Thank you for your interest in the above post at Kingsmeadow Community School. Kingsmeadow Community School is a community school in every sense of the word. At the heart of Kingsmeadow lies a highly aspirational, academic curriculum of which we are fiercely proud. Our strong academic curriculum is supported by a generous and well-planned Character Curriculum which runs through years 7 to 13. The students who attend Kingsmeadow come from an increasingly diverse community, meaning that the successful candidate will have opportunities to work with young people across all ability ranges. Staff at Kingsmeadow Community School have unerringly high expectations for all students. Through developing their understanding of learning, and working in partnership with home, we seek to instil these high expectations into our students. Using our core values of Integrity, Resilience and Respect, we seek to equip our students with the skills they need to be successful citizens who contribute positively to society, whilst giving them the academic profile they need to be able to open up doors of opportunity in their future. We are proud of how our social sciences provision has built over the years here at Kingsmeadow Community School. This position is a brand new position in school and so, for the right candidate, is an exciting opportunity to shape that position into what works most effectively for them and for the students. Originally both psychology and sociology were offered at Key Stage 5 only to relatively small cohorts. The popularity and quality provision of the subjects, though, has led to an expansion. We now have sociology at Key Stage 4 (generally two classes per year) and much larger Key Stage 5 classes in both subjects. The successful candidate will be responsible for the ongoing development and implementation of the social sciences at Key Stages 4 and 5, working with the teachers responsible for delivering lessons in those subjects.The successful candidate will:
* Enjoy being a collegiate and positive member of a professional team
* Understand the need to relentlessly improve academic standards for all students in order to open up doors of opportunity for their future
* Firmly believe in developing the character of students
* Contribute to the community ethos of Kingsmeadow CommunitySchool, building positive and respectful relationships with students, parents, staff andall stakeholders
* Have high expectations of students, and of self as a positive role model
'Kingsmeadow is a Good school………. Teachers teach about the importance of respect, integrity, compassion, courage, pride and quality. They set a good example and pupils conduct themselves maturely.'
OFSTED Sept 2021 Any welcome that I give here in writing can not do justice to the welcoming atmosphere that is felt on entering Kingsmeadow Community School. We are a community school in every sense of the word. At Kingsmeadow you will find an ambitious, dedicated and caring staff body working with students who have a real desire to work hard and succeed. At the heart of Kingsmeadow School lies a highly aspirational, academic curriculum of which we are fiercely proud. All students have the opportunity to access the EBACC and around 90% do so. Our sixth form offer is made up of exclusively level 3 courses. We do not limit our expectations of our students and, in doing so, we find that they strive to step up and meet those expectations. Aspiration is the key to success. The students who attend Kingsmeadow School come from an increasingly diverse community. Using our core values of Integrity, Resilience and Respect, we seek to equip our students with the skills they need to be successful citizens who contribute positively to society, whilst giving them the academic profile they need to be able to open up doors of opportunity in their future. Our strong academic curriculum is supported by a generous Character Curriculum which runs through years 7 to 13. This is delivered through our daily Thrive sessions, which account for two hours of curriculum time per week. These sessions incorporate much of the PSHE, RSE, SMSC and British Values education, as well as our own Character Curriculum. This was all highly commended in our September 2021 Ofsted visit and has moved from strength to strength since then. As a Google Reference school we use the Google suite across the school. Teachers and students are well versed in using Google Classroom for classwork and homework. Students have good access to technology, with over 400 Chromebooks plus desktops available in school. I am excited to be leading Kingsmeadow School from September 2024. I will be building on the work that has already been done in improving the school. Moving forward, we have a number of areas for development which we will be addressing, including: working more closely with home and the community; tackling inherently low-levels of literacy; further building resilience through aspiration. I am looking to appoint the right person who can work with me and the senior leadership team in making the improvements that the students and community of Kingsmeadow Community School deserves. Mark Barrett