Deputy Head
Northease Manor School
East Sussex
- Expired
- Salary:
- Subject to experience
- Job type:
- Full Time, Permanent
- Start date:
- September 2021 (could be sooner if you are available)
- Apply by:
- 22 March 2021
Job overview
This is a broad leadership role with massive scope for personal and professional satisfaction, offering you a chance to take a charity-owned independent school to new levels of excellence and achievement, both for itself and for its students.
The last year has seen a dramatic increase in parental enquiries and we’re looking for someone who can boost the senior team as the school expands and develops. We have a recession-proof operating model, an exciting new strategic plan, and the finance and expertise to make it happen.
If your current school is as exciting as this, stay there. If not, read on, and consider joining us.
Northease Manor is a well-established school for children with dyslexia, dyspraxia and high-performing autism. Technically a “special school” (all schools are special, aren’t they?) we have just under 100 children aged 11-18 who really thrive at the school, both academically and personally. The school had a tough time in the mid-2010s and, still a charity, now has a new board of Governors, a new Head, and a raft of new policies, practices and ideas.
The new Head has brought mainstream independent school thinking which has profoundly excited the whole school community, as well as parents, prospective parents, and the local authorities who provide much of the funding.
There is an ambitious growth strategy and the climate for special education has never been stronger; the last six months’ enquiries alone could lead to a 50% increase in pupil numbers. Northease Manor is already large by special education standards and our aim is to develop the school to a position of national leadership, taking the upward spiral as far as it can go. To help make it all happen, we are now seeking an energetic, enthusiastic and empathetic Deputy Head.
This is a great opportunity for someone who can bring a breadth of experience, along with management, people and teaching skills. Above all we want someone who understands what being an independent school means, in other words how it can steer its own future, go the extra mile, and make new opportunities and ideas happen. It will help if you've worked in an independent school, but don't worry if you haven't as it's the mindset we need. The same goes for SEND experience - this is about leading the school, not being a specialist practitioner. You do of course need to empathise with the ethos of the school and its staff, but who wouldn’t?
If you join us, you would become the Head’s key partner and a true critical friend to him and the staff, with wide responsibilities across all areas of the School and the chance to continue a really exciting change process which is really working.
If you are the sort of person who thrives on challenge and opportunity, in a dynamic environment, please consider joining us. Apart from huge personal and professional satisfaction, an excellent reward package is on offer, including onsite accommodation if required. Northease Manor is set in a fabulous country location just a few miles from Brighton and a few miles from the coast.
Full details and an application form can be downloaded from this page. Our advising consultant, Simon Shneerson, will be happy to discuss the role, to answer questions and to offer impartial and confidential advice before you apply. His telephone number is 07986 100237 or he can be e-mailed at info@simonshneerson.com.
Closing date for applications: 11 am on Monday, 22nd March. Longlist interviews: online at the end of that same week. Shortlist stage: school visits and final interviews on 29th and 30th March.
Attached documents
About Northease Manor School
Northease Manor School is an Independent Specialist School approved by the DfE as a co-educational day school for students primarily with Autism and / or Dyslexia or those who present with these type of difficulties. Alongside these, students have other co-occurring difficulties including ADHD, DCD and sensory processing differences. The majority of our students are working at or have the potential to work at age related expectations (or just below) across a range of subjects, follow a differentiated National Curriculum and access GCSE or equivalent qualifications.
We are known and respected for providing high quality teaching, therapy and pastoral support. We promote and recognise that each student is an individual with individual needs, acknowledging that a diagnosis will only provide part of the picture for each student. Our integrated approach to therapy and small teaching classes coupled with the small and close community we have here at Northease, enables us to build excellent relationships and understand students as a whole; we use that knowledge and understanding to ensure the best outcomes for each student. Our aim is to provide the best of what a mainstream setting can offer in terms of a broad and balanced curriculum and excellent educational outcomes within a calm and low arousal environment and with an additional focus of developing essential life skills. The majority of our students have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and their placement is funded through their local authority.
Our location, a spacious country site built round an 18th century manor house, gives everyone room to grow and develop in a school with a true community and family feel. We are an easy commute from Brighton, Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne.
Our most recent Ofsted report (March 2018), where we were rated good across all areas says: ‘A strong theme that emerged was the major difference that Northease Manor makes to pupils’ confidence, well-being and self-esteem. In describing these and similar aspects of the school’s work, parents repeatedly used words such as ‘amazing’, ‘exceptional’, ‘thriving’ and ‘transformed’. One parent summed up the sentiment of many by writing simply: ‘The school changed my child’s life and gave us hope… Very effective use of training, including working in close partnership with the therapy team, is supporting improvements well’
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