Birkenhead School, awarded the Sunday Times Independent Secondary School of the Year in the North West for 2025, was founded in 1860. It is an HMC independent day school providing education for boys and girls drawn from the whole of the Wirral, Liverpool and as far afield as Chester and North Wales. Situated in the leafy suburb of Oxton, the School enjoys excellent facilities. The main campus has a ‘village green’ atmosphere, with classrooms and laboratories looking out over the cricket square.
The School comprises Nursery and Pre-Prep (Early Years), Prep and Seniors and integrates their objectives and activities within a ‘One School’ concept. Birkenhead School prides itself on being a family school. It is attractive to parents to have all their children in one school and it is a great advantage for the school to be able to establish strong, long-lasting relationships with families.
A key feature of the School is its strength of community, which runs through the student, staff and parental bodies. The School is embedded within the wider Wirral community, has strong links with local business and charities, and offers an extensive bursary programme.
Birkenhead School recruits on attitude as much as the quality of an individual’s qualifications on paper, an approach that has played a considerable role in the winning of the Sunday Times award – in short, staff go above and beyond in delivering outstanding academic grades and an expansive co-curricular programme which leads to a fulfilled, inspired and happy community.
The Modern Foreign Languages department, led by the Head of Department, Mrs Marion Holgate, currently consists of 5 staff.
Students start their learning journey in Prep, with French and Spanish lessons. When they reach Year 7, they have 3 lessons per week in French and Spanish, following the Tricolore Total French and Listos 1 Spanish courses, which offer a lively, topic-based approach to learning. This continues into Year 8, where the courses are under-pinned by a clear, grammatical foundation, and students develop the use and understanding of French and Spanish through straightforward explanations of the way the language works, providing a solid foundation for continued study in Year 9 and at GCSE.
Students start the new Pearson Edexcel GCSE course in Year 9 for French, continuing the topic-based approach. A digital textbook, alongside relevant resources on ActiveHub, accompanies the course. The successful candidate would also need to continue teaching the Paper 2 element of the French AQA A Level course to our L6 next term, which will be the film, La Haine, by Kassovitz, as well as starting Camus' L'étranger.
In Summer 2024 100% of French A-Level students achieved Grade A or above and 100% of French GCSE students achieved Grade 7 or above, with 38% gaining Grade 9 and 85% Grade 8 and above.
Responsibilities
Teaching, marking, assessment and grading within the department, always setting the highest standards of personal organisation and administration.
The ideal candidate will
* Have a secure knowledge and understanding of own subject/curriculum area including current developments in teaching and learning.
* Have QTS/PGCE qualification
* Have prior teaching experience at Key Stages 3, 4, and 5.
* Be an excellent classroom practitioner with evidence of good teaching skills, leading to consistently high standards of achievement
The full list of responsibilities can be found on the School Website under Employment Opportunities.
This is a full time temporary maternity cover role. While a September start is advertised, a start in June would be beneficial. The post holder will be required to contribute to co-curricular opportunities and work as necessary to carry out the duties of the role.
A letter of application indicating skills and experience, together with a completed application form, including the names and addresses of at least two referees, should be sent for the attention of the Headmaster via Cheryl Wallace (Personnel Manager).
Candidates are welcome to contact the Head of Modern Foreign Languages, Mrs Marion Holgate with any questions relating to the role.
To meet our safeguarding obligations, an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check is undertaken as part of the recruitment process for all new staff. As Birkenhead School is an educational provider, it is permitted to ask whether an applicant has any convictions, cautions, reprimands or final warnings which would not be filtered in line with current guidance, as defined by The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (2013 and 2020). It is a criminal offence for an individual who is barred from working with children to apply for a role which is classed as regulated activity.
The closing date for applications: 9.00am on Monday 21st April 2025
We reserve the right to close this vacancy and complete the recruitment process when we are in receipt of sufficient applications. Should you wish to apply for this post you are advised to complete and submit your application form as soon as possible.