Assistant Principal Pastoral and DSL

Assistant Principal Pastoral  - Start Date January 2022

ABOUT CATS CANTERBURY

CATS College offers an outstanding international pre-university educational experience to students aged 14+ from all over the world. CATS students live and work in the beautiful Victorian CATS Canterbury campus, studying for GCSEs, A levels and University Foundation Programmes, and preparing for admission to universities across the country and elsewhere. We pride ourselves on our approach to teaching and learning, with small class sizes and an informal atmosphere ensuring that students are treated as individuals and build great relationships with staff.

CATS College Canterbury is part of CATS Global Schools, a leading education group committed to inspiring the next generation of world shapers.

The group brings together 16 institutions that provide students around the globe with the education they need to develop real-life skills for the future. Our dedicated team of pioneering, persevering people, including teachers and welfare specialists, work together to create a positive environment so that every student achieves their full potential.

OVERVIEW OF THE JOB

As part of the Senior Leadership Team, you will support, develop, hold accountable and lead a team of Pastoral Directors. Together, you will ensure both high standards of pastoral care for the wellbeing, welfare, health and general happiness of students, and encourage and monitor student attendance. The Assistant Principal Pastoral will strive to raise achievement by improving College attendance through positive attitudes by students towards attendance. The Assistant Principal Pastoral is also responsible for the wellbeing and behaviour of all students, and will strive to ensure that staff, students and parents understand the College’s expectations, and adhere to them.

REPORTS TO

You will be directly responsible to the Vice Principal. You will work within the framework set by and under the general direction of the Principal.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE JOB 

• As a member of the Senior Leadership team, you should carry out your role to support the needs of the students you work with and the College in general. In as much, you will: 
• Lead and manage the College’s team of Pastoral Directors (PDs) to ensure the delivery of pastoral and welfare support to students that exceeds the expectations of students, parents, agents and other stakeholders. 
• Be the Designated Safeguarding lead. 
• Ensure effective reporting to and communication with parents, guardians, agents, CEG overseas staff by Student Communications in accordance with College Policies and procedures. 
• Liaise with the Assistant Principal Academic, Higher Education Officer, Curriculum Directors and teachers to monitor students’ academic performance and ensure that all Pastoral Directors do the same. 
• With the Head of Boarding, liaise with Boarding Team Leads and House Parents at the College’s boarding house(s) who monitor student welfare and behaviour outside of College hours and ensure that all Pastoral Directors do the same. 
• Support and assist students to ensure that they understand and are actively adhering to College Behaviour and Attendance policies, including the issuing of sanctions, incentives and recognition in consultation with the Head of Boarding and ensure that all Pastoral Directors do the same. 
• Together with PDs, produce attendance certificates on a termly basis. 
• Together with PDs, produce attendance strategies, targets and letters for students with concerns and to follow up from attendance letters. 
• As and when needed, arrange and attend attendance meetings with the Principal. 
• Hold meetings with the Head of Boarding to discuss attendance of persistently low attenders. 
• Together with PDs, follow the school’s Attendance Policy. 
• Line manage Pastoral Directors, Activities Coordinator and the college counsellor. 
• Drive improvements to professionalise college-produced marketing materials including newsletters and notice boards, ensuring that everything that is produced to be seen by a customer conforms to brand guidelines. 
• Oversee and develop the college’s external presence online through social media, blogs, etc. 
• Foster good working relationships with the Sales & Marketing team, gather ‘good news stories’ and updates from various departments and ensure these messages are being heard in market. 
• Promote a customer service focused culture across the college which results in student attraction and retention. This will include influencing and developing individual teams to maximize relationships with all customers as part of the Customer Care initiative. 
• Lead on the promotion of services across all student groups and develop mechanisms for delivering key messages to students, e.g. upcoming activities and events. 
• Ensure the overall appearance of the college is meeting expected standards – e.g. notice boards, smoking area etc. and ensure school premises and facilities are kept in a proper state of maintenance and repair, reporting any issues to the Ops Team.    
• Oversee the co-coordination of student induction and registration events, working with other team members to ensure all students are given a good start to their time in a new country at the college. 
• Oversee the preparation of the content for pre-arrival information in advance of each intake, working with key stakeholders including the Principal, the Welfare team, marketing and admissions to make sure this is delivered to students on time and to consistent brand standards. 
• Ensure that all activities drive student retention and support progression related activities within the College. 
• Manage student wobblies (students who have said they may not continue their studies with us) to ensure College successfully resolves student’s issue and retains student. 
• Together with the Vice Principal, manage the student retention process, including coordination of all student meetings.  
• Together with the Vice Principal, monitor student attrition rates to inform continuous improvements in student retention. 
• Manage the maintenance and archiving of confidential student files according to GDPR rules.

Designated Safeguarding lead (DSL) Role and Responsibilities

The Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is a senior member of staff, from the College’s leadership team. They have a legal responsibility for dealing with safeguarding issues, providing advice and support to staff, liaising with the Local Authority, and working with a range of other agencies. The Designated Safeguarding Lead need not be a teacher but must have the status and authority within the management structure to carry out the duties of the post. Whilst deputies can carry out delegated activities, the ultimate lead responsibility remains with the designated safeguarding lead. The lead responsibility cannot be delegated.

Please note applications will be reviewed as they are received and for that reason, we encourage early applications and reserve the right to appoint prior to the closing date.