Post Title: Head of Kodesh & Secondary Jewish Studies Teacher 

Grade: MPS + SEN Allowance + TLR (Or leadership scale depending on experience)

Required for: Immediate start or April 2022 or September 2022
(opportunity for transition days will be arranged)

Hours: Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm, following Shabbat hours on a Friday 

Pay: Competitive salary based on experience 

Condition of employment: 1 year fixed contract, with opportunity to extend to permanent following a year. 

Reporting to: Headteacher  

Gesher School is a unique all-through school providing a specialist, meaningful and functional learning environment for young people with special educational needs. This includes language, communication and social pragmatic difficulties. We have a specialism in autism spectrum challenges (ASC).

Young people are at the heart of Gesher School, where we foster a sense of belonging and community.  Our school offers a happy, safe, friendly, and stimulating environment in which young people are supported to learn, interact and have fun.  We believe that all young people have the potential to achieve, but that every child is individual and requires a tailored, young person-centred approach to learning.

The Gesher approach is warm, friendly and nurturing. Emotional health, resilience, and developing young people’s independence and learning is at the core of our vision. 

The ideal candidate will provide authentic, project-based and experiential learning opportunities for our students and will understand how to provide rigour and extended learning experiences within an innovative learning environment. Key to our strategic goal is to nurture our students’ passion for learning by creating an exciting, hands-on, and rigorous programme that uses technology and PBL to promote learning, creativity, and collaboration. 

Whilst previous experience in an SEN environment would be desirable, excellent teaching skills and the right motivation, personal qualities and level of resilience are just as important. Educated to degree level with Qualified Teacher Status, you will be calm, engaging, resilient and have an innovative style of teaching, motivated by helping every child to reach their potential. 

At Gesher we provide:

  • Opportunities that enable young people to thrive as we want our children to be ambitious about achieving their full potential.
  • a collaborative learning team around every young person to support each young person’s learning needs and maximise meaningful learning opportunities.
  • a therapeutic team that works together with families to nurture and support young people’s emotional, social, and academic development.
  • a partnership with families to improve the lives and life chances of young people with SEND by ensuring that they are healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, and experience the wider community.
  • Being part of our learning community, you will be able to use your creativity and shape the way our school provides excellent learning opportunities for our young people.

The post holder will:

  • Provide vision and leadership towards teaching and learning of Jewish Studies
  • Provide leadership and support to teachers in embedding Jewish Studies
    across the school
  • Engage in performance management monitoring the teaching, learning and assessment of Jewish Studies across the school
  • Develop partnerships beyond the school to support curriculum learning and development within the Jewish Community
  • Lead on the Jewish Ethos and Values of the school, and empower all staff to contribute towards the Jewish Ethos and Values of the school
  • Lead and coordinate whole school celebration of festivals, Enrichment Days, and all aspects of Jewish Way of Life and Education acorss the school. 
  • Uphold the Kashrut Policy
  • Will deliver exemplary lessons  and is able to work as part of a team teachers, teaching assistants and therapists
  • Be secure in their Jewish Studies knowledge and confident with differentiating and personalising Jewish learning
  • Have an ingrained passion for Jewish Education and enthusiasm to share this passion and knowledge
  • Be comfortable with reading, writing, speaking and teaching Hebrew
  • Have a deep understanding of how children with special educational needs learn and with support how to implement and review agreed teaching strategies for pupils with SEN
  • Carry out responsibilities/duties with regards to Equal Opportunities and Health and Safety Policies.
  • Support Gesher in the development of an outstanding school for pupils with SEND
  • Be a committed member of the vision for Gesher

As a member of our team, you will:

  • Join an innovative learning community with ambitious practises. Not only do we want to have an impact on the young people in our school, we also want to help shape the future of special education nationally and internationally. 
  •  Join a committed community of staff and parents and wider supporters.
  • Be supported to become the best you can be. We believe in valuing all our staff and therefore take professional development very seriously. In return for their high level of commitment to enabling our young people to reach the best outcomes, we will provide our staff with excellent opportunities for growth and development.
  • Always be supported in terms of your leadership and you will be able to take on responsibilities in various areas of school life.
  • Have access to a network of forward-thinking practitioners (Big Education, Rethinking Assessment, XP, etc.) via other members of our team. 

For further information, please visit www.gesherschool.com

Interviews will be organised on a rolling basis. This advertisement may be withdrawn once a suitable candidate is identified. Candidates invited for an interview will be required to take a lateral flow test.

Diversity is a core value of Gesher School.  We believe the power of diversity enriches all of us by exposing us to a range of ways to understand and engage with the world, identify challenges, and to discover, design and deliver solutions. As such, we actively encourage people from a variety of backgrounds to apply for roles at our school. 

Gesher School is committed to safeguarding young people and staff. Successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced DBS check.