Head of Department - English

Job description / Role

The PERFORMANCE RESPONSIBILITIES of the Head of Department are:

Climate Leadership:
- Demonstrating positive leadership style and effective communication skills within department and with administration.
- Contributing positively to team building in the best interest of AKNS programs and professional development initiatives.
- Providing leadership, motivation, and management towards the achievement of excellence in teaching, research, continuing education and service activities of the department.
- Promoting Collegial Relationship/ Professionalism
- Observing teachers in the subject area to:
- collect effective ideas and techniques to share with others.
- provide feedback to teachers regarding various effective approaches/techniques.
- appreciate and acknowledge the good practices of the teacher.
- bring to the teacher's attention her/his weak areas and make recommendations.

Instructional Leadership:
- Curriculum-related duties
- Development
- Leading the process of developing the curriculum by providing guidance on writing unit plans and aligning assessments with standards.
- Leading the process of development of academic standards, and the official assessment.
- Reviewing all curriculum maps from the departments or teams.
- Confirming that department or team maps are accurate and complete.
- Providing constructive feedback to teachers about their maps.
- Maintaining and/or revising instructional materials based on current research.

Implementing/monitoring
- Leading the process of implementing the curriculum by:
- Getting models of work to be a regular feature in every classroom in our department/grade level.
- Creating common assessments, across our department/grade level.
- Leading the process of monitoring the curriculum by:
- Adopting and using protocols for regularly looking at student work within our department/grade level, including the moderation of assessments.
- Analyzing results from common assessments and making decisions about the results.
- Meeting with specialists and administrators to implement, and monitor an action plan for the subject area.
- Ensuring program continuity.
- Planning with the teachers for each phase of the curriculum cycle including curriculum assessment and program support.
- Preparing co- and extra-curricular activities, and staff development.
- Overseeing activities in the subject area related to its placement on the curriculum cycle.
- Planning and facilitating student activities to support instructional practice.
- Scheduling and conducting regular grade level/subject area meetings and arranging for minutes to be recorded and distributed to department members, Phase Principal/Assistant Principal, and School Principal/Vice Principal.
- Planning and managing departmental functions.
- Program Evaluation
- Gathering and analyzing evidence about the quality of the department program with respect to the criteria and the expected school-wide learning results.
- Using ' Atlas' as a tool for routine team or department self-study and reflection.
- Coordinating, gathering data/analysis and reports/the results of self-study for the purpose of developing an action plan.
- Developing an action plan for program improvement.
- Updating and submitting to the Principal an annual departmental plan.
- Teaching and Learning
- Advising the School, faculty and other relevant colleagues on:
- discipline specific matters in relation to the development, renewal and implementation of the curriculum.
- the student experience, in support of the strategic goals of the School.
- Supporting the Principal in the management and development of academic staff, e.g. participation in and/or organization of:
- Modeling and supporting effective principles of teaching, instructional methodologies, and classroom management.
- Orienting and assisting new teachers to curriculum area.
- Encouraging and supporting colleagues in professional growth.
- When necessary, providing demo lessons for teachers as part of their development.
- Also, when required, teaching across his/her section demonstrating a variety of teaching styles and strategies and acting as a mentor for less experienced teachers.
- Administrative Leadership
- Hosting regularly scheduled department/grade level meetings and communicating the goals and concerns of department with administration.
- Participating in Division level HOD/Team Leader meetings.
- Coordinating team group orders within budget limitations and regulations.
- Liaising representative for department/grade to the Principal and disseminates information to department/team.
- Contributing to the textbook review and adoption committee(s).
- Performing other duties as assigned by the Principals.
- Resource /Planning/ Management
- Coordinating department inventories and resource needs assessments.
- Providing support to the Principal in the planning of resources for the School, including staff planning, participation in staff recruitment and selection, and the allocation of work.
- Requesting new materials and equipment in order to provide instructional support to teachers in their attempts to meet curricular outcomes.
- Assessing the need for instructional resources based on teacher input as required by the curriculum.
- Facilitating and be knowledgeable of information resources and technology use for instruction.
- Keeping a track of the teachers' resource material and "toping up" orders for lost or damaged Books, kits, textbooks etc
- School Middle Management Team
- Contributing as a key player to the School's middle management team in its:

School Committees:
- Participating in and/or chair formal School Committees.
- Formulating and execute departmental policies.
- Recommending improvements in the efficiency of operation of organizational units assigned to his/her responsibility.
- Participating in the plan, research, service and extension activities of the department.
- Preparing annual appraisal and development reports on academic personnel.
- Observing teachers three times formally during the year and informally as many times as needed and preparing reports about the teacher's performance after discussing the strengths and difficulties of the teacher.

Requirements

- Communication
- Calling and running meetings of the department faculty and staff on weekly basis.
- Providing the teachers/administration with a copy of the minutes of all Department meetings.
- Promoting communication between home and school and encouraging involvement of parents in their child's learning.
- Maintaining and submitting upon request complete records that document action planning.
- Reporting
- Working closely with the Phase Principal and School Principal to:
- Keep them informed regarding efforts, projects, teachers' /students' performances, and other related matters/issues.
- Secure support in establishing meetings with faculty.
- Provide information regarding implementation of the curriculum and the subject area action plan.
- Follow-up on curricular decisions.
- Provide accurate, substantive feedback in a timely manner.
- Writing a monthly report to the SLT (cc Curriculum Director) to keep Admin informed on Team accomplishments. Reports include the following:
- Team strengths and areas for improvement in accordance to the classroom observations/visitations.
- Curricular accomplishments.
- A Team Goal(s) (curricular) and the monitoring of this goal. Each team should have at least one learning goal annually, based on data from various forms of assessment, including common, external and teacher made.
- The implementation of the KHDA action plan in accordance to the SEF.
- Flexibility and Responsiveness

About the Company

GEMS Education is a pioneering education company with an international network of award winning K-12 schools. Over the past 55 years GEMS has grown from one school to being a truly global company with one incredible mission – to make quality education available to every student. Over 20,000 education professionals unlock the potential of over 250,000 students across 14 countries each and every day, preparing children of all ages for real world success.