Working at Woodberry Down

Along with the children, our teachers and support staff are our greatest asset. If you have the ambition and determination to make a difference we want to hear from you.

Some people will say that working here isn't the 'easiest' job in the world. That may be true, but the rewards are huge. Come and talk to our staff and find out for yourself.

We amalgamated in September 2001 and since then have never looked back. We've built a first-rate team of staff and we have a vast range of different talents and skills represented already in the school.

But we're a big school, with 450 children and over 55 staff. We always need new ideas, talent, skills and potential.

We really believe you'll enjoy working at Woodberry Down.  You'll gain from working here and we hope to learn from you! The school has great facilities, including:

- two large halls for assembly, PE and music (both with permanent stages-one with excellent lighting and sound facilities);

- three ICT suites, both with interactive white boards and 15+ PC's;

- all other classrooms with interactive or projector whiteboards;

- one of the largest playgrounds in London, with two climbing frames, a low ropes area, gazebo, log chain bridge and huts;

- great views from the school over north London to Alexandra Palace;

- a separate dining hall;

- lots of rooms, small and large, in addition to the sixteen classrooms;

- a new staffroom, with permanent hot and cold water dispensers and a secluded outside staff rest area;

- a school wildlife garden;

- CCTV and good internal security;

- a large staff car park.

Each teacher has a classroom assistant working alongside them. Many of our CA's have been with us for many years and are experienced, supportive and invaluable.

In addition we employ a range of staff not traditionally found in primary schools, including:

- school counsellor;

- a home/school worker:

- art and play therapists.

And that's not all. We have a great rolling programme of school-based INSET, covering all National Curriculum subjects. We're also very innovative in the way we provide INSET. For the last three years we've run successful peer-mentoring projects. We also regularly employ advisers, for example a geography adviser, to work with year group teams on planning whilst we cover their classes.

As we've said, we're a big school on a big site. We're home to the Hackney Well Family Service. They provide support and advice to our parents and carers on a whole range of issues. They're permanently based in school, so any issues you feel a parent may need support with can be referred to the Well Family Service.

We're committed to reducing admin burdens on teachers. We have members of staff to do all bulk photocopying. We provide our parents and carers with three school reports a year. All require careful input from teachers, but the work of writing the reports is done by computer.

Importantly, we're a really friendly school. Relationships are good all over the school and we believe in team work. We know that things go wrong as well as right, and that's when the team spirit and support is so important.

Many of our staff have been promoted and in addition to the school-based programme of INSET you'll have regular opportunities for personal development. We've got aspiring deputy heads and heads, aspiring subject leaders- and we provide individual training for them all.