Science Technician

Harris City Academy Crystal Palace is a mixed Academy for 1,300 students aged 11-18, with a large sixth form of nearly 400 students.

The Academy has three consecutive Outstanding judgments by Ofsted, with the most recent inspection in 2014 finding the Academy to be Outstanding in every aspect. We are a consistently high performing school. Our motto, ‘All Can Achieve’ encapsulates our vision that all members of the Academy community are supported and encouraged to achieve their absolute potential. We believe that a well-supported and valued staff body is the key to our success.

We are the ‘Teaching School Hub’ for Croydon and Sutton, and we are able to offer all teachers an extensive programme of first-class professional development. Harris City Academy Crystal Palace is part of the Harris Federation, and this enables us to offer you a comprehensive induction programme and training and development opportunities to support your career development including Masters and other qualifications.

We welcome applicants at any point in their career and are open to full consideration of part time and job share requests.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Assisting and advising teaching staff on the preparation and layout in classrooms for practical exercises, running trials of experiments, demonstrations and helping students with learning activities
• Ensuring equipment and materials are prepared to the teacher's specifications, including making up special equipment or modifying from existing equipment
• Advising students and staff on the safe and proper use of tools and equipment and on the correct and safe way to carry out learning activities
• Assisting in the safety, repair and general maintenance of all resources, equipment and tools, and advising where any maintenance or inspection is beyond your competence
• Ensuring the welfare and care of any plants and animals in the science area and the security of the equipment
• Ensuring understanding of science syllabus and schemes of work to prepare for practical lessons adequately
• Assisting with stock keeping
• Undertaking safety checks and risk assessments to comply with the requirements of Health and Safety, COSHH and other relevant legislation and school documentation
• Ensuring that all equipment and materials are stored safely, securely, and in good condition
• Safe disposal of used chemicals/hazardous waste
• Keeping up to date with health and safety regulations and with developments in practical science
• Working with other technical staff to assist in keeping areas neat, clean, tidy and in a safe condition in readiness for lessons, as well as cleaning and making safe spills, breakages and related incident

We would like to hear from you if you have:

• Qualifications to A Level or equivalent (A Level in either physics, chemistry or biology)
• COSHH training as appropriate
• Basic knowledge of Health and Safety regulations
• Good understanding of a range of chemicals and their properties
• Experience or solid understanding of working as a technician in a school or educational establishment, undertaking a range of practical tasks
• Experience of managing and being responsible for own workload.

For a full job description and person specification, please download the Job Pack.

Our people are at the heart of our success. We have developed a strong culture of collaboration and best practice, with professional development and career planning at its centre. We invest in our staff with support, coaching, mentoring, and a wide range of top-quality training programmes delivered at every level.

In addition to the opportunities for career development and progression, we also offer a competitive rewards and benefits package which includes a Performance and Loyalty Bonus, Pension Scheme with generous employer contributions, a Wellbeing Cash Plan, electric car scheme, and many other benefits. Learn more about our benefits on our website.