Something BIG is happening in Hull

Press release from Hull City Council

Hull City Council is on the hunt for top teachers to come and join the city's schools. An unprecedented package is available for new teachers, which includes benefits such as financial incentives and exciting training opportunities for career development. It includes a £4000 recruitment incentive for newly appointed heads of department in maths, English and science.

The 'Hull Offer' forms part of the Hull Challenge, which is the council's drive to improve educational standards across the city. The city council has put together a set of eight ambitious pledges for secondary education that they aim to achieve by 2012, which includes improving school attainment, attendance and outcomes for all children and young people.

To achieve this, more top quality teachers are required, which has led to the council widening their search and promoting the city in a bid to attract potential candidates to Hull. New teachers will have lots of potential career development opportunities as well as the chance to play a part in transforming education across the city.

Judith Harwood, head of learning, leisure and achievement, said:

"This is an exciting time for education in Hull; we are working towards a set of ambitious pledges as part of the Hull Challenge and we need the best possible teachers in our schools to help us achieve our ambitions.

"For too long education in the city has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons but we are committed to turning this around. We have already achieved our best ever GCSE results and need more ambitious, driven professionals to join us on our improvement journey.

"There has been no better time to come to the city. You could play a part in shaping our transformational BSF programme, which is one of the biggest in the country. Brand new learning environments are being created which, in turn, is creating fantastic new development opportunities for teachers.

“Demographics also show that nearly half the teachers in the city will have to be replaced in the next 10 years, which means there will be fantastic promotion prospects for excellent practitioners who are ambitious and capable."

Martin McKeown is one teacher that has recently come to teach in the area, and has already taken a step up the career ladder to become a senior leader at Archbishop Sentamu Academy. He said:

“Moving to Hull was a fantastic life choice. I have a great house for my family and I also have the support of the council and the school to make sure my career continues to develop.”

The city is also working with nationally recognised experts in education, including Professor Tim Brighouse, who is credited with turning around underperforming schools in London and Birmingham.

The city of Hull has also been undergoing a radical transformation over the past few years, with major investment and regeneration projects across the city. With property prices amongst the most affordable in the country, the city is a great place to live and work, along with boasting a vibrant social and cultural scene.

Whether you are interested in art, culture, music or sport, the city has a lot to offer, with the widely acclaimed Hull Truck Theatre, nine museums and art galleries, as well as three top-flight sports teams, to name just a few.

For more information about jobs and opportunities in Hull, go to:

www.teachinhull.co.uk.

 

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Notes

Hull Offer: some of the highlights

• A much simpler application system for teachers applying for incentives, with the emphasis on schools to ensure funding is used appropriately
• £1000 maths, science and English teachers incentive for newly appointed teachers is now £2000 and is also eligible for GTP people being employed as qualified teachers following training
• Introduction of a £4000 recruitment incentive for newly appointed HOD in maths, English and science
• Increase of the £1000 departmental development funding to £2000 and for it to include internal appointments
• Increase of CPD funding for HOD in maths, English and science to up to £2000 for MA accredited programmes.
• Opening out of senior leaders incentives to include assistant and deputy heads new to post from within or outside the city.

Hull Challenge

The Hull Challenge is Hull’s response to the government’s National Challenge. As part of this the council and its partners have laid out a clear set of pledges that they want to achieve by 2012;

• The majority of young people will leave school with five A*- C GCSEs including English and maths
•  Every young person will leave school (including special schools) with a qualification or certificate of use to them in the future
• Every school will have more than 30% of its students achieving five A*-C GCSEs including English and maths
• Every young person of school age will either be in school or engaged in some form of learning
• Every school will be fully staffed with well trained teaching and support staff
• Every school will have an achievable plan towards becoming recognised as an 'outstanding' school
• The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme will be well on the way to helping ensure that young people in Hull have the best teachers teaching in the best learning environments
• We will have shown year on year improvement - measured in particular by increases in the proportion of young people leaving school with five A*-C GCSEs

Building Schools for the Future (BSF)

• Over £400m will be invested in Hull’s schools to transform secondary education provision across Hull, with the aim of lifting educational attainment and delivering improved results.
• The transformation through BSF will provide top quality educational facilities fit for the 21st Century, to meet the needs of teaching and learning.
• BSF will require change - for schools to be rebuilt and remodelled or upgraded. The result will be high quality schools offering attractive learning environments where teachers want to teach and where pupils want to learn.
•  BSF is the most exciting development in education the city has ever seen catering for learners from 0 to 90, in communities where people want to live, with schools becoming the heart of those communities.
• Hull is at the forefront of the development of ICT and BSF will link into the important Digital City agenda already in place opening up even more new opportunities for learners.