General Information
Founded by Royal Charter in 1608, the Royal School Dungannon (RSD) is one of Ireland’s oldest schools. RSD is a co-educational voluntary grammar and boarding school which has around 675 pupils, of whom up to 56 are boarders, many from overseas. The School is situated in its own spacious grounds in a quiet residential area of the market town of Dungannon, enjoying excellent road links to Belfast and other towns, and also to the Province’s main airports. A recent rebuilding and renovation programme has provided the School with excellent facilities across all subjects as well as superb sporting facilities, including a sports hall and floodlit Astroturf hockey pitch. The curriculum at RSD is a blend of traditional and contemporary subjects and the School returns excellent public examination results each year, with around 90% of pupils entering universities throughout the UK and Ireland.
The Department - Food Technology and Health & Social Care
The Department is situated in a modern suite of rooms which were constructed as part of the School’s re-build in 2003-04. The accommodation consists of two food practical kitchens, each fully equipped with a wide range of modern kitchenware, a desktop computer and a data projector. A further, smaller food practical area is situated between the two classrooms and doubles as a utility room and department resources area. In addition, a fourth room has been equipped with 24 Chromebooks and printer. This room also doubles as a teaching area for small group/tutorial style lessons and as the department’s TV/DVD room.
There are three teachers within the Department, including the Head of Department, and a number of other staff make contributions to teaching at KS3. Each teacher is provided with an iPad and Pencil and Apple TV is installed throughout the school. The Head of Food Technology leads in all aspects of Food Technology from KS3 to A Level.
Food Technology is taught as a discrete subject in KS3 to all Year 8, 9 and 10 pupils, in addition to fulfilling the requirements as one of the four LLW components. Food & Nutrition is a very popular choice at both GCSE (typically 2-3 sets) and A Level (typically 2 sets). Significant numbers of pupils go on to study food-related courses at university or college.
Health & Social Care was introduced by the Department in September 2018 and is taught at both GCSE and AS/A Level. The teacher in charge of Health & Social Care (1 Teaching Allowance) is a member of the Food Technology Department and oversees all aspects of the subject, working alongside the Head of Food Technology. A classroom equipped with Chromebooks is available for coursework production. The CCEA examinations board is used for GCSE and A Level in both Food Technology and Health & Social Care and examination results are excellent.
Main Responsibilities
The School wishes to appoint a Head of Food Technology who can lead the Department and contribute to the teaching of the subject up to and including at Advanced Level.
· To be responsible to the Headmaster, as Head of Department, for effective teaching and learning in Food Technology at all levels up to and including Advanced Level and in line with School policies.
· To ensure that Schemes of Work are produced, reviewed and updated; that appropriate targets are set for all pupils; that both formative and summative assessment are utilised; and that appropriate internal examinations are set and marked.
· To promote the subject(s) taught within the Department; to chair Department meetings and to represent the Department when required; to manage the Department’s budget; to manage all aspects of the learning environment within the Department; and to lead Departmental self-evaluation.
· To ensure that staff are deployed effectively within the Department; to be responsible for the induction of new staff; and to monitor the quality of teaching and learning in the Department.
· To act as a form tutor to an assigned group and to carry out duties in accordance with School policies and practice.
The duties outlined above are not a comprehensive definition of the post but are indicative of the general role played by all Heads of Department in addition to the normal duties of an Assistant Teacher. A full Description of Duties for Head of Department and the Job Description for Assistant Teacher are available on the School website as part of the Application Pack for this post.