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SalarySubject Leader of Art
Location: Leicester, city centre.
Closing Date: 8th April 2024, 9.00am
Interviews: April 2024
Position Start Date: 27th August 2024
Salary: MPS / UPS, plus TLR 2B - £5,349
Opportunity for an ambitious leader to hone their craft and make a positive difference, as part of The Mead Educational Trust.
In August 2019, Castle Mead Academy, a non-selective secondary school, opened its doors and welcomed our first year 7 cohort. Since then, we have never looked back! We are now fully-grown, with over 1200 scholars as part of our school, going about their learning each and every day. Building on the success of Rushey Mead Academy, Castle Mead is making available in the heart of Leicester a standard of education matching the very best schools in the country so that every scholar leaves us with high value academic qualifications and wider positive dispositions to enable them to lead fulfilling lives. We have caught the imagination of families, and despite only being open for four years are now more than twice oversubscribed and for this coming academic year are the third most popular school in the city for admissions.
The Art Department is an exciting environment that is continuously evolving. At the core, are our art scholars’ love of making and perseverance towards the mastery of skills. Alongside this, our art scholars understand the importance of knowing their context within the world and understand the importance of Art history. We are excited to now be looking to recruit a new leader to lead the department in the next chapter of our development.
The facilities in the newly built department include a kiln room, a clay studio and a digital illustration suite alongside the well-equipped fine art studios. The current art curriculum from KS3 to GCSE is broad and aspirational, and hence we are especially interested in a candidate who is an expert in one or more of the areas of: drawing and painting, photography and sculpture. The potential to contribute in other areas across the Fine Art curriculum is highly valued too. Art has proved to be a popular GCSE choice at Castle Mead Academy and so we are currently in our second year of teaching the AQA GSCE syllabus to a large pool of talented scholars. However, we are naturally very keen for the new leader to be able to put their own stamp on our curriculum and ways of working.
This is a unique opportunity to lead in a school where:
- we were judged to be ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted in October 2023; described as an ‘exemplary school’;
- there is a premium on subject expertise with Subject Leaders given autonomy to shape their subjects;
- there is a cherishing of each subject discipline with no generic “one size fits all” approach;
- a knowledge rich curriculum in each subject gives our scholars access to the best which has been thought and said in every field of human endeavour;
- there is a pristinely calm orderly environment with rigorous routines so as teachers can teach and scholars can learn;
- there is an emphasis on staff professional growth, with integrated professional learning, deliberate practice and instruction coaching;
- respective leaders from across our Trust of schools meet regularly to share best practice and support one another;
- we distribute leadership, consistently consider staff workload and want to just keep getting better;
- we moved into a new £37m building, on the picturesque riverside, in August 2021!
The successful candidate will grow alongside our other leaders as part of our excellent team and have the opportunity to develop curriculum and practice together year by year. The Principal, other colleagues and the wider TMET family of schools will support the team to develop, providing coaching and access to training through our The Mead Institute.
Please submit your application by Monday 8th April 2024. For further information, a confidential discussion, to book a visit to Castle Mead Academy or any technical queries please contact Hajrah Mustafa, by email or telephone (details can be found in the candidate pack)
Castle Mead Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service.
