Head of Biology – Ferndown Upper School Full Time

Ferndown, Dorset
Dorset Council

Permanent 1.0fte

Required for September 2024 a Head of Biology teaching at GCSE and A Level.

Ferndown Upper School is a very special place to work because we have well behaved students, who allow their teachers to teach, we focus on work life balance to ensure that staff spend their time on the activities that actually make a difference and we have a friendly and supportive staff body.

Ferndown itself as also an ideal location; it is ten minutes from the historic market town of Wimborne, thirty minutes from the sandy beaches of Bournemouth and Poole and twenty five minutes from the New Forest.

Ferndown is a successful 13-19 Upper School that is a centre of excellence for STEM. We have a strong reputation and full team of experienced teachers. The Science Faculty is a friendly, collegiate team, who work hard together to achieve high standards and have achieved excellent results. It is a strong faculty with high levels of recruitment and success at A Level, with many going on to take these subjects at University. There are four teachers of biology in the department, four physics teachers and four chemists.

As a lead STEM school, we have a sophisticated range of STEM enrichment in place, including various competitions, green powered car and careers events. To further enhance our provision we are now offer ‘Triple for All’, which means all our students will be entered for triple science GCSE. At FUS, we only teach our students in separate sciences and believe that they should have access to teachers with specialisms and high quality subject knowledge.

We are looking for an outstanding and ambitious teacher to work in partnership with the Director of Learning to be accountable for progress in Biology at Key Stage 4 and 5 and to implement appropriate intervention strategies where necessary. Successful applicants will have the opportunity to teach A level to our passionate, curious and organised students.

What Ferndown Can Offer You:

• Great students who behave – you can make a difference to their learning.
• The opportunity to work with outstanding colleagues.
• Tight, robust behaviour systems.
• Centralised detentions, including homework detentions (you do not need to organise/run/chase), helping to underpin our excellent behaviour, so you are free to teach.
• Ongoing ‘no-stakes’ feedback, helping you to continuously develop.
• We believe that trusting our staff with autonomy helps to develop a strong staff culture.
• Centralised, shared units of work and resources.
• Excellent, ongoing CPD, career development and promotion opportunities.
• A well-kept site and a very pleasant location in beautiful Dorset.
• A tax efficient Childcare or Car Lease Scheme through salary sacrifice.
• Private Healthcare Plan including 24/7 access to a GP by phone, gym discounts and cashback for optical, dental and other appointment expenses for employees and their children.
• Access to the staff benefits and discounts portal through Dorset Council.

We welcome applications from experienced Teachers of Biology. An Application Form is available on our website – please follow the link to Job Vacancies or via ‘apply now’ on the Dorset For You website. Completed application forms should be sent to . If you require any further information, please contact Andrea Baxter on .

Ferndown Upper School is a great place to work and we look forward to receiving your application.

This school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be required to have an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service check (formerly CRB) in line with the Governments safer recruitment guidelines.

Ferndown Upper School values the diversity of our workforce and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

This role is UK based and your Right to Work will need to be established as part of the appointment process.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974. The amendments to the ROA 1974 (Exceptions Order 1975, (2013 and 2020) provide that when applying for certain jobs and activities, certain spent convictions and cautions are ‘protected’, so they do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account. The MOJ’s guidance on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Exceptions Order 1975, provides information about which convictions must be declared during job applications and related exceptions and further information about filtering offences can be found in the DBS filtering guide.

Ferndown Upper School will conduct online searches of shortlisted candidates. This check will be part of a safeguarding check, and the search will purely be based on whether an individual is suitable to work with children. As care must be taken to avoid unconscious bias and any risk of discrimination, a person who will not be on the appointment panel will conduct the searches and will only share information if and when findings are relevant and of concern.

Closing Date: Tuesday 2 nd January 2024 at midnight.

Interview Date: Thursday 11 th January 2024.

Please read any attached documents before applying for this job