Principal
Parkwood Hall Co-operative Academy
Kent
- Expired
- Salary:
- L28-L34 (London Fringe) Accommodation available upon request
- Job type:
- Full Time, Permanent
- Start date:
- September 2019
- Apply by:
- 21 January 2019
Job overview
“Develop your career through growth in personal and social learning”
A rare opportunity presents itself in the vacancy to lead this genuinely unique day and residential school for students with moderate to severe learning difficulties. For confident but caring leaders interested in developing and broadening their careers, the Principal’s role offers the platform of good specialist staff and learning environments with unexplored potential to build upon the outcomes of recent changes in management and curriculum delivery. Your impact will steer the strong support and capacity to enhance progress and attainment for our very individual students, building upon the foundation of improvement work already underway and breaking new ground to share this expertise more widely.
Located in 78 acres of woodland in north-west Kent, Parkwood Hall is run on the cooperative values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others. Housed in adapted and modernised Victorian buildings, facilities offer good scope to design and deliver the highly specialised and holistic curriculum, we ensure that all the professionals working with and on behalf of the students do so in a fully integrated manner.
With a passion to make the learning exciting and work well in this setting, your vision and drive to maximise the potential offered by the curriculum, grounds and academy freedoms is sought. Couple this with the energy to build the reputation of specialist excellence to be shared, the school’s and your career development will be assisted by our well-informed Governors, recognised as skilled experts who can offer real support.
Advantages include:
• Opportunity to review and design staffing structures to promote the revised curriculum
• Experienced staff including those with specialist expertise and therapists
• Ongoing demand for student places
• Sound financial platform and the capacity to take more students
• Good, well-maintained facilities with scope to develop educational offering
Optional onsite accommodation is available and can be discussed at interview.
If the challenge of devising and bringing to fruition our belief, vision and mission inspires you and you enjoy working with and promoting a collaborative approach to deliver the best for young, special people then your application is welcomed. If you seek to optimise every opportunity, thrive within and can build a motivational working environment, are resilient, can be flexible and seek innovative solutions, then this role will offer you excitement, interest, goals and the opportunity to make your mark and enhance your professional career.
Application procedure: Visits to our school are warmly welcomed prior to application. To request the candidate pack and application form, arrange a visit, or for a confidential discussion please contact Jacqueline Baker on 07891 671 226 or email jacqueline.baker@judicium.com .
Closing date: 10am Monday 21st January 2019
Interview dates: Thursday 31st January & Friday 1st February
Parkwood Hall Co-operative Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, our Candidate Privacy notice can be found on our website.
Attached documents
About Parkwood Hall Co-operative Academy
Mission Statement: growth through personal and social development
Parkwood Hall Special Needs School converted to a Co-operative Academy in 2015 to secure our independent future, having first become Foundation Trust School in 2014. We are now in the fortunate position of owning our buildings and the 78 acres of wood and parkland in which our school is set on the outskirts of Swanley.
We are ideally situated just off the junction of the M25 and the M20 and are able to offer both day and residential places to students from the London Boroughs, Kent and the South East of England. Our places are in demand and we are currently over-subscribed. We have the capacity to increase the number of places offered through careful planning and development.
Our school admits children with significant learning disabilities and a variety of additional needs. Although we are improving the accessibility of our buildings and grounds, we are not yet able to fully meet the needs of students who rely on wheels for their mobility. Our small classes of around 6-8 students mostly learn in large classrooms in the main building with plenty of opportunity for outdoor learning, and access to our two Forest School sites. We employ a diverse team of therapists who work with our teachers to accelerate learning. All our students benefit from a free school lunch, cooked on site by our catering team.
Our buildings are mainly Victorian, we started out as a Convalescent Home in 1892, with a market garden growing produce for the residents, and the original house in the grounds becoming the Nurses’ Home. Some of our staff currently live on site here now. We also have a boarding house in the grounds and a gatehouse, as well as many other outhouses, and even a derelict old laundry deep in the woods!
Our calm nurturing ethos, and our well supported staff create a great environment in which to learn. Our Ofsted judgements are good and our parents are our strongest supporters. Here are some quotes from the latest parental survey:
“The school meets his needs, and has allowed him to calm down, know he is safe, and start to
grow into the young man I am so proud of today.”
“It has literally been the happiest he has ever been in school. This has had such a positive effect
on him and on us as a family as a whole, helping to keep us together. “
“The first time I have not had to worry about him when he is not with family, because Parkwood had become a second family to him. “
“We have daily contact book and PEP, school review and phone contact”
“My daughter is respected and well looked after by every member of staff”
Whilst we are a stand alone Academy we take our co-operative values very seriously. They are Self-Responsibility, Self-Help, Equality, Solidarity, Democracy, and Equity. In addition, our ethical values are Honesty, Openness, Social Responsibility and Caring for Others. We are on the look out for ways in which we can co-operate for educational and social purpose.
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