Executive School Director

Your leadership will make a difference       
Through seven modern campuses and with a large team of professional teachers, Vietnam Australia School (VAS) offers a highly unique and integrated bilingual education system to over 8,500 predominantly Vietnamese students from Kindergarten to Grade 12. As our student base is growing even stronger, we are truly excited about having even more highly motivated, enthusiastic and capable leaders to join us.

Introduction

Vietnam Australia International School (VAS) is advertising for a new senior post, an Executive School Director. The post is located in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and is responsible to the Executive Chairman of the school group.
 
General description

VAS was founded in 2004 and has grown rapidly. It is one of a few schools in Vietnam offering to Vietnamese nationals the K – 12 Vietnamese curriculum to a high standard, whilst at the same time teaching the Cambridge International curriculum through an integrated programme.
VAS consists of 7 schools based in HCMC and each school is administered by a school manager (or an office manager). This new role is to manage one of our schools in HCMC; the postholder will ensure the successful operation of the school.
 
What you will do?

In just over ten years, VAS has established a very positive reputation for the learning that is achieved by students in our schools, for the quality of teaching that delivers the learning, and for the various ways in which our schools are organised. We view this reputation as vital to our continued growth and, therefore,  want  to  develop and enhance it as much as possible. As the successful postholder, you will contribute to the continuing growth of the school, implement and manage this combined curriculum, and maximise the quality of  what  we  offer  to  children,  students,  parents  and  the community.
In carrying out this role, you will be helping both to develop our reputation in Vietnam   further and to support the commercial development of the school that is within your charge.

Scope of the role

The role requires the postholder to:

• manage the successful operation of school campus assigned
• manage  the  campus  and  ensure  the  efficient  and  effective  running  of  the  school  and  the  school programmes, in line with the agreed budget and plan, to the benefit of all stakeholders
• manage school manager (or office manager) at the school and, at the same time, line manage the two deputy heads of section (Cambridge and MOET) and the senior team running school in the campus
• work  closely  with  the  Chief  Central  School  Service  Director  and  Head  of  Academic  Division  from  an academic and service perspective in association with VAS academic staff, contribute to the process to continually refine and develop the learning-focused product that the schools will deliver, including:
• Implementing the educational quality standards that will be used to measure the quality of learning- focused provision in the school – these standards should cover cost effectiveness in addition to pure educational quality and will include the delivery of commercial objectives in the school
  KPIs to track the delivery of the education against internal and benchmarked standards – highlighting areas of non-compliance and working with colleagues in the school to implement improvement actions
  it is crucial that in working with other Executive Cluster School Directors and colleagues, both the postholder and the SMT work together in a transparent and collegiate manner at all times to ensure that policies, plans and activities are balanced in ensuring commercial and educational success
• put in place processes that keep heads of division up to date with National, UK and international school educational development
  keep a close and open dialogue with Head Office and other Executive Cluster School Directors and division heads on all educational and operational issues, reporting to the Executive Chairman as appropriate

Key responsibilities

The Executive School Director should ensure that the Executive Chairman and Chief Central School Service Director are fully informed of progress and risks in operating the school in charge (and in return, he/she will receive full support in the delivery of their own responsibilities). The key responsibilities are:

• The safety and well-being of all children at the school, whether on site or in transit
• The academic preparation of the school, including selection of staff, the adherence to VAS policies, the specification of required resources, and induction and training
• Ensuring that the MOET staff adheres to standards, reporting requirements, policies and instructions required of the MOET curriculum and DOET (Department of Education) and as set by central VAS Academic Division
• Ensure that the Cambridge curriculum is implemented in combination with the MOET Curriculum as set by VAS Academic Division policies
• The enrolment of students to agreed targets, converting numbers contacting the school into successful applications
• The assessment of all students put forward for admissions
•  The recruitment and retention of staff
• Staff disciplinary matters, leading up to a recommendation for dismissal in line with VAS policy
• Student welfare, guidance, behavior and attendance in line with VAS policy
• Communication with parents both about their children’s prospective place in the school and about all matters through the school year
•  The academic quality of the school, including the quality of student outcomes, teaching/learning and extra-curricular offer
•  The school curriculum and timetable, including the deployment of staff to their duties, ensuring that all academic resources are efficiently and effectively managed
• The effective day-to-day running of the site and the school operations, including everything fro the front-of-house and arrangements for meeting students each day to the back-office support staff and students receive on site, ensuring that all academic activity is well planned and organized, resulting in the effective delivery of the curricula and programmes
• Proposing the annual budget in cooperation with the CFO for the Chairman to scrutinise and agree
• Parental and student engagemen
• Specifying school specific procurement requirements: educational content and services, furniture and equipment
• School self-evaluation, QA arrangements and school improvement planning
• School services’, cleanliness and hygiene, subcontractors’ and central service departments’ delivery of services to standard including food, cleaning, maintenance, etc.

Additional responsibilities

• To undertake other duties consistent with the scope of the post and within the competence of the post holder as required.
• To provide educational advice on new school projects
• To manage your effective personal development as part of the company’s commitment to quality, staff training and development – this involves active commitment to and participation in the appraisal process, during which individual employee developmental needs will be highlighted
• To meet the statutory responsibilities with regard to health and safety, equality and diversity in the workplace and other relevant employment legislation - you are obliged to adhere to the company code of professional conduct, which is produced in the Employee Handbook

Your background and experience

We are looking for someone with extended experience operating as a school Head Teacher or post of similar status, and who has significantly contributed to an excellent learning-focused international school. It is important that you have experience of achieving results by working with senior leaders of organisations not under your direct control, as well as working with people from different cultures and countries. It would be a big plus if you have project management experience from complex projects.

In addition, we would look for in-depth knowledge and understanding of:
the Cambridge Education K-12 curricula and qualifications

• the processes of learning at different ages and stages
• the management and leadership of learning-focused schools
• commercial, cultural and operational aspects of International Schools
• developed awareness of commercial context in which the educational services sit
• leading large teams of at least 100 - 200 staff

Next steps

Please click on the ‘Apply’ button below to submit your application.