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Aston Tower Community Primary & Nursery School
Upper Sutton Street, Aston, Birmingham, B6 5BE
Tel: 0121 327 0339
Email: vacancies@astontower.bham.sch.uk
Web: www.astontowerprimary.co.uk
Early Career Teachers- September 2025 start
(Pay: Teachers’ Main Scale M1-U3)
- Want to start your career at a high performing school that provides excellent support for ECTs?
- Want to work at a school with great teachers who are willing to share their practice with you?
- Want to work at a school where Ofsted judged behaviour as ‘outstanding’?
- Want to work in a school where pupils are keen to learn and parents want to support your work?
We are inviting applications from ECTs who want to join our skilled team and through their teaching, make a real difference to pupils’ lives. We offer excellent ECT support through experienced mentors and pair you up to work with year group colleagues who will share their practice with you. Aston Tower has a strong track record for developing ECTs, many of whom have moved on to senior positions at the school or other settings. We are looking for ECTs willing to teach in either key stage 1 or key stage 2.
Aston Tower is a very successful two-form entry multi-cultural primary school that serves a community which really values our work. We are very well resourced, have a large and committed staff team, well-behaved, appreciative pupils and highly supportive trustees. The school has a happy and vibrant ethos. The school is set in spacious, attractive and well maintained modern premises with grounds that offer great potential for learning.
Have a look at our website to get a flavour of our school. An application form and person specification are available from our website at https://www.astontowerprimary.co.uk/job-vacancies
Closing date: Friday 31st March 2025, 12 noon
Email applications to vacancies@astontower.bham.sch.uk
Closing Date: 31 March 2025, 12.00pm
Other Information
GUIDANCE NOTES
TEACHING APPLICATION
THE APPLICATION FORM
Completing the application form is the first step in the recruitment process which may lead to an interview and the possible offer of a job. It is therefore, most important that you complete ALL sections of the application form which are relevant to you as clearly and fully as possible.
Please do not include a Curriculum Vitae with your application, but try to include all relevant information on the form itself using additional sheets if necessary.
If you have a disability and would prefer to submit your application on tape – you may do so. Your recording should follow the format of the application form. The following notes will explain the application form and give some useful advice on how to complete it. Please use black ink or type since it will be necessary to photocopy your form.
Please note that it is an offence to apply for this role if you are barred from engaging in regulated activity with children.
SECTION 1: Vacancy details
This section may have already been completed, but please check that all the details are complete and correct. If they are not included please refer to the job advertisement to fill in this section.
SECTION 2: Personal details
Please enter your personal details fully and clearly so that we may contact you about your application.
Right to work in the UK: If you are shortlisted for interview at a school, your original identification documents verifying your right to work in the UK will be requested, checked and a photocopy will be taken. If your application is successful and you commence employment, the copy of your identification documents will be retained on file under regulations governed by the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act.
Teacher reference number: This should be completed as it will be used to verify Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and ensure you are not barred from teaching or subject to an interim prohibition order.
Qualfications: You will be required to produce original certificates with proof of QTS at interview.
National Insurance number: If you do not currently have a National Insurance number, please leave this blank.
If you are related to a Birmingham Councillor, Birmingham School Governor or an employee of the City Council we ask you to tell us so that we can make sure all applications are treated fairly. Canvassing any Councillor, Governor or employee of the City Council (i.e. seeking to gain an unfair advantage through personal contacts) will disqualify your application.
SECTION 3: Retirement / Dismissal
You should refer to the Teachers’ Pensions website to find out about returning to work after receiving pension benefits. Please go to www.teacherspensions.co.uk. This will guide you in relation to any action you need to take following a new period of teaching employment. You should also advise your former employer of your re-employment if you are in receipt of compensation following premature retirement. You will also re-enter the pension scheme unless you choose to opt out of scheme membership. Opt out election is available from the Teachers’ Pensions website.
SECTION 4: Statutory Induction
If you are an Early Careers Teacher (ECT) and you have served a period of induction you need to confirm where the inductions was served and when. If you have not completed the full period of induction you are asked to provide copies of your induction report/s for the period of induction served and these should be included with your application.
SECTION 5 & 6: Education/qualifications
Please enter details starting with the most recent. We are interested in ANY form of education you have followed, including any courses which did not lead to an examination or qualification. We will take full note of any education or qualifications gained overseas or as part of an employment training scheme. Successful candidates will be required to provide proof of qualifications.
SECTIONS 7: Previous career and other
It is ESSENTIAL that you give full details in chronological order, starting with the most recent, of all employment and other experience since leaving secondary education. This should include any breaks or unpaid activities such as voluntary work, child rearing, travel abroad, etc. Please ensure there are no gaps in your completed service history before returning your form as this could result in your form being rejected.
We require information on all past or present employment. If you have recently left university, college, or a training programme and have not yet had a full-time or permanent job, please give details of any other employment that you may have had such as work experience, part-time, holiday work or voluntary work. Please include your current job title and where applicable school and Local Authority. If you have passed through threshold and you are successful in your application you will be required to produce a copy of your letter of confirmation to Schools HR Services.
SECTION 8: Training
Starting with most recent first, please include any training gained through work or other activities, which you feel is relevant to the job for which you are applying.
SECTION 9: Written references
Please give the name, email and addresses of two referees. If you have been or are employed, the first referee should be your current or most recent employer. If this employment has been within a school, this will be your head teacher. If you do not name your current/most recent head teacher as a referee please expect to be questioned about the reason for this prior to interview.
If you are not currently working with children, but have done so previously, one of your referees should be from your most recent employer, where you were employed to work with children.
Head Teacher Positions: Head teacher applicants from maintained schools should provide the name of a senior officer designated to respond on behalf of the maintaining authority of their current or most recent school. Head teacher applicants from academies or other independent schools should provide the name of an appropriate person responding on behalf of the Academy Trust or other employer. The second referee would normally be the Chair of Governors at that school.
Early Career Teachers: ECTs should name a tutor as their first referee and an appropriate representative at the school where they undertook their final or most recent teaching practice as their second referee.
Please be aware that if you are currently or have previously worked with children, on either a paid or voluntary basis, the employer will be asked if there are any disciplinary offences relating to children, including any in which the penalty is ‘time expired’. They will also be asked if they have any child protection concerns and the outcome of any enquiries or disciplinary procedures.
If you have been unemployed for some time, you should instead, name somebody who knows you well and wherever possible someone able to comment on you in relation to the job for which you have applied. References will not be accepted from relatives or from people writing solely in the capacity of friends.
In line with ‘Keeping children safe in education’ procedures, written references will be required for all shortlisted candidates in order that any relevant issues can be taken up at interview. Previous employers may also be approached to verify particular relevant experience or qualifications prior to interview.
SECTION 10: Arrangements for interview
If you have a disability, please complete this section so that suitable arrangements can be made if you are called for an interview and/or a work based exercise.
SECTION 11: Other relevant information in support of your application
Pick out those aspects of your experience or skills that are RELEVANT to this post. Explain how your experience, abilities, skills and knowledge match those required for the vacancy as set out in the person specification (where provided). Remember to consider experience in previous employment and relevant experience from voluntary/leisure/college activities. Other information should include relevant information particularly related the school e.g. the curriculum on offer, ethos of the school, etc. Give clear examples where you can in support of your application. Please provide no more than 3 sides of A4 in total.
SECTION 12: Consent, disclosure and confirmation
When completed, read through your application form carefully, checking for errors and omissions. Ensure that you have signed and dated the relevant areas of your application form to confirm that your details are correct and complete. Providing false information is an offence and could result in the application being rejected, or summary dismissal if appointed, and possible referral to the police.
Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (exceptions) Order 1975
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR ALL PERSONS APPLYING FOR POSITIONS IN SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES, AND OTHERS WHO WILL WORK WITH YOUNG PERSONS UNDER AGE 18
Amendments to the Exceptions Order 1975 (2013 and 2020) provide that certain spent convictions and cautions are ‘protected’ and are not subject to disclosure to employers and cannot be taken into account. Guidance and criteria on the filtering of cautions and convictions can be found at the Disclosure and Barring Service Website – www.gov.uk
If you do have any convictions or cautions you must check the filtering rules to determine if you should declare them or if they are now ‘protected’ and no longer require disclosure.
If you are short-listed for this position you will be required to disclose this information on a self-declaration form.
Please be aware, if shortlisted, an online search on you will be carried out to help identify any incidents or issues that have happened, and are publicly available online, which the school might want to explore with the you at interview.
Failure to disclose any previous convictions or cautions that are not protected could result in dismissal should it be subsequently discovered. Any information given, either when returning the self-declaration form or at interview, will be entirely confidential and will be considered only in relation to this application.
A copy of the DBS Code of Practice is available at www.homeoffice.gov.uk or NACRO can offer advice on disclosing convictions.
Recruitment monitoring
You are asked to complete this section to enable us to monitor the effectiveness of our Equal Opportunities in Employment policy.
Please help us by ticking or completing the appropriate boxes in this section. Any information gathered will not identify individuals, but will only be used to measure how we are progressing. This information will not be used by those in the selection process and is for statistical purposes only.
We look forward to receiving your application.