The school reserves the right to close this advert early and interviews may take place before the advertised closing date. Applicants are strongly encouraged to apply early for this role to avoid disappointment.
Ark Greenwich (AGFS)
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This is a rare and exciting opportunity to work at one of the highest performing schools in the country (Progress 8: +1.14). If you are committed to making a lasting difference in our local community and want to work in an ambitious and high performing school with traditional values, this could be the job for you. This role is suitable for experienced senior leaders.
At Ark Greenwich we take the wellbeing and workload of our staff seriously and make sensible choices. We are committed to sustainable high performance and recognise our staff are our most important resource. To find out how we approach staff wellbeing at Ark Greenwich, please click here.
Ark Greenwich is a new, ambitious school model based on what we know excellent schools do. We have created a highly respectful and disciplined environment where our staff and scholars can fulfil their potential. We are one of the highest performing schools in the UK. Estimated 2024 Progress 8: +1.41, Attainment 8: 6.4, EM4+: 93%, EBacc entry rate: 73%.
Ark Greenwich exists to empower young people, regardless of socio-economic background, to grow and be successful. This is a forward-thinking school that encourages innovation and values its staff. We are proud of our highly respectful and disciplined community and of the outstanding academic outcomes achieved by our scholars. Expectations for all members of our community are unashamedly sky high. We work hard to impact the lives of the young people we serve. We also place a primacy on our industry leading extra-curricular and character education programmes.
How is Ark Greenwich different?
• We are part of the Ark family of schools and benefit accordingly from outstanding networking and career opportunities and first-class CPD.
• Staff wellbeing is one of our main priorities. We provide breakfast for staff each morning, lunch for early careers staff and have a 6pm/weekend work-related communication curfew to ensure our staff can maintain a work/life balance.
• We do not do knee jerk reactions, fads or last-minute deadlines. Our systems and processes for communication, marking and feedback and assessment are streamlined and the approaches we take are research led and based on the needs of our local context. Our full approach to staff wellbeing/workload can be found here.
• This is a small school model (600 scholars aged 11-16) because we believe that our close-knit family community provides the optimum conditions for success.
• Behaviour for learning is exceptional so our teachers can focus their time on the things that matter – planning and delivering brilliant lessons for our scholars.
• This is a strict no excuses, no mobile phone school. Phones are not permitted onsite. Scholars wear business dress to prepare them for a professional career.
• We don’t grade individual lessons or ask for lesson plans.
• Our curriculum is traditional and academic, and we do not take shortcuts to boost our position in school league tables – we do not, for example, offer equivalencies such as Btecs or Vcerts. >90% Ebacc entry rates and >50% taking triple sciences.
• We put high-quality teaching at the heart of what we do. We are committed to providing staff with weekly high-quality training. We run coaching for staff who want to see rapid progress in their discipline. Live coaching and current best practice in the field of education is central to our approach.
• Our scholars enjoy a compulsory co-curricular program on a Wednesday afternoon which includes a strong focus on community volunteering and we facilitate 12 drop-down days per academic year ensuring scholars benefit from a range of life-enriching experiences.
If you are ready to add further value to our PE department and to work alongside a brilliant school leadership team, then you will find this job extremely rewarding.
Alignment with the school’s vision, values and approach to education is essential.
The Role and the Department
We invest heavily in our exciting PE department, dedicating 2 hours a week to PE for every scholar in KS3 and 2 hours per fortnight at KS4 for core PE. Scholars remain in core PE until the end of Year 11. Throughout their time at AGFS, scholars study a range of sports including handball, table tennis, cross country, and cricket. We have a strong uptake for GCSE PE and a timetabling allocation of 5 hours per fortnight; the majority of lessons take place in our sports hall or on our brand new MUGA. We also have access to an outdoor field and make use of a range of local facilities.
Extracurricular sport is highly valued and supported at AGFS. All scholars are expected to take part in at least one extracurricular club. These are supported by staff from other departments and some external providers. Our extracurricular programme is highly successful with competitive teams in all year groups in Netball, Football, Basketball, Athletics and Cross Country. Many of our scholars go onto selection in sports for Borough teams and we regularly compete in London schools’ championships. Recent tours have included Water sports and Netball (Barcelona). AGFS also offers the Duke of Edinburgh award at both bronze and silver levels. We have a high up take for these in year 9 and 10. Recent expeditions have gone to the South Coast and to Sevenoaks.
About Ark Schools
Ark is a network of high-achieving, non-selective schools and one of the country’s top-performing academy groups. We run 38 academies in London, Birmingham, Hastings and Portsmouth educating more than 26,000 scholars. 83% of Ark schools are now rated as good or outstanding by Ofsted.
Our aim is to create outstanding schools that give every scholar, regardless of their background, the opportunity to go to university or pursue the career of their choice.
To find out more about Ark Greenwich, please visit our website via
Ark value diversity and are committed to safeguarding and promoting child welfare. The successful candidate will be subject to DBS and any other relevant employment checks.