Assistant Headteacher - Head of Sixth Form and Post 16 Preparation

This vacancy is a rolling vacancy and applications will be reviewed as they are received. Interviews and appointments may take place prior to the closing date shown.

About Our School

We are a happy and successful High School with a Sixth Form. We serve the whole community of Droitwich and its surrounding villages, making our intake socio-economically diverse; our sense of belonging to our community is a major driver in the work we do in ensuring that every child can experience life changing learning. We take just as much pride in our Oxbridge and Russell Group acceptances as we do in enabling students who find the social side of school difficult and/or find academic work challenging to secure meaningful, high quality destinations post 16.

Our staff are talented and incredibly supportive of one another. We have a great blend of recently qualified and more experienced colleagues across all parts of the school and we are clear that we benefit from the skills and experience of all of our teachers, whatever their career paths. 

There is far more to a school than an OFSTED report but we are really pleased that they have acknowledged all of our strengths in their February 2024 visit, where we were graded ‘Good’ in all categories. They noted that a ‘calm and orderly environment throughout’ and the warm and kind relationships between everyone in school. They also acknowledged our excellent support of SEND students and acknowledged our efforts to outside of academic attainment. Our students enjoy the House system, which gives them an authentic sense of belonging and identity as well as providing them with opportunity for competitiveness, recognition, leadership and personal growth. Students’ personal development, in particular the willingness to be kind, compassionate and altruistic is something we place great value in and our investment in our tutor time, pastoral and PSHE programmes reflects that.

You are strongly encouraged to read our ‘Information for Prospective Colleagues.’ We expect that it will give you an even deeper feel for the community we serve, our ethos, our culture and what our school is like day to day.

It is available as a download on TES alongside this document and also on our website here: https://website.droitwichspahigh.worcs.sch.uk/index.php/school/join-us/job-vacancies/

About the Vacancy

The Sixth Form is the one of the jewels in our crown. Our KS5 outcomes are very good; we regularly out perform local competitors who have higher entry requirements in terms of attainment. In fact, our attainment at KS5 put us amongst the top 5 Sixth Forms in Worcestershire in 2023. The Sixth Form has a very strong reputation amongst the local community and the recent OFSTED inspection drew attention to the quality of our Sixth Form curriculum and also the students' "exemplary attitudes."

Numbers are healthy; we have just under 100 in each year group and this allows us to sustain a wide range of option choices. Nearly all of our Sixth Formers come from our Year 11 but we do get a small number of new starters in each Year 12.

The Sixth Form has its own dedicated area of school and popular Sixth Form subjects are taught very close to the Sixth Form study areas.

The Sixth Form is well resourced; we have an Assistant Head of Sixth post (who is also a teacher) plus a full time non teaching pastoral support manager and four days a week of admin support.

As mentioned above, our pastoral work is organised around Houses so this means we don't have a traditional 'Head of Year 11.' Therefore, this postholder is expected to plan out the academic journey from Year 10 to the end of Year 11 so that students and families get a coherent package of advice and guidance and those that are capable of Level 3 study see the Sixth Form as a natural destination. There is more information in the job description but it is important to stress there is no expectation that the postholder will be involved in day to day pastoral work or academic target setting / monitoring for Y10 and Y11 students.

How to Apply

You will find a job description, a person specification, information for prospective colleagues within this listing on TES. To download an application form and for further information on how to apply here: https://website.droitwichspahigh.worcs.sch.uk/index.php/school/join-us/job-vacancies/

If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to get in touch via jobs@droitwichspahigh.worcs.sch.uk

Droitwich Spa High School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.