Senior Leader: Mathematics - Admiral Lord Nelson School

ADMIRAL LORD NELSON SCHOOL
DUNDAS LANE
PORTSMOUTH
PO3 5XT

Tel: 023 9236 4536
Email:

Headteacher: Chris Doherty

Senior Leader: Mathematics
Salary:  Leadership L10–L14
Contract: Permanent
Working hours: Full-time
Start date: September 2024
Closing date: Friday 26^th April 2024
Interviews held:  As soon as possible after closing date

March 2024

Dear Prospective colleague, 

Thank you for your interest in working here at Admiral Lord Nelson School. Please find details of the post together with information about our school! 

 Always oversubscribed, we have expanded our school so that more local families can experience the excellent education offered here at Admiral Lord Nelson School for over two decades! Therefore, we are seeking to appoint  a passionate maths specialist to join a thriving, fully inclusive and ambitious school located in the northeast of Portsmouth. We are looking for a dynamic and driven Senior Leader: Mathematics to lead our Mathematics department. The successful candidate  will quickly build relationships with students and staff. They will be able to break down barriers to learning and inspires colleagues so that students achieve their potential and feel successful.

Salterns Academy Trust is a learning community where every member of staff is motivated by the positive difference they will make to the personal development and the futures of our young people of Portsmouth.  It was formed when Admiral Lord Nelson School became a converter academy in April 2014 and sponsored Trafalgar School, which is now our thriving partner Secondary School in Portsmouth. 

We have a national reputation for being a truly inclusive school with excellent standards and principled curriculum design, having a very high Ebacc entry. We have a deep-rooted and longstanding commitment to being a UNICEF Rights Respecting School and we have recently been reaccredited with UNICEF Gold Award status. We are equally passionate about promoting creativity across all aspects of our curriculum, for which we were the first school in England to hold a Triple Artsmark Platinum Award. This is a genuinely exciting school to be part of, morally driven by our core values of Inclusivity, Wellbeing and High Expectations; we really do value our staff and place the voice of our incredible students at the heart of all we do! In January 2024 the staff survey reported that 100% would recommend this school as a place to work.

The Maths team at ALNS has gone from strength to strength in the past 4 years with improving outcomes for our students. Progress of our students in Maths is good having been at national average for several years we have ambitions to be even better and are on a trajectory to be so this year. The team have embedded a curriculum that is challenging and engaging resulting in high performance from both staff and students. The curriculum is innovative and focused on developing students’ lifelong love of mathematics as well as achieving results the students deserve. Our standards are high and we pride ourselves on our ability to inspire and excite all our students to exceed their potential.

Collaborative planning enables us to manage teacher workload and ensure a balance between teacher autonomy and consistency. All of our schemes of work identify the core knowledge and suggested activities with accompanying resources, but teachers are encouraged to plan according to their students’ needs and in keeping with the principles of effective teaching and learning. At KS4, our students undertake the OCR Maths GCSEs and some students study statistics. We engage our students in ambitious and challenging study, which is supported by exciting extra-curricular opportunities and events that bring the study to life.

The Maths team is a wonderful group of practitioners, all of which are subject experts and they demonstrate an unwavering commitment to professional development. You will be a part of a department who embrace the latest developments in mathematics teaching and professional learning opportunities will support you to deliver the highest quality of education. Our collaborative approach to curriculum development ensures that we have a collective focus on continuous improvement.

We work as a team and support each other, including being proactive in embedding a positive learning culture on corridors and in classrooms. These strong professional relationships are enriched through regular catch-ups in the workroom, social events and celebrations.

Sharing good practice is commonplace amongst all curriculum areas in our school and our professional learning programme will give you the chance to really think about what makes for great teaching and learning. We pride ourselves on helping great teachers become the best they can be no matter where they are in their career. 

If you are ambitious and looking to take the next step, we will invest in your development and offer rapid career progression for those who aspire to be become middle leaders or senior leaders of the future. 

This role would suit a current Head of Department/Curriculum Leader or an aspiring leader with a proven track record in the classroom who is seeking to become a key member of the wider Senior Leadership team.

Salterns Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.  Early applications are encouraged, and we reserve the right to close the vacancy if a suitable candidate is found. We will ensure that all our recruitment and selection practices reflect this commitment.  All successful candidates will be subject to Disclosure and Barring checks along with other relevant employment checks.

*Online searches will happen at shortlisting stage*

If you are interested in joining our amazing team of staff, we’d love to hear from you! Informal visits from those who are interested in finding out more about the role are welcomed.  We look forward to discussing what unique skills you could bring to the role and how we could help support you in the next steps of your career. Please contact the Headteacher though his PA by email:   

, found on the school website  ,  together with a letter of application (maximum 2 sides of A4) by midday on Friday 26^th   April 2024. Candidates should send their completed application to   

Please include in your letter: 

1. What attracts you to the post.
2. Previous experience and skills that will help you undertake this role.
3. What you consider to be the key features of an engaging and stimulating 11-16 curriculum. 

Yours sincerely, 

Chris Doherty - Headteacher  

Some forms of employment, occupations and professions are exempted from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. 

Working within a School is exempted from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. 

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions.
• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020).   
• If you have been barred from working with Children and/or Adults at risk.

The DBS check will reveal both spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings, and any other information held by local police that’s considered relevant to the role. Any information that is “protected” under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 will not appear on a DBS certificate.

The successful candidate will then be asked to complete an application for the relevant Disclosure and Barring Service check or if subscribed to the update service provide the necessary details to allow a check to be made.

Guidance about whether a conviction or caution should be disclosed can be found on the Ministry of Justice website.

Guidance on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Exceptions Order 1975 - GOV.UK (

The filtering rules were updated on 28 November 2020 as follows:

• warnings, reprimands and youth cautions will no longer be automatically disclosed on a DBS certificate
• the multiple conviction rule has been removed, meaning that if an individual has more than one conviction, regardless of offence type or time passed, each conviction will be considered against the remaining rules individually, rather than all being automatically disclosed

Job Description