Working at Ark Pioneer

At Ark Pioneer, we are committed to ensuring every child leaves our school with real options - whether that’s going to university or into a career of their choice.  We work closely together to ensure we offer the high quality of education every child deserves from their local school, bringing our vision ever closer each day of the week.

We are very proud to be a community of professionals who strive for excellent practice and constant improvement.

Our four core values Aim High, Have Integrity, Be Kind & Model Determination define how we work together as a community in Ark Pioneer; guiding our interactions and communications and reinforcing the behaviours we want to see in our community as we work towards embedding our ambitious vision.

“Working at Ark Pioneer is the best job I've ever had! I really enjoy being able to focus on teaching challenging, academic content and working with pupils who are ambitious and determined. The team spirit across the staff body is fantastic, with really supportive training and coaching that allows me to improve my teaching.”

Kat, Lead Teacher of MFL

“I really do love and enjoy working here at Ark Pioneer. The staff are really friendly, approachable, helpful and really caring - I have never worked amongst a greater team before. It is nice to be in a school where we can start from scratch and set high standards for our students - one in which I think has been accomplished so well. The students are fantastic and both year groups are great role models for new joining cohorts.”

Nishma, Community Link & Mathematics Teacher 

We are committed to providing high-quality professional learning throughout your career. The development of our staff is one of our top priorities, at every level and in every role. That’s why we offer twice the number of training days as standard.

Staff at our school have access to a variety of training sessions and experiences, all designed to meet the needs of our school and our team.

Our teaching practice is be developed through our weekly collaborative planning, weekly coaching or mentoring and our whole school training programme, supplemented by annual training days and a comprehensive induction for new staff.

So no matter what stage of your career you’re at, we’ll support you to be the best that you can be.

“At Pioneer, every member of staff is a team player and wants the absolute best for our students and the school. The training and support provided by Pioneer, both directly and through their training partners, is incredibly rigorous. It has really aided and improved my ability as a teacher, and my confidence in my ability”. 

Chloe, Geography Teacher

At Ark Pioneer, it is clear that preparing our students for life after school is a team effort. Everyone is ready to support you as best as they can! This is also reflected through our weekly mentoring meetings and training sessions that are helping to develop me as an Early Career Teacher.”

Emmanuela, Mathematics Teacher

"Training is excellent at Ark Pioneer - each session allows us to reflect on how we can improve individually and collectively in order to help our students”.

Dylan, Lead Teacher of Geography

Joining our school means becoming part of the Ark network, one of the UK's most successful school groups. We have more than ten years' experience of successfully transforming schools, building outstanding new schools and improving the life chances of some of the most disadvantaged young people in the country.

You will have the opportunity to come together with your peers locally, nationally and sometimes even internationally, to share resources, learning and good practice. Through Ark Ventures, we incubate, launch and scale initiatives, such as Mathematics Mastery, English Mastery, Institute for Teaching and Ambition School Leadership, that address some of the most intractable issues in education and society – in the UK and around the world.

“Teaching science is my passion and here at Ark Pioneer I am surrounded by a team of teachers who are all equally passionate about their own subject areas. Added to that, the network support from the wider Ark community means that we benefit from rigorous programmes such as Science Mastery where expertise is shared to benefit the wider education community. Working with a specialist central team and the other outstanding schools in our network really means that our pupils can access the highest standards”

James, Assistant Principal

You'll also be supported to focus on what you do best. We are always looking for ways to take away additional pressures, to give you more freedom to concentrate on improving education outcomes for young people.

“The best thing about working at Ark Pioneer is the way the organisational systems, the attention to detail and the careful planning enable me to focus completely on being the very best teacher I can be. The strong culture of high expectations (for both staff and pupils) has inspired and challenged me to develop in many areas of my practice, supported by the incredibly high quality of training and coaching.”

Jonathan, History Teacher

“The effective organisation of this school is what stands out to me, with the day to day running so smoothly that teachers have the time to collaboratively plan and focus on what really matters; our lessons and pupils becoming experts in our subjects.”

James, Assistant Principal

We are committed to offering you diverse career progression, whether that means aspiring to senior leadership or becoming an outstanding practitioner, allowing you to really carve out a successful career in education. We are dedicated to offering opportunities to support your career in our school or as part of our wider network.

“I am very grateful for all of the support that I have received in my journey from an NQT at another Ark school to my current role as a senior leader at Ark Pioneer. I am committed to ensuring that all teachers at Ark Pioneer benefit from structured training, supportive colleagues and a developmental culture”.

Joe, Assistant Principal