
We encourage girls to recognise their own achievements and those of others. Girls display mutual respect and understanding. Initiative, independence, social responsibility and concern for others are highly valued. We offer a strong system of pastoral care which ensures that every girl feels confident and secure. The College has a warm, friendly atmosphere, and older girls take opportunities to help younger ones.
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