All candidates seeking employment at Bethany School are required to complete an Application Form, applicable to the role being applied for. A Curriculum Vitae will not be accepted in place of a completed Application Form.

Before submitting an Application Form, all candidates are expected to have read the relevant policies listed below, which can be found at www.bethanyschool.org.uk/policies

• Recruitment Policy
• Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy

All sections of the form must be completed in full Should there be any gaps in the ‘Education’ or ‘Career history’ section of the form, a satisfactory explanation must be provided as part of the application process.

All applicants who are invited to an interview will be required to bring with them evidence of their identity, right to work in the UK and residential address, along with any professional qualifications applicable to the role being applied for.

Bethany School is legally required to carry out a number of pre-appointment checks in respect of all prospective staff, in order to ascertain suitability for the role. The School is also required to provide certain information to third parties, such as the Disclosure and Barring Service. The School will process personal information in accordance with its Staff Privacy Notice.

Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) asks schools to carry out online searches on shortlisted candidates as part of the process of assessing suitability.

You (and all other candidates) are therefore required to provide the following information as part of your application:

• the social media platforms on which you have accounts;
• the account names/handles for all of your social media accounts, including any under a nickname or pseudonym;
• any websites you are involved with, in or featured on or named on; and
• any other publicly available online information about you of which the School should be made aware.

If you are shortlisted for the role, we may carry out an online search based on the information you provide in this form. If we carry out a search, we will also search more widely for any other online information about you.

You are not required to provide account passwords or to grant Bethany School access to private social media accounts.
If you are not shortlisted for the role, online searches will not be carried out on you.

Bethany School is not permitted to employ anyone to carry out ‘teaching work’ if they are prohibited from doing so. For these purposes ‘teaching work’ includes:

· planning and preparing lessons and courses for pupils;
· delivering lessons to pupils;
· assessing the development, progress and attainment of pupils; and
· reporting on the development, progress and attainment of pupils.

The above activities do not amount to ‘teaching work’ if they are supervised by a qualified teacher or other person nominated by the Head.
Bethany School is also not permitted to employ anyone to work in a management position if they are prohibited from being involved in the management of an independent school. This applies to the following positions at the School:

· Head;
· teaching posts on the senior leadership team;
· teaching posts which carry a departmental head role eg Head of Mathematics;
· support staff posts on the senior leadership team eg Bursar, HR Manager;
· Chair of Proprietors/Governors.

Bethany School is also not permitted to employ anyone to work in a position which involves the provision of ‘childcare’ if they are disqualified from providing ‘childcare’. For these purposes ‘childcare’ includes:

· all supervised activities before, during and after the school day for children in our early years provision i.e. for a child up to 1 September following their 5th birthday; and
· provision for children who are not in our early years provision and who are under the age of 8, which takes place on the school premises before or after the school day.

Work as a cleaner, driver, transport escort, member of the catering staff or member of the office staff is not considered ‘childcare’ for these purposes.

The declaration at Section 13 of this Form therefore asks you to confirm whether you are prohibited from carrying out ‘teaching work’, prohibited from being involved in the management of an independent school and / or disqualified from providing ‘childcare’. You do not have to complete these aspects of the declaration if you are not applying for a relevant role. If you are unsure whether the role for which you are applying involves teaching work, is a relevant management role or involves the provision of ‘childcare’ please contact recruitment@bethanyschool.org.uk

Bethany School will also carry out a check to determine whether successful applicants for relevant roles are prohibited from teaching and / or prohibited from involvement in the management of an independent school. Successful applicants for ‘childcare’ roles will be required to complete a childcare disqualification self-declaration form.

Please be aware that Bethany School applies for an Enhanced Disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) for all positions at the School which amount to regulated activity. The role you are applying for meets the legal definition of regulated activity with children. If you are successful in your application you will be required to complete a DBS Disclosure Application Form. Employment with Bethany School is conditional upon the School being satisfied with the result of the Enhanced DBS Disclosure. Any criminal records information that is disclosed to Bethany School will be handled in accordance with any guidance and / or code of practice published by the DBS.

Bethany School will also carry out a check of the Children’s Barred List. Please be aware that it is unlawful for the School to employ anyone to work with children if they are barred from doing so, and it is a criminal offence for a person to apply to work with children if they are barred from doing so. The declaration at Section 13 of this Form therefore asks you to confirm whether you are barred from working with children.

The role you are applying for is also exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and Bethany School is therefore permitted to ask you to declare all convictions and cautions (including those which would normally be considered “spent”) in order to assess your suitability to work with children. If you are successful in being shortlisted for this role, you will be required to provide information about your suitability to work with children by completing a self-declaration form. In this form you will be required to provide details of all spent and unspent convictions and cautions. However, you will not have to disclose a caution or conviction for an offence committed in the United Kingdom if it has been filtered in accordance with the DBS filtering rules.

Having a criminal record will not necessarily prevent you from taking up employment with Bethany School. Instead, Bethany School will assess each case on its merits and with reference to Bethany School’s objective assessment criteria set out in the School’s ‘Recruitment, selection and disclosure policy and procedure’.