Dear Candidate
Thank you for your interest in the role of Deputy Headteacher at Brakenhale School. We are looking to appoint an enthusiastic, motivated and reflective colleague to join our leadership team. Our school is driven by our three values: Aim High, Be Kind and Take Responsibility. These values permeate everything that we do and, as a result, they enable us to help fulfil our vision whereby we prepare our students for their individual successes and future careers. Each and every one of us has a role to play in ensuring that our students get the very best.
We are an 11 to 18 school situated on the southern side of Bracknell town centre. Our commitment to high standards and outstanding teaching has led us to become the school of choice for families in Bracknell Forest. Our progress score this summer has been the highest since its inception, but there is still a long way to go, we are committed to moving our P8 to +1.0 to ensure our students have the best possible life chances. In the Sixth Form, three quarters of grades for vocational courses were graded a Distinction or Distinction*. Being an integral part of our local community is something that we value.
We are now looking for a high quality leader to become a key member of our ambitious and committed academy leadership team and oversee the strategic leadership and development of our pastoral support, SEND and behaviour systems. This is a critical role for the academy and is at the heart of ensuring all our students feel a sense of belonging and develop the resilience they need to achieve exceptional outcomes.
At Brakenhale, we work to do the simple things well, over and over again, as this is what ‘great schools do’. We have disruption free lessons, so that teachers can focus on teaching. We have worked to simplify systems and structures within our school to help us manage what we do: students line-up every morning so that our children start the day in a calm and orderly manner; we centralise detentions so that teachers are not expected to do these daily; we ‘live mark’ so that teachers do not take class sets of books home; we have two data drops for each year group which reduces the unnecessary need to collect data.
With the above in mind, a vital element of any school and its continued development is the people who are part of it. Every single member of staff matters. They contribute, individually and within teams, to ensure we drive standards and outcomes. As a result, the enthusiastic, motivated and reflective individual joining us will be eager to be part of this culture. They will whole-heartedly believe in our vision of increasing the life chances for our students.
We are proud members of the Greenshaw Learning Trust, a ‘family’ of like-minded schools, that collaborate to provide mutual support, share their good practice and learn from each other, whilst retaining and developing our own distinctive character.
The Trust is a vibrant and forward-thinking community of teachers, support staff and learners committed to educating the ‘whole child’ to improve life chances, whilst securing the best possible outcomes for students. We encourage all young people to work hard and make the most of the opportunities they are given. Our amazing team of teachers and support staff themselves demonstrate and encourage a lifelong love of learning, both within and beyond our curriculum.
As one of the highest performing multi-academy trusts in the country, we currently comprise almost forty schools in South London, Berkshire, Surrey, Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire, and Plymouth. We are continuing to grow and have further schools joining us on a regular basis.
We are ambitious about diversity and inclusion and very much look forward to receiving applications from candidates whose personal qualities and values reflect those in the person specification and whose experiences also place them in a strong position to deliver the challenges set out in the job description. We encourage applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital status, religion, belief, or race.
Brakenhale School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people therefore this appointment will be subject to vetting, including an enhanced DBS disclosure.
The school website https://brakenhale.co.uk, provides a clear picture of our aspirations and our vision. Should you have any queries or would like a confidential conversation, then please contact our advising consultant, at Pentir, Mike Phillips on 07830 313 915 ([email protected]).
Yours sincerely
Camilla Douglas
Headteacher
