Job Introduction
Valentine Primary School & Nursery
If you want safe, predictable and compliant, this is not your school.
If you want ambitious, creative and relentlessly focused on doing what works for children, read on.
At Valentine, we do not treat education as a fixed script. We are proud to think differently. Not for the sake of novelty, but because our community deserves more than a narrow, outdated model of schooling.
Why Valentine?
This year alone:
We installed a fully equipped cookery and food technology suite capable of teaching classes of thirty. Why? Because children told us they wanted to become chefs and we took them seriously.
Every child has one hour of gardening each week. Our polytunnels are not decorative. They are part of our curriculum.
We transformed our oversized entrance hall into a state of the art library, placing reading at the centre of school life.
We opened a year-round nursery in 2025, welcoming children from 6 months to 5 years old and building a genuine 0–11 learning journey.
We invest where it matters:
400 new laptops and iPads across the school.
90 VR headsets enabling immersive curriculum hooks. Launch a geography topic by standing in Australia. Begin history by walking through ancient civilisations.
A fully resourced non-core curriculum, planned and sequenced, with adaptations ready to go. You will not be left reinventing everything at 10pm.
We are serious about teacher workload
We stream for reading, writing and maths. Not to label children. To reduce cognitive overload for teachers and make instruction sharper and more precise.
You will teach within a structure that protects your energy and increases impact.
We provide:
Wellbeing days at your request across the year. Go to the concert. Have your birthday off. Attend the event that matters.
Real professional development. Coaching that is developmental, not performative.
Leaders who will challenge you and support you in equal measure.
Every person has a coach - from TAs to the Executive Head. We all improve through instructional coaching.
Books and books and books - we love, care for and buy a lot of books. Every corridor, every classroom - not just in the library.
Wellbeing approaches that are attuned to supporting everybody: from our yoga teacher (who is in one day per week - offering staff yoga on Tuesday's afterschool) to CALM app subscription for you and your family!
We offer wraparound provision for our working teachers and wider families. We also offer nursery provision at a heavy discount for teaching and non-teaching staff. Our nursery admits pupils from 6 months to 5 years.
We are not perfect
We sometimes make mistakes. We adjust. We learn. We expect you to do the same.
We were judged Good by Ofsted in 2025. That was not an end point. It was the starting line.
We are building something exceptional and that requires teachers who:
Care deeply about children.
Want to refine their craft.
Believe curriculum can be ambitious and joyful.
Are prepared to work hard and grow.
If you want to be part of a school that is expanding, evolving and unapologetically ambitious for its community, we would welcome your application. Come and visit and see what we do. Email: vanessa.rattley@valentineprimary.co.uk
Interviews:
Your interview is an important process - one for you to get a feeling for Valentine, and for us to see how you may fit with our wider team. Interviews will take place at the point of application - we anticipate seeing candidates throughout the Summer Term.
Application forms:
The application form is attached to this advert. Please complete and send to: info@valentineprimary.co.uk. We will email you as soon as we have received your application.
Safer Recruitment
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We will ensure that all our recruitment and selection practices reflect this commitment. All successful candidates will be subject to Disclosure and Barring Service checks along with other relevant employment checks.
