Dartford Grammar School

DARTFORD GRAMMAR SCHOOL TEACHER OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

This post represents a unique opportunity to play a major role in the continued development of a highly successful and innovative school, outstandingly effective in preparing its middle managers for further promotion. Dartford Grammar School is one of very few schools nationally to have been identified as outstandingly successful in its last four Ofsted inspections.

We are seeking to appoint a Physical Education Teacher to continue the development of sport within the school, including GCSE PE and, as the leading International Baccalaureate state school in the country we also offer, IB Sport & Exercise Health Science in the sixth form.

Staffing The Physical Education Faculty at presents consists of four members of staff. The faculty is also supported considerably, in its extra-curricular programme, by staff from other faculties, currently standing at over 20 additional staff.

Facilities The school has excellent facilities, both indoor and outdoor, for Physical Education.

The Becket Sports Centre contains a full-size sports hall, a smaller aerobics room, and a multi-gym which is exceptionally well-equipped. The school has full use of the centre throughout the school day until 5.30pm, when it becomes a community facility. The school also has an additional free weights room for specific strength-training programmes.

The school’s 11-acre sports field is located some two hundred metres from the main site. It has a new brick-built pavilion, with changing rooms and stores on the ground floor, and a 100 sq.m. room and balcony on the first floor. The sports field contains an athletics throwing cage, 3 lane cricket net facility, 2 cricket, 5 rugby pitches, and a floodlit training area.

Curricular Provision At present, Years 7 and 8 have three periods of Physical Education (arranged as a single and a double) in a 30-period week. Years 9 have a double period of Physical Education and one single theory GCSE lesson.

In Years 10 and 11 Physical Education is an option subject that typically has one class of entry. The last two years have seen over 90% A/A* grades achieved. All students will also have a double activities period.

In Key Stage 5, all students have a double activities period, when they may take Physical Education or voluntary work. There is currently one Y12 class (first cohort) studying IB Sport & Exercise Health Science.

Extra-curricular programme The school annually has a Sports Day, Swimming Gala, Old Boys rugby and cricket fixtures, a Y7 and Y8 rugby festival and a rugby dinner. Over £5,000 of department purchasing is annually fund-raised through sports tours, Saturday refreshments, sports dinner and school sports kit. Inter-house competitions take place in many other sports.

Each Saturday throughout the first six months of the academic year, the school fields up to 22 rugby teams in fixtures against leading schools in South-East England. In the summer term, the school is represented by five cricket teams and has an annual fixture with the MCC and a Min Patel XI. Various tours have taken place, including rugby teams travelling to Lancashire, the West Country and Scotland / Ireland. There is an annual cricket tour to Yorkshire and a Netball tour to Cambridge. The school competes in a wide variety of other sports, and has recently reached national finals in athletics. The school has many highly-gifted athletes among its students. They frequently gain representative honours at county, regional and national levels. In recent years, over 40 students have represented the county in rugby, and several have gone on to national or international honours. Other exceptional achievements by individuals include those of Adam Gemili who reached the semi-finals of the London 2012 Olympics 100m.

The Faculty’s extra-curricular programme receives strong support from a large number of colleagues and parents.