Head

St. Gilgen International School offers a world-class international education set in the culturally rich and beautiful village of St. Gilgen, near Salzburg in Austria. The school combines the traditional charm, security, and cultural heritage of a small village, with a dynamic and modern teaching and learning environment and an ambitious and globally minded school community. Set in one of the most stunning natural environments in the world, its location provides the school with sensational views of the lakes and mountains to inspire learning and adventurousness.

St. Gilgen International School was founded in 2008 and since then has grown steadily. The founder, a prominent Austrian architect, envisaged a unique school with members drawn from the local and international community sharing a high quality academic and personal education in beautiful surroundings. The school now has 140+ students and will eventually grow to reach a capacity of 240.

Since 2016, the school has been owned by St. Gilgen International School Privatstiftung, a non-profit foundation, which is governed by a Board of Directors and an Advisory Board consisting of experts, a representative of the municipality of St. Gilgen and parents. This foundation acts solely in the interests of the school and the school community.

The school’s vision is to follow the 'path of excellence'. Together with its dedicated staff, student and parent community, they are building one of the finest international education institutions in the world, that will inspire generations of students to develop a lifelong love of learning.

St Gilgen International School has three core values:

Excellence

Always looking for ways to improve and set new educational standards.

Integrity

Encouraging its students and staff to be people of integrity guided by Plato’s cardinal virtues:

• Courage – emotional strength and ability to confront fears.
• Temperance – act with moderation and self-control.
• Prudence – ability to judge own actions as appropriate or inappropriate.
• Justice – act with fairness and without bias toward others.

Passion

The goal is to build a vibrant and enterprising learning community of students with passion, curiosity and a strong desire to learn. Passion fuels their imagination, drives thinking across uncharted territories, and remains fundamental to their success in life.

At St. Gilgen International School, their mission drives the curriculum. The staff understand how important it is to give students the best chance for a bright future, and this means inspiring a lifelong love of learning, which in turn, they believe, is the foundation for a love of life itself.

The school’s curriculum is built around the individual needs of the students. St. Gilgen International School graduates stand out from others, and can be identified by their capacity for critical and conceptual thinking, their self-awareness and self-reflection, and their imagination and curiosity. The school’s approach to teaching and learning fosters these key attributes and dispositions, and ensures that its students leave, not only qualified, but also truly educated, in the fullest sense of the word.

This means being qualified to go on to study at the best universities in the world, while also being equipped with the personal integrity that will serve them in making a truly positive impact on the world, now and in years to come. Central to this is the development of cultural awareness, international mindedness and global citizenship.

While the language of instruction is English, the school promotes multilingualism in its community with a strong emphasis on the host nation language, German, and classes in French and Spanish.

To ensure the ongoing development and quality assurance of its programme, the school volunteers for periodic inspections from the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) in the UK, and the Council of International Schools (CIS). The school is fully accredited by both bodies, and has received outstanding feedback on its programmes. Most importantly, its curriculum is dynamic and responsive. Its teachers are a professional learning community, always looking for ways to develop and improve the quality learning opportunities for their students.

The academic curriculum is split into three phases; Primary, Middle and Senior. The curriculum in each has been uniquely designed by the school to prepare students for the IB Diploma Programme. The school is an IB World School and is fully accredited by the IBO to offer the IB Diploma.

At St Gilgen International School, children are on the journey of a lifetime, and the local environment ensures that they can grow exponentially as they experience the outstanding range of opportunities in music, art, theatre, sport, adventure, service, leadership and internationalism. These allow each student to excel in one or more areas and to grow in confidence and develop new skills.

The current Principal, Tom Walsh, will be leaving at the end of this academic year after several distinguished years of service to the school. The Board is seeking to recruit an outstanding Head to be his successor either from September 2017, or January 2018 or even September 2018 if necessary, in which case the very capable senior leadership team will lead the school in the interim period.

The successful candidate will be a highly qualified educational leader, with substantial experience and demonstrable success in school leadership and with the IB curriculum. They will be passionate about the school’s vision and have the ability to win the hearts and minds of the community to achieve that vision. They will be a person who demonstrates a drive for excellence and who has the charisma and gravitas to inspire, engage and motivate a team, while recognising their own accountability to the School’s various stakeholders. Importantly, they will have a deep love of learning, relentless energy and commitment. In addition to English, the ability to speak either German or Italian would be an advantage.

For an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Edward Clark on +44(0)1256 862840 or +44 (0)7718 588616, or email at edward@lsceducation.com. To apply for the post, please visit www.lsceducation.com

Key dates:

Closing date: 29 May 2017

Longlist interviews: 30,31 May 2017 (by Skype)

Shortlist interviews: 8 June 2017 (by Skype)

Final interviews: 27, 28 June 2017 (at StGIS, Austria)

St Gilgen International School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be required to undergo relevant background checks.