You are here:
Writing a job description: template and guidance
Adapt our template for any school-based role, and see guidance on writing and reviewing your job descriptions.
Contents
Download our job description template
Adapt it for any school-based role. It also includes a person specification.
Generic job description examples
Acas, (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) has produced an outline of a job description.
Ealing Council has also produced generic job descriptions for teaching and leadership positions, including:
- Class teacher
- Teaching and learning responsibilities (TLRs)
- Assistant headteacher
- Deputy headteacher
The job descriptions are designed for primary schools but you can adapt it for a secondary school.
You’ll find further guidance on job descriptions, including checklists and templates, on our job descriptions page.
Guidance on writing your job descriptions
See guidance from Oxfordshire County Council and Ealing Council on what to include in job descriptions. For example:
- Identify a range of work involved instead of listing every possible activity
- Use headings to group duties
- Avoid jargon
Avoid discrimination
It's usually against the law to discriminate against an applicant because of their:
- Age
- Disability
- Race
- Gender reassignment
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Religion or belief
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
Be wary of referring to any of these ‘protected characteristics’ when writing a job description. This includes indirect references, such as:
- ‘Recent graduate’, which could be discrimination based on age
- ‘Handyman’, which could be discrimination based on gender
Review your job descriptions
If a member of staff has taken on significant new responsibilities, you should change their job description to reflect this.
Review your job descriptions once a year as part of performance management. However, you don't need to make changes unless there's a specific reason to do so.
Read our articles on the recruitment process
Writing a job description is just one stage of the recruitment process for schools.
Take a look at our other articles to help you with:
- Advertising roles in both maintained schools and academies
- Seeking references
- Interviewing and selecting candidates
- Job offers and pre-employment checks
Once recruitment is over, you might find our articles on induction and probation useful.
More from The Key
Bitesize training with a big impact
Our on-demand training has your whole board covered and lets them learn at a time and pace that suits them.
Help your new governors hit the ground running with our expertly-designed induction training, and our role-specific courses support your link governors develop key skills and confidence in their role.
INSET, prepared for you
Join thousands of schools already using Safeguarding Training Centre to prepare for September.
Reduce your preparation time, deliver memorable safeguarding training to your staff, and keep track of all your safeguarding duties for the new school year.
- In the news: Your weekly round-up for 23 to 30 July 2021 30 Jul 2021 08:00 New
- In the news: Your weekly round-up for 16 to 23 July 2021 23 Jul 2021 08:00 New
- In the news: Your weekly round-up for 9 to 16 July 2021 16 Jul 2021 08:00 New
- In the news: Your weekly round-up for 2 to 9 July 2021 9 Jul 2021 08:00
- Need-to-know: Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) updated for 2021 6 Jul 2021 09:40
- How to encourage the reporting of sexism and sexual harassment New
- Sexism and sexual harassment: behaviour policy consultation toolkit New
- Tackling sexism and sexual harassment: staff self-assessment New
- Monitoring teaching and learning: tracking sheets New
- How to protect your school from cyber attacks New
The Key has taken great care in publishing this article. However, some of the article's content and information may come from or link to third party sources whose quality, relevance, accuracy, completeness, currency and reliability we do not guarantee. Accordingly, we will not be held liable for any use of or reliance placed on this article's content or the links or downloads it provides. This article may contain information sourced from public sector bodies and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.