Vacancies

Dear Prospective Candidate,

All jobs advertised offer huge scope for development and come at a time when Crown Hills is doing extremely well. In particular, Crown Hills:

• Has a national sustained improvement record over the past seventeen years.
• It has appeared in the DFEE’s top 200 improving schools three times.
• It has gained the Investors in People Award four times and was commended for the strength of its teamwork at all levels.
• It has gained Careermark.
• Has highly successful recruitment.
• Has had significant success with the Graduate Teacher Scheme.
• Has had three successful OFSTED inspections. It is considered to be one of the best urban schools in the country. A key word used was outstanding. It was recommended to consider Beacon Status and became a Leading Edge College. (See link to OFSTED report.)
• Is the base for a new state of the art ICT City Learning Centre. This is funded by the Government’s Excellence In Cities programme and links all secondary schools and provide access for all students and staff within the LEA(Local Education Authority) now LA (Local Authority).
• Is a flourishing Specialist Sports College just entering the third year of its operation.
• Is a founder member and host of a citywide Education Improvement Partnership (EIP) which involves all secondary and special schools with secondary pupils across the city local authority. It is developing collaboration in an effective and innovative manner.
• Is in phase 2 of the Building Schools For The Future (BSF) programme – from September 2011 this will lead to a multi-million pound refurbishment of the college.

1. General Information

Crown Hills is located in Leicester, which is a thriving cosmopolitan city that is home to some 280,000 people. It is a busy inner-city college serving a multi-ethnic community, which is an important focus for the culture and religions of many different groups.  The county of Leicestershire has a population of about 850,000 and its central location in the East Midlands makes it easy to reach other parts of the country easily and quickly. 

Crown Hills is based on a former secondary modern school, built in 1950, further extended in 1973 and designated a comprehensive community college in 1978. A purpose built youth and community building was a more recent addition, but this has now been transformed into an exciting Learning Enhancement Centre. There are extensive external sports facilities, which are valuable assets to the work of the college in the community. We have a private public partnership with GOALS Plc. This has led to the construction of a major sports centre on site – the school has exclusive access during the school day and it is run commercially at other times. We are, however, always looking to extend and improve all of our facilities. We have recently improved facilities in Technology rooms, Life Skills, ICT and Alternative Curriculum to name just a few.

As a LMS school we have a large amount of control over our finances, but remain committed to working in partnership with the LA and our neighbouring schools. It is of interest to note that we transferred to the new City of Leicester Unitary LEA in April 1997 and was previously part of Leicestershire LEA.    

We have a strong and caring ethos and aim to provide a top quality comprehensive community education for all of our students, 93% of whom are of South Asian origin. We are a popular college, over-subscribed in every year group with a hard-working and dedicated team of teachers and support staff.  We are all committed to:

• Excellence. We want all of our children to develop their talents to the full. 
• Equity and equal opportunities. No person should be held back from achieving excellence by any form of discrimination, intended or unintended.
• Caring.  Everyone is important and deserves respect. We are committed to caring in our action not just in word.
• The Community. We exist in our host community and not above it. Work with our community in general, and our parents in particular,  is of utmost importance.
• Planned, thoughtful and reflective development. We cannot stand still, but will not run blind.
• The environment. We will endeavour to use our resources carefully and cherish our built and natural environment.

We expect applicants to be committed to equal opportunities, multi-cultural education and team-working.  All teachers in the college have a tutorial role and help students in their wider social and personal education.  Likewise, as a community college, we believe strongly that education is from cradle to grave and there will be plenty of ways that the successful applicant will be able to involve themselves in wider educational concerns.

2. Ofsted Inspection

Crown Hills was last inspected in late November 2005 and received a very good report – see link to the Ofsted Summary.

3. Conditions of Service

Prospective candidates are well advised to read Section 2 - Conditions of Employment of Teachers other than Head Teachers in the DFES SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PAY AND CONDITIONS DOCUMENT - this should be available in every school. All posts are subject to the Crown Hills Pay Policy. Any change is subject to review by the Governors or change in DFES regulations.

Please note that Crown Hills has a non-smoking policy for all partners, staff, students and others.

4.  Job Description

See particular post details