Head of History

Head of History

• Job title: Head of History
• Job Type: Full Time, permanent
• Salary: £49,663-£76,199 per annum
• Department: Department of History
• Reporting to: Assistant Head (Director of Studies)
• Location: Highgate, North London
• Start: September 2026
• Closing Date: 18 March 2026 at 12:00 pm

Highgate is looking for an enthusiastic and inspiring Head of History, starting in September 2026.

The successful candidate should be academically well qualified: it is expected that applicants will have an excellent History degree; a further research degree would be considered an advantage but is not a requirement.

The ability to teach and potentially lead the Politics department is a possibility for the right candidate.

Applicants should be experienced teachers who demonstrate a profound and continuing academic interest in their subject and an enthusiasm for sharing this passion with pupils and colleagues. The successful candidate will have excellent managerial instincts, a commitment to professional development, an enthusiasm for learning, and the ability to reflect deeply on their practice.

All pupils study History in Years 7 to 9, and approximately 70% of pupils in Years 10-11;
History is also a very popular option at A Level, with pupils opting for either our medieval, early modern or modern routes. The root of History’s popularity is our effort to show pupils the subject is an ongoing debate about what happened in the past. This informs our teaching at each Key Stage: our message to pupils is that they are historians-in-training and by the time they reach the Sixth Form, we want them to develop a deep and extensive knowledge of a history in which they have developed a particular interest.

Whatever their level of attainment, we want our pupils to become adept at reading and evaluating texts and images, forming persuasive arguments, and doing so independently with increasing confidence. We want to promote a love of reading history and historical fiction, and to help them develop sophisticated vocabularies.

As a result, our pupils achieve outstanding results in public examinations. In 2025, 87% of Y11 Historians achieved Grades 9-8, following the Cambridge IGCSE course. In the same year, 83% achieved A*/A grades at A Level (AQA), with 49% at A*. Since 2018, 25% of our pupils who apply to read History at university have received offers from Cambridge and Oxford.

We have a vibrant Sixth Form Extension Programme, and approximately a third of our Sixth Form cohort apply for History or History Joint Honours at university.

There are twelve members of the History Department, which includes several members of Senior Team. The Department has its own office which is well-resourced with its own regularly updated library. Teachers place pupil progress at the heart of our weekly discussions and planning, and all members of the department keep abreast of the latest historical publications, which inform their lesson planning and off‑piste talks to the History Society.

Each staff member is equipped with a Microsoft Surface device, which wirelessly connects to the audiovisual system in every classroom. Colleagues share expertise and resources and embrace a culture of regular mutual observations. They also volunteer for extra responsibilities when necessary, including the organisation of our educational visits. All pupils in Year 9 benefit from a trip to the WW1 Battlefields in northern France to complement their classroom lessons, and there is an optional annual visit to Berlin for Year 10 historians.

In addition to historical walking tours of London, our Sixth Form historians also have the option of joining a visit to Paris to complement their A Level courses. The School History Society is very popular and meets weekly; in addition, Sixth Form historians publish the annual Highgate History Journal.

“It's such an enthusiastic and committed department to be part of, and I love the fact that we put the latest historical scholarship at the heart of our shared practice: it means that exemplifying scholarliness to our pupils is central to our curricular and extensive co-curricular work.” — Ben Dabby, Head of History

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