Working at KJS

Why work at King James's School?

Our school is extremely popular with families, being heavily over-subscribed year on year, and our students achieve highly. To support our high expectations and achievements, we pride ourselves on being a highly professional staff team. We share a passion for learning and are committed to inspire and support all our students to be successful, and to develop into confident young adults, ready for life after KJS.

Within school we have created our ACE strategy , highlighting the importance of strong Ambition and good Character in order to achieve Excellence. This principle holds true for staff, as well as students, and is evident through a focus on high standards, a commitment to personal CPD and a professional approach to our work

In exchange for our high expectations of staff, as a school we commit to continuing to strive to make our school a great place to work

A great place to work

With staff wellbeing and personal development at the centre of our thinking, we are delighted to be able to offer a range of strategies to support colleagues in different ways. 

How we become a great place to work

Being a great place to work doesn't just happen by accident.

We work hard to foster a collaborative and supportive working environment, which challenges and supports colleagues to perform at the highest level.

What benefits can I expect working at King James’s School?

• Pay
  • Terms and conditions of employment and salaries  at least match national pay and conditions within the education sector.
  • Our approach to sick pay and maternity/paternity leave meet or exceed national standards.
  • Auto-enrolment into a generous pension scheme – helping you plan for the future
• Flexible working
  • Term-time only, part-time and other flexible working patterns are available for a significant proportion of roles.
• PPA
  • A minimum of 12½ % PPA for teaching staff - giving you more time for planning and marking
•  Refreshments
  • Free tea, coffee and milk in both staffrooms
  • Complementary refreshments for those attending evening events
  • Breaktime refreshments on INSET days
  • Access to a canteen
• Wellbeing
  • Up to 3 days paid compassionate leave
• Health
  • Onsite counselling service – free and confidential
  • Free flu vaccines – helping you to try and stay well
  • Free eye tests and contribution to your glasses (if this is appropriate)
• Finance
  • Access to discount sites through vivup – making your money go further
• Parking
  • Free onsite parking, with some car charging ports

Teacher Standards

As the most important profession for our nation’s future, teachers need considerable knowledge and skill, which need to be developed as their careers progress. The Teachers’ Standards (overview) set out a number of expectations about professional development; namely, that teachers should: 

• keep their knowledge and skills as teachers up-to-date and be self-critical; 
• take responsibility for improving teaching through appropriate professional development, responding to advice and feedback from colleagues; 
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how pupils learn and how this has an impact on teaching; 
• have a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas; 
• reflect systematically on the effectiveness of lessons and approaches to teaching; and 
• know and understand how to assess the relevant subject and curriculum areas.

Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

We prioritise effective professional learning for teachers as a core part of securing effective teaching. It cannot exist in isolation, rather it requires a pervasive culture of scholarship with a shared commitment for teachers to support one another to develop so that our students benefit from the highest quality teaching. The thousands of professional decisions that must be made every day need to be informed by the best evidence, knowledge and professional wisdom.

Our CPD programme is a key driver of staff development, recruitment, retention, wellbeing and school improvement. It is designed to support, develop and enthuse colleagues, whatever their role in school. 

Some of these approaches are listed Staff Professional Development webpage.

Wellbeing

We recognise that working in schools is incredibly rewarding, but at times it can also be very challenging.

To create a positive working environment, we engage in a number of well-being initiatives.

Some of these initiatives are listed Wellbeing for staff webpage.

This is what our team say

These are just some of the comments made by colleagues about working at King James's:

• "A lovely environment to work in"
• "CPD is available on a wide range of topics to undertake as and when needed"
• "It is a superb school with so many positive things going for it" 
• "The staff are amazing"

Work or train with us

We want the best colleagues to work at King James's School, so we only recruit the best.

If you are interested in working with us, please look at our Vacancies page

If you are interested in training to be a teacher with us, please click Teacher Training page