Work With Us
Our staff are incredibly committed and passionate about all that they do and their wellbeing is one of our key priorities year on year to ensure that they are looked after and generously rewarded for their contributions.
St James is a thriving, diverse and proud community. As an inclusive and committed team we are positively and diligently raising standards. Our aim is for students to achieve excellent outcomes, move onto exciting post-16 activities and most importantly to gain a range of skills and experiences which enable them to be happy and successful in the future.
We are one of the highest performing schools in the area, and regularly over-subscribed, because we believe that students achieve excellent outcomes as a result of five years at a school where they are happy and engaged at all times; where they are challenged from day one and are consistently supported to be the best they can be. Ofsted judged us to be a strong Good in our recent inspection in January 2018, but clearly acknowledged that we were on a clear trajectory to achieve Outstanding in the near future.
We offer our staff
- A bespoke CPD programme for each member of staff, utilising in-house and external sources
- In-house and Trust-wide career development and progression opportunities
- Regular staff-wellbeing events of a sporting and social nature.
- A clear, robust, high expectations based behaviour system that all staff and students follow; learning is key and cannot be disrupted.
- A school that is 100% teaching and learning focused; that philosophy is at the heart of every decision made and action carried out – what happens in the classroom needs to be good enough on a day to day basis for our own children – and drives the school forward. There is no room for egos or for game playing; it is all about the students.
- Great students who really want to learn and who have clear aspirations for their own futures – you can make a massive difference to them
- A reduced calendar of meetings. All department, CPD and CLT meetings scheduled for Tuesdays, with Parents’ Evenings and school events on a Thursday (periodically), leaving Monday, Wednesday and Friday free for individual time.
- A number of staff wellbeing initiatives – cake at break, heroes of the week, hospitality before evening events, welcome back wellbeing bags, early finish/late start cards, no morning briefing after a late evening school event, reduced duties during the school day – to name but a few.
- A visible, aware, reflective and supportive SLT who know their staff and students and who lead by example
- Time: we employ two cover supervisors which means that a) staff are used for rarely cover as little as possible and (b) that there is ample opportunity for staff to attend external CPD, engage in shared planning opps and run enrichment events for students
- Flexible timetabling to fit personal circumstances, where appropriate and possible
- Generous PPA allocations (within the local context) for TLR posts
- Two days paid absence per 12 month rolling period for ‘child sick’ unplanned absences
- Paid absence for significant family occasions, e.g. weddings, graduation
- Same-day centralised detentions which help to support the expectation for impeccable behaviour, leaving teachers free to teach and prepare their lessons
- Feedback policies that are department based so designed to match your subject, curriculum structure and assessment plan and that respond to developments in feedback strategies – they are not whole school and do not involve marking for markings sake.
- A whole school CPD programme that involves 30 minute sessions that are 100% focused on sharing good practice and promoting efficient and effective teaching strategies; its purpose is to support staff to continuously develop.
- A Quality Assurance Review process that is department and individual driven – we believe that trusting our staff with autonomy helps to develop a strong staff culture and sense of accountability
- Only three data drops a year (with an additional for just year 11), ensuring it is manageable, yet valuable, with marksheets being time-efficiently created to ease completion.
- Collaborative department planning with centralised, shared units of work and resources
- A professional progression model to enable great teachers to remain in the classroom via our Lead Practitioner and Lead Teacher – Dept/Whole School routes, in addition to the SLE route within the TSA.
- State of the art facilities in a PFI school, centrally located surrounded by the beautiful Devon countryside.
The Governing Body:
The Local Governing Body operates with full delegated authority from the Ted Wragg Multi Academy Trust and is directly accountable to the Trust. The governors understand well their statutory duties to hold leaders to account as well as setting the strategic direction of the academy and ensuring the academy has a sound financial footing. Their commitment is absolute, believing in social justice they bring a rich background of experience beyond education. They are led by a chair determined for the academy to be a first choice for parents and where every child is given the opportunity to fulfil their potential.