Why work for us?

Why choose to work at The Hemel Hempstead School? 

Simply put, it is a great school.  Not just now, or in the last Ofsted, or with the last summer’s results - but consistently, for over ninety years.   

Generations of parents return to this school knowing that their children will get the very best educational outcomes.  Staff have their children here.  People who started their careers here return for second or third promotions. Students here in their time, return to be teachers and people move house to get into the catchment.  Our parents recommend us to other families. 

This is because we believe that the curriculum is everything: the whole experience; what it is to be a part of the community at The Hemel Hempstead School. Our curriculum provides the broadest, richest experiences which lead to meaningful learning, of knowledge and of skills.   

At the heart of this culture, we have: 

•  Our five core values of Respect, Responsibility, Relationships, Reflection and Resilience. 
• The Hemel Hempstead Experience (The HHEx), which is our commitment to getting every child as many life enhancing opportunities as they can, especially those who are disadvantaged. 
• Our ASPIRE pedagogy, which builds Ambition, Self-belief, Perseverance, Independence, Reflection and Effort. 
• The support of a successful and support trust, Scholars’ Education Trust. 

As a colleague here you would be joining a friendly, experienced, caring and close-knit team, both in the school, and across Scholars’, which now serves nearly six -thousand young people in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.  You would be joining a school with a confident outlook, digital technology in the hands of every child, an incredibly strong house system and a supra-curricular offer which are the envy of other providers.   

Staff wellbeing and belonging is at the heart of the Trust ethos.  Each school has a wellbeing representative, and they work collaboratively to help us to be the employer of choice.   

At The Hemel Hempstead School you: 

• Have access to cutting edge technology with an iPad for every teacher and every child, with the ability to share and collaborate with colleagues across the trust. 
• Have access to a School Assistance Programme of counselling, GP services, physiotherapy, wellbeing and support programmes. 
• Can work off-site during your PPA or in some support roles. 
• In which mobile phones are banned for students, improving theirs and colleagues' wellbeing. 
• Are encouraged and trained in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for planning, administrating, supporting, assessing and stretching students, whilst reducing teacher workload. 
• Do not have to write personalised or handwritten reports and there are only three data entry windows per year. 
• Do not have to do flick and tick marking, and marking policies are nuanced to suit your subject. 
• Have opportunities to develop and grow with fully funded NPQ courses, secondments, leadership exchange programmes and talent development across the trust. 
• Have parking on site for every member of staff, plus free tea, coffee and water in the large staffroom, and staff orchard, and we are introducing EV charging stations. 
• Support, on-call, from a senior leader, available every period to support with teaching or behaviour management. 
• Have no fixed lesson plan template or model, or the requirement to show your lesson plans to leaders. 
• Have no more than one late evening event in any week and all training, events, parents' evenings and meeting happen on the same night of the week, so you can plan your social and family lives. 
• Can rely on three full-time cover supervisors so that colleagues only cover rarely. 
• Can work on a beautiful, 19-acre campus site, which has Eco-School Merit status, and in which the brand-new state-of-the-art buildings for English, technology, SEND and art are zero-net carbon is use. 

Hemel Hempstead is the second largest and fastest growing town in Hertfordshire.  That means new house building and house prices which are not typical for the Home Counties.  Add to that great transport links, with the M25, M1, A41 and trains into London Euston; Hemel Hempstead is a great place to live.  The town boasts an indoor real snow ski slope, the XC climbing centre, and Jarman Park has cinemas, restaurants, and a skating rink.  A ten-minute drive and you are in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. 

The Hemel Hempstead School is in the London fringe, so you get paid more than colleagues in the rest of England, but without having the considerable extra expense of living and commuting in London.  Unlike many schools, who are in the heartbreaking position of being unable to balance their budgets we are financially secure, with a well-managed reserve.  This means we have not narrowed our curriculum and continue to offer our children abroad choice of options at all three key stages. It also means that we can, and do regularly offer, TLR 3s or allowances teaching and non-teaching colleagues to colleagues to undertake whole-school projects. 

We are proud to be part of the Scholars’ family, and we know that being part of this trust enables our colleagues to successfully educate young people for a changing world:  Trust News - Scholars Education Trust