Class Teacher at Highcliffe St Mark Primary School (cover Maternity Leave)

Job description

About the role

Are you a creative and energetic teacher looking to build strong relationships within a happy and supportive school community? If so, our school might have the perfect opportunity for you. Highcliffe St Mark Primary School is looking for a year 5 class teacher to start in January 2027 to cover a maternity leave until the end of the summer term 31 August 2027. The successful candidate will join a highly committed and supportive staff team where the children are happy, confident and motivated.

Our school is situated in a quiet and popular residential area in the coastal location of Highcliffe in the borough of Christchurch. We have strong links within our community and as a church school we have good connections with our local church. Our staff work together as a very supportive team who are continually striving for high standards of education for our children, whilst ensuring that a stimulating and varied curriculum is maintained. We provide a wide range of professional development opportunities for our staff and offer both internal and external additional training.

We are fortunate to have additional learning spaces such as a music and drama, STEM and cookery rooms. Our extensive school grounds benefit from an all weather sports pitch, a good sized playing field, excellent wildlife and forest schools areas and a heated open air swimming pool. We like to use our grounds as a "classroom without walls" and encourage forest schools and other outdoor learning opportunities.

As a Church of England Foundation School we respect all individuals in a secure and caring environment based on our core Christian Values of Courage, Compassion and Respect. We maintain a high level of excellent TA support as we believe that investing in the right support enables our children to thrive. Senior Leaders are committed to reducing workload and are ever mindful of this when we plan improvement for our school. We encourage a team approach within and across year groups to protect the wellbeing of our staff.

The successful candidates should:

• Have experience of teaching in Primary Schools
• Be committed to relational practice, knowing that strong relationships are the key to good behaviour
• Be passionate about children's learning as well as their social and emotional development
• Enjoy working as part of an enthusiastic team
• Have high standards for themselves and for their children

Visits to the school are warmly welcomed.

Closing date: 21 September 2026

Interview date: 29 September 2026

Further Information

Highcliffe St Mark Primary School values the diversity of our workforce and welcomes applications from all sectors of the community.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people; this is a commitment which we expect all staff and volunteers to share. The successful candidate will be required to have a Disclosure and Barring Service check in line with the Governments safer recruitment guidelines.

This role is UK based and your Right to Work will need to be established as part of the appointment process.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974. The amendments to the ROA 1974 (Exceptions Order 1975, (2013 and 2020)) provide that when applying for certain jobs and activities, certain spent convictions and cautions are 'protected', so they do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account. The MOJ's guidance on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Exceptions Order 1975, provides information about which convictions must be declared during job applications and related exceptions and further information about filtering offences can be found in the DBS filtering guide.

Keeping Children Safe in Education

Highcliffe St Mark Primary School will conduct online searches of shortlisted candidates. This check will be part of a safeguarding check, and the search will purely be based on whether an individual is suitable to work with children. All aspects of social media and internet searches will be conducted. As care must be taken to avoid unconscious bias and any risk of discrimination, a person who will not on the appointment panel will conduct the searches and will only share information if and when findings are relevant and of concern.