West Moreton Anglican College
INFORMATION FOR APPLICANTS Head of Middle School
INFORMATION FOR APPLICANTS Head of Middle School West Moreton Anglican College (WestMAC) is a dynamic Prep to Year 12 co‑educational Anglican school that promotes a balanced schooling experience. Our innovative teachers challenge students to engage actively in their own learning; become critical, creative and entrepreneurial thinkers; and to develop emotionally, socially and spiritually. The College offers diverse opportunities to inspire students to uncover their individual potential.
Our College mission statement encapsulates our approach to education and emphasises the individuality of the process in which we believe. The College motto – Faith, Knowledge, Service – offers additional insight into the values that unite our community. These attributes connect to the mission of the Anglican Church and the overarching Christian values that guide the operations and direction at the College.
WestMAC is a learning environment in which all members have the opportunity to reach their individual potential for living a contributing and fulfilling life. Our community grows in an environment where Christianity is foundational; where our values are embraced; where mutual respect demands a hospitality that reaches out and welcomes those of all cultures and faiths; and where excellence in every endeavour is sought and applauded.
Award winning Middle Schooling philosophy Faith, Knowledge and Service permeate all aspects of the Middle School as our students pursue individual excellence. The aim of the Middle School is to deliver a holistic educational program that is relevant, responsive and empowering to the developmental needs of the student, characterised by a culture of high expectations and rigour, within a supportive College community. WestMAC recognises that middle schooling represents a period of a young person’s life marked by rapid and significant change. The Middle School student is characterised by passion and enthusiasm, a need for social connectedness and independence, an often curious and enquiring mind along with a strong sense of justice. WestMAC also understands that traditionally, Middle School aged students can experience the highest levels of isolation, boredom and disenchantment of any school age group. This period of a student’s life is critical as their experiences can greatly affect the formation of their sense of identity, image and self-worth. The College was recently recognised by the Middle Years of Schooling Association for our outstanding middle schooling transition program. This ‘Award of Excellence’ acknowledges the
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Information for applicants - Head of Middle School
importance of the College’s priority to provide a contemporary education, which is underpinned by the following principles: ཛྷཛྷ holistic learning that is student-centred ཛྷཛྷ teaching for understanding and higher order thinking ཛྷཛྷ responsive, integrated, differentiated and negotiated curriculum ཛྷཛྷ relevant, appropriate, flexible and challenging tasks ཛྷཛྷ empowering students to take charge of their own learning ཛྷཛྷ collaborative learning and teaching ཛྷཛྷ multiple opportunities for students to experience success and to develop competence ཛྷཛྷ encouraging, acknowledging and valuing student voice ཛྷཛྷ strong sense of community with a relational focus ཛྷཛྷ safe and supportive learning environments conducive to responsible risk taking ཛྷཛྷ seamless transitions.
Our philosophical position on education supports the Dimensions of Learning pedagogical framework by providing guiding principles specific to middle schooling. All members of the WestMAC community are committed to the effective integration of these principles in all aspects affecting middle schooling including but not limited to: our curriculum, assessment, student wellbeing, student leadership, physical learning spaces, technology and extra‑curricular activities.
Anglican schools support the rights of children and young people and are committed to ensuring the safety, welfare and wellbeing of students. Anglican schools are therefore committed to responding to allegations of student harm resulting from the conduct or actions of any person including that of employees. This commitment includes the provision of a safe and supportive living and learning environment for all students and requires all employees, volunteers and visitors to model and encourage behaviour that upholds the dignity and protection of students from harm.
Academic success WestMAC’s carefully sequenced academic program ensures that each student is engaged in learning through developmentally appropriate content, assessment and grading. The College promotes learning as a meaningful experience through decision making, problem solving, invention, experimental inquiry, investigation, and system analysis. These higher‑order thinking skills are developed in students at all year levels. The College offers broad academic and vocational education and training (VET) programs which allow students to select pathways that motivate and inspire them to achieve their best. Graduates seeking post-school tertiary pathways routinely attain first or second preference offers from universities.
An extensive range of extra-curricular activities enrich student learning. Students can participate in sport, music, dance, outdoor education and a range of clubs and international study tours. These opportunities foster personal development, cultivate leadership skills, enhance team-building and develop effective communication skills.
21st Century capacity
Idyllic learning environment
At the heart of the College is faith and service, based on a Christian way of life. The College empowers students to value themselves, and to be proud of their own and each other’s achievements, creating an authentic community of life-long learners.
The College’s unique location offers students many advantages. WestMAC is set on a naturally beautiful 38 hectare semi-rural campus less than 10 minutes from Ipswich’s CBD. This provides students with a peaceful and safe learning environment, as well as convenient access to the amenities of this increasingly dynamic, growing regional centre. Additionally, dedicated bus services make the College easily accessible to Brisbane’s western suburbs; enrolment trends indicate that WestMAC is increasingly attractive to families in this corridor.
The spiritual life and mission of the College, combined with an emphasis on student wellbeing, enhances the student experience. Our strengths-based wellbeing program SpiritED reflects the College’s understanding that learning involves mind, body and spirit. We focus on developing not only the aptitudes, but also the attitudes that young people need to flourish in a rapidly changing contemporary world. WestMAC is proud to graduate young people capable of being tomorrow’s spirited leaders.
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Personal growth
Information for applicants - Head of Middle School
The College campus has a student population of approximately 1500 students from the C&K Kindergarten to Year 12. The Middle School (Years 7 to 9) has a student population of 450.
POSITION SUMMARY This position involves coordination of all day to day operations within the Middle School (Years 7 to 9). The person appointed will report directly to the Principal and occupy a position on the Senior Administration Team of the College. The Head of Middle School will exercise responsibilities to an equal degree as the Head of Senior School and the Head of Junior School The person appointed will teach for a proportion of time in addition to carrying out higher level duties. An attractive salary and other benefits appropriate to a position of this seniority will be available to the successful applicant.
Key accountabilities ཛྷཛྷ Oversee all aspects of the day to day operations of the Years 7 to 9 section of the College including student behaviour and discipline, effective learning and resource management. ཛྷཛྷ Provide regular reports directly to the Principal on all matters relating to the operation of the Middle School. ཛྷཛྷ Active involvement in the planning and implementation of a modern, relevant and academically rigorous Middle School curriculum in liaison with the Director of Curriculum and Heads of Department. ཛྷཛྷ Communicate effectively with students, parents, staff and the management of the College on all matters pertaining to the operation of the Middle School. ཛྷཛྷ Act as a leader of the pastoral care system at West Moreton Anglican College as designed by the Principal. ཛྷཛྷ With the support of the Middle School leadership team (Deputy Head of Middle School, Heads of Year, Curriculum Coordinator and Student Wellbeing Coordinator) continuously monitor and promote the personal welfare and progress of all students. ཛྷཛྷ Assist when necessary, with the interviewing of students (and their parents) applying for enrolment and scholarships. ཛྷཛྷ Work in close liaison with the Heads of Schools to ensure the most effective transition of students from the Junior School to the Middle School and then onto the Senior School.
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Information for applicants - Head of Middle School
ཛྷཛྷ Assist the Principal in developing and implementing a program of ongoing activities to ensure the successful and positive introduction of Years 7, 8 and 9 students and their parents to life in the Senior School. ཛྷཛྷ Monitor and manage teaching and support staff involved in the Middle School. ཛྷཛྷ Manage the physical resources for the Middle School and assist in future planning of the College as required. ཛྷཛྷ Participate in the Senior Administration Team meetings of the College and meetings of the ICT Steering and e-Learning Committees. ཛྷཛྷ Participate in PEP (Professional Engagement Program) processes, or similar, in pursuit of personal professional improvement. ཛྷཛྷ Develop specific proposals as required by the Principal or College Council. ཛྷཛྷ In liaison with the Deputy Principal, coordinate all Middle School staffing, act in a pastoral care capacity to them and develop a sense of team achievement to maximise student outcomes in this sub-school of the College. ཛྷཛྷ Maintain a high visibility in the College community through attendance at Middle School functions and extra-curricular activities. ཛྷཛྷ Other key accountabilities appropriate to the banding of the position as determined by the Principal.
Academic and spiritual
Publicity and marketing
ཛྷཛྷ Encourage staff and student behaviour consistent with Christian (and in particular Anglican) philosophy and teaching.
ཛྷཛྷ Liaise with the Director of Marketing and Business Development with any specific Middle School related publicity.
ཛྷཛྷ Encourage teaching staff involved with Years 7, 8 and 9 to the further development of students’ individual strengths through best use of opportunities for sporting, cultural, service and training activities.
ཛྷཛྷ Maintain effective communication with the College community, particularly parents and families of current and prospective Middle School students through formal and informal channels, including digital media.
ཛྷཛྷ Teach in at least one of two specialist subject disciplines as requested by the Principal to the extent that other leadership, management and administrative duties allow.
ཛྷཛྷ Develop positive and mutually respectful relationships with current and prospective parents and families.
ཛྷཛྷ Work in close cooperation with the Director of Curriculum and Deputy Principal to ensure that Prep to Year 12 programs are synergistically aligned in the Middle School. ཛྷཛྷ Actively seek out and participate in professional development activities which are related to and driven by the Professional Engagement Program (PEP).
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Information for applicants - Head of Middle School
ཛྷཛྷ Maintain a consistently high profile in support of the College’s public and special functions. ཛྷཛྷ Actively and regularly participate in the implementation of extra-curricular activities offered by the College.
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Information for applicants - Head of Middle School
ORGANISATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS/ EXTENT OF AUTHORITY
Your immediate supervisor: Principal
Positions reporting to YOU
Deputy Head of Middle School
Middle School Heads of Year (7, 8 & 9)
Middle School Curriculum Coordinator
Middle School Student Wellbeing Coordinator
Middle School Administrative Support Staff
Defence Transition Mentor
Extent of authority ཛྷཛྷ Make resource acquisition decisions within budget policy guidelines. ཛྷཛྷ This role requires the exercising of significant initiative and/or judgment to make well-reasoned decisions independently within areas of responsibility and aligned to College policy.
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Information for applicants - Head of Middle School
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE Essential ཛྷཛྷ Capacity to lead others in the process of change and positively promote the profile of the College. ཛྷཛྷ Demonstrated leadership in improving educational outcomes for all students within a context of contemporary Middle Schooling philosophy. ཛྷཛྷ A comprehensive knowledge and understanding of current curriculum frameworks, particularly the Australian Curriculum. ཛྷཛྷ Ability to present formally and informally to a variety of audiences in a range of settings, particularly high-stakes ceremonies and assemblies. ཛྷཛྷ Demonstrated capacity to be an empathetic listener, an engaging and persuasive speaker, and a diplomatic communicator. ཛྷཛྷ Strong written communication skills. ཛྷཛྷ A proven ability to manage staff, programs and resources on time and within budget. ཛྷཛྷ Demonstrated strategic and operational planning skills that result in individuals and teams successfully implementing and completing projects. ཛྷཛྷ Capacity to delegate judiciously and effectively. ཛྷཛྷ Demonstrated high level conceptual, analytical and planning skills for use in the implementation of College policies and priorities which optimise learning. ཛྷཛྷ Capacity to make difficult decisions in a complex educational organisation, balancing students’ wellbeing, academic achievement and financial parameters. ཛྷཛྷ Strong information technology and information management skills and experience in relation to pedagogy and public presentations. ཛྷཛྷ Expertise in the successful implementation of a pedagogical framework within a Middle School context – such as Dimensions of Learning, Habits of Mind, and Classroom Instruction That Works is desirable but not essential. ཛྷཛྷ Demonstrated ability to engage parents, teachers, students and the broader community in such a way that individual creativity and achievement is supported and celebrated within a broader context of uncompromising excellence.
ཛྷཛྷ Capacity to work with the College community to motivate and support staff, developing their diverse talents and fostering personal growth through the creation and building of synergistic and effective teams. ཛྷཛྷ Capacity to generate a compellingly optimistic narrative around all aspects of student development, including spiritual, moral and ethical growth.
TECHNICAL/PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS ཛྷཛྷ Tertiary qualifications iin Education (Middle Schooling preferred) and the capacity to teach in at least two disciplines at Year 7 to 9 levels. ཛྷཛྷ Possession of a higher degree (Masters or Doctorate) in Leadership, Counselling, Pastoral Care or related discipline would be viewed favourably. ཛྷཛྷ Must be registered or eligible for registration in Queensland as a teacher. ཛྷཛྷ Membership of relevant professional organisations. ཛྷཛྷ Professional publications in a related field of study would be viewed favourably.
GENERAL ཛྷཛྷ Comply with all requirements of the Anglican Church Southern Queensland Policy and Procedures Manual - Safeguarding our Students. ཛྷཛྷ Comply with requirements of Queensland Workplace Health and Safety (WH&S) Legislation and related WH&S responsibilities and procedures within the College. ཛྷཛྷ Take full responsibility for compliance with all WestMAC policies, procedures and risk management strategies. ཛྷཛྷ Compliance with the Staff Code of Conduct. ཛྷཛྷ Actively participate in the College’s Professional Engagement Program (PEP) and adopt a growth mindset to associated activities, pedagogical development and professional learning. ཛྷཛྷ Recognise and accept that multi-skilling is an essential component of the College and applicants may be required to undertake duties that are outside their normal position description but within their skills, competency and capability.
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Information for applicants - Head of Middle School
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Information for applicants - Head of Middle School
KEY SELECTION CRITERIA The following key selection criteria for the Head of Middle School position will be used by the panel in assessing the abilities, knowledge, potential and qualifications of each applicant. They constitute a common framework against which all applicants will be reviewed. The successful applicant will possess a genuine Christian faith that supports and embraces the Anglican ethos that underpins the College’s mission.
Educational leadership ཛྷཛྷ A proven record of achievement in schools of leading others in the process of change and positively promoting the profile of the organisation. ཛྷཛྷ Demonstrated leadership in improving educational outcomes for all students within a context of contemporary Middle Schooling philosophy. ཛྷཛྷ A comprehensive knowledge and understanding of current curriculum frameworks, particularly the Australian Curriculum. ཛྷཛྷ Demonstrated expertise in the successful implementation of a pedagogical framework within a Middle School context – experience with Dimensions of Learning, and Classroom Instruction That Works will be viewed favourably.
Communication skills ཛྷཛྷ Ability to present formally and informally to a variety of audiences in a range of settings, particularly high-stakes ceremonies and assemblies. ཛྷཛྷ Demonstrated capacity to be an empathetic listener, an engaging and persuasive speaker, and a diplomatic communicator. ཛྷཛྷ Proven capacity to develop positive and mutually respectful relationships with current and prospective parents and families. ཛྷཛྷ Strong written communication skills.
Management skills ཛྷཛྷ A proven ability to manage staff, programs and resources on time and within budget. ཛྷཛྷ Demonstrated strategic thinking capacity and subsequent operational planning skills that result in individuals and teams successfully implementing and completing projects. ཛྷཛྷ Capacity to delegate judiciously and effectively.
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Information for applicants - Head of Middle School
ཛྷཛྷ Demonstrated high level conceptual, analytical and planning skills for use in the implementation of College policies and priorities which optimise learning. ཛྷཛྷ Capacity to make difficult decisions in a complex educational organisation, balancing students’ wellbeing, academic achievement and financial parameters.
Leadership of staff and students ཛྷཛྷ Demonstrated ability to engage parents, teachers, students and the broader community in such a way that individual creativity and achievement is supported and celebrated within a broader context of uncompromising excellence. ཛྷཛྷ Capacity to work with the College community to motivate and support staff, developing their diverse talents and fostering personal growth through the creation and building of synergistic and effective teams. ཛྷཛྷ Capacity to generate a compellingly optimistic narrative around all aspects of adolescent development, including spiritual, moral and ethical growth.
Personal qualities ཛྷཛྷ An ability to build and maintain effective and a mutually respectful personal and professional relationships with all College stakeholders groups. ཛྷཛྷ An ability to exercise tact and discretion when dealing with sensitive and confidential information. ཛྷཛྷ An ability to demonstrate integrity and professionalism in dealing with all College stakeholders. ཛྷཛྷ An ability to demonstrate personal presentability and a professional demeanour in all dealings with College stakeholders.
SELECTION PROCESS
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
The selection process will begin with short-listing. Successful applicants will be invited to participate in a two-stage interview process mid-November 2017.
Applications should be emailed to vacancies@wmac.com.au or posted to:
The format of the first interview will include: ཛྷཛྷ an introduction to and an outline of the Head of Middle School position ཛྷཛྷ questions – from the panel (based on the key selection criteria) ཛྷཛྷ questions – from the applicant ཛྷཛྷ a short presentation (5 minutes) by the applicant on a topic to be advised prior to interview. The successful applicant will be expected to commence duties in mid-January 2018. Applicants seeking more information about the position should contact the consultant assisting the College, Mr Stephen Paul via 0407 620 681.
The Principal West Moreton Anglican College Locked Bag 8004 IPSWICH QLD 4305
Applications must include the following: ཛྷཛྷ covering letter addressing the key selection criteria (2 pages maximum) ཛྷཛྷ curriculum vitae (4 pages maximum), including, but not limited to: ཛྷཛྷ contact details ཛྷཛྷ formal qualifications ཛྷཛྷ professional accreditation and memberships ཛྷཛྷ professional experience including positions held ཛྷཛྷ community, social, sporting and cultural interests ཛྷཛྷ referees – names and contact details of three referees (two professional and one character). Applications will be accepted until 5pm on Monday 6 November 2017.
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Information for applicants - Head of Middle School
Locked Bag 8004 Ipswich Qld 4305 Keswick Road Karrabin Qld 4306 T (07) 3813 4555 F (07) 3813 4566 www.wmac.com.au CRICOS: 01329M ABN: 28 410 978 058