Head of Boarding and Pastoral Care

About the School

RDFZ King’s College Hangzhou is the second new school development project in China initiated through partnership between the prestigious King’s College School, Wimbledon and the highly successful Chinese education management group, Dipont Education. A third partner for the Hangzhou project is The High School Affiliated to Renmin University (RDFZ), one of the highest achieving schools in China. 

Construction has started on a greenfield, lakeside site in the Yuhang District of Hangzhou and will be completed in March 2018 with the school opening in September 2018. The campus has been designed by world-leading architects in educational facility design and it will, at capacity, cater for 3,195 Chinese and expatriate students from Early Years through to Grade 12.

Hangzhou, with a population of over 9 million people, is the capital of Zhejiang Province and an important city in China, recognised for its history, prosperity and beautiful natural scenery. It recently hosted the G-20 summit and will stage the Asian Games in 2022. Shanghai can be accessed in 1 hour by high speed train.

We are operating in historic times in educational development in China and this project has the potential to set the standards in independent school development within China and beyond. To support this, we are seeking to appoint a senior leadership team of highly qualified education professionals to manage the individual school sections and cross-campus areas of responsibility. There will be a shared pedagogical approach throughout the campus, enabling Chinese and expatriate students to benefit enormously from the cross-cultural exposure. The curriculum design will be structured to allow cooperation and integration whilst preserving the compulsory aspects of both Chinese and international programmes. The school design presents the campus as a place that responds to its local context and a global education culture.

Reporting to the Executive Principal and ultimately accountable to the Board of Governors, the Head of Boarding and Pastoral Care will be able to commence appointment between January 2018 and April 2018 (dependent upon the availability of the successful applicant), to allow for sufficient preparation time prior to the school opening.

About the Role

The Head of Boarding and Pastoral Care will assume responsibility for a safe, secure and high quality boarding provision that can accommodate, at capacity, more than 1,000 students from the ages of 13 to 18. Aligned with this, they will undertake overall responsibility for pastoral care across the campus and will work with a large team of Heads of Grade Level via the Heads of Pastoral Care in the Chinese School, International School and International College. Both areas of responsibility will require close liaison with the Heads of School for each individual section. The Head of Boarding and Pastoral Care will join the Heads of School and the Co-curricular Director as part of the senior leadership team reporting into the Executive Principal. 

Key goals within the whole campus development are to encourage cooperation and integration throughout the individual sections of the school and to respect the high standards achieved by our partner schools. For the Head of Boarding and Pastoral Care, this will mean seeking to develop a boarding provision of the highest standards through excellent management of boarding staff and strong working relationships with key personnel across the campus, particularly those with pastoral responsibility. This will be achieved through:

• Ensuring effective communication among boarding and pastoral staff with includes appropriate involvement of staff in decision-making.
• Endeavoring to build close links between the boarding provision and the families it serves, encouraging parental involvement where appropriate.
• Designing and delivering via the pastoral staff an age and culturally appropriate personal, social, moral and health education programme.
• Fostering an ongoing culture of professional development for all staff.
• Contributing to senior leadership team meetings and to provide the campus’s Executive Principal with advice relating to boarding and pastoral matters.

This exciting and challenging role commands an attractive, highly competitive salary and benefits package including: high quality housing; living allowance; flights for employee and dependents; medical insurance for employee and dependents. Full tuition support will be provided for any successful applicant with school age children. The position will be offered on an initial three-year contract term with annual renewal thereafter.

Applications are invited from candidates with:

• Significant previous experience in a secondary boarding school situation.
• A passion for international education and an ability to relate well to other cultures.
• Excellent professional presence and well developed people skills.
• Willingness to work flexible hours as required by the boarding remit.
• Experience of working in a Chinese or Asian cultural setting is desirable but not essential.

Application process:

To submit an application, please email a CV and covering letter to Vanessa Cumbers, Director, CRS Education: vanessa@crs-edu.com or please contact Ms Cumbers for further information or an initial informal and confidential discussion.

Closing date: 30th November 2016.

First-round interviews will be conducted via Skype. Final interviews for shortlisted candidates will be held in January 2017.