Headteacher
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Archbishop Tenison's CofE High School
Croydon
- £95,267 - £107,134 per year
- Expired
- Salary:
- Leadership Scale L24-L29
- Job type:
- Full Time, Permanent
- Start date:
- 01 September 2026
- Apply by:
- 25 March 2026
Job overview
Headteacher
Archbishop Tenison’s has a rare and exciting opportunity to appoint an educator who is committed to leading a school on its journey towards excellence, whilst maintaining and strengthening its Christian ethos. We are seeking a Headteacher with a strong Christian understanding of the purpose and calling of a Church school and a clear vision for achieving academic excellence within a Christian community.
Archbishop Tenison’s is the only Church of England secondary school and Sixth Form in the borough of Croydon, and the school’s Christian vision and ethos were affirmed through its outstanding SIAMS inspection. We are a growing school that values the legacy and sense of community that comes from being small - nurturing strong relationships, high expectations and a culture of care for all.
Following the retirement of our current Headteacher, we are seeking an enthusiastic, committed and values-driven leader to guide our school in the next chapter of our development. This role would suit an experienced school leader with the skills, imagination and ambition to build on existing strengths and take our educational provision for 11-18 year-olds to new heights.
The successful candidate will:
Demonstrate a deep commitment to the Christian ethos of the school and lead this authentically across all aspects of school life
Provide inspirational and strategic leadership, building on our school improvement journey with a clear commitment to excellence for every pupil
Be a person of integrity, with the experience, wisdom and relational skills to lead a strong Senior Leadership Team and highly committed staff body
Possess the vision and practical leadership skills required to plan strategically, including effective financial and resource management
Have experience of leading, supporting and growing a successful Sixth Form that contributes positively to the life and culture of the whole school
Demonstrate a strong commitment to safeguarding and child protection, ensuring that the welfare of pupils is at the heart of all decision-making and school practice
Show ambition, imagination and Christian hope, alongside faithfulness, courage and patience, enabling both personal and professional growth in a secure, purposeful and lively environment
We can offer:
The opportunity to lead a growing school into its next phase of development and achievement
A cohesive learning community with a strong and ambitious curriculum vision that we are keen to develop further
Excellent opportunities for professional development
A committed and dedicated staff team, alongside a highly supportive and engaged governing body
A nurturing school environment with strong pastoral systems and high expectations for pupils and staff
A diverse pupil community drawn from across the borough of Croydon, including local neighbourhoods and church communities
We believe passionately in educating the whole person. Our aim is for pupils to leave Archbishop Tenison’s as academically successful, confident, emotionally and spiritually mature young people, equipped to take advantage of the opportunities available to them both in school and in later life.
The spiritual life of the school is central to our identity, with daily acts of collective worship, regular church services and Eucharists, and the active presence of both a School Chaplain and Lay Chaplain. Our Christian ethos underpins our commitment to helping students and adults flourish academically, spiritually and personally.
This vision is reflected in our commitment to a broad and rich curriculum that values music, art, drama and sport alongside academic subjects.
This is a role for a Headteacher with ambition and a clear vision for the distinctiveness of Church school education, who can build on our 312 year history while responding creatively and faithfully to the needs of today’s young people, enabling them to become fulfilled and successful adults.
Safeguarding Statement
Archbishop Tenison's is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All appointments are subject to pre-employment checks, verification of qualifications, satisfactory references in line with our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy, and an enhanced DBS check. Social media profiles of shortlisted candidates will be reviewed. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK.
An information pack and application form are attached or can be obtained by emailing apply@archten.croydon.sch.uk or via the Southwark Diocese Opportunities - Southwark Diocesan Board of Education
Visits to the school are highly encouraged – to arrange this for the sfternoon of Friday 10th April and morning of Tuesday 14th April please contact our HR Manager via email at apply@archten.croydon.sch.uk
Closing Date: Wednesday 22nd April 2026 at 5pm – all applications to be sent to apply@archten.croydon.sch.uk
Shortlisting: Wednesday 29th April 2026
Interviews: Thursday 7th and Friday 8th May 2026
Attached documents
About Archbishop Tenison's CofE High School
- Archbishop Tenison's CofE High School
- Selborne Road, Croydon
- Surrey
- CR0 5JQ
- United Kingdom
The School
In 1714 the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Tenison, founded a school for some "ten poor boys and ten poor girls" on a site which has since become Croydon's popular Whitgift Shopping Centre. As we enter our 310th year, and three sites later, Archbishop Tenison's is now situated in the leafy Park Hill area of the town, a 5 minute bus ride or fifteen minutes’ walk from East Croydon Station.
Archbishop Tenison's is an 11-18 voluntary aided, mixed comprehensive school, part of the educational provision of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark and the London Borough of Croydon.
The school is well regarded locally for its high academic standards, an academic Sixth Form, the very high level of pastoral care provided for the pupils and its Christian ethos. Assemblies are an important part of school life; there is an annual Eucharist for each year group; all students take Religious Studies at GCSE, with a good number continuing to A Level.
The School caters for around 838 pupils, including the Sixth Form. The school is oversubscribed every year and as a result it is necessary for the Governors to rank applicants for the 150 places in Year 7 according to the schools admission criteria, with places allocated largely on the basis of church membership, with 25% of places allocated to feeder schools and 25% of places allocated to all. No entrance examination is set.
Many of our pupils stay on into the Sixth Form and students also join from other schools in the Borough and beyond. The Sixth Form offers a range of AS and A Level courses, together with some vocational courses. Most of the Year 13 proceed to Higher Education each year, gaining entry to top universities, including Oxford and Cambridge.
Archbishop Tenison’s aims to provide an education which is broad, balanced, relevant and accessible to the diverse and close-knit community it serves.
The school is well regarded in the area for its music, drama and sport. Students are active in debating and public speaking. We regularly achieve very impressive results in National Mathematical Challenges. There is a wide range of extra-curricular activities with around 40 different clubs and societies. Charity support also features strongly in the life of the Sixth Form and the school.
The rewarding aspect of working at Archbishop Tenison's is reflected by the way in which staff stay at the school and the high level of staff commitment to extra-curricular activities mentioned earlier. Moreover, each year there are educational journeys in the UK and abroad, residential field courses, Duke of Edinburgh and Christian
The school has featured in a number of guides to good state schools and was described as "Good" in our last OFSTED Report. The school has both a strong sense of traditional values and a readiness to embrace new ideas which are of real benefit to the pupils and students. We are looking for the person appointed to this post to be part of a school with both a distinguished history and a vision of Christian educational purpose.
Transportation
London Borough of Croydon, the largest London Borough, has good transport links, by train Central London only twenty minutes away, Gatwick 30 minutes and Brighton approximately forty minutes.
Teacher Training
ECTs, ITTs and School Direct
At Archbishop Tenison's we pride ourselves in our successful trainee teacher and ECT training programmes. We have a number of support staff that have taken up teacher training, becoming very successful teachers, heads of year and subject leaders. Every academic year we have numerous PGCE, School Direct and work experience students either training with us or using our school as one of their professional placements.
Bromley Schools' Collegiate: An Initial Teacher Training Programme
At Archbishop Tenison's we are in partnership with Bromley Schools' Collegiate who are a well established provider of initial teacher training with over 30 years experience. The ITT package offered by BSC allows prospective teachers to rain in a dynamic educational setting across a range of local schools in Croydon and Bromley all of whom are working in partnership to help produced high quality and well-trained teachers of the future. The in-school training the initial teachers receive is complemented by a range of subject specific sessions led by the highly experience team at BSC. All of the training that the initial teachers engage with helps to fully prepare them for the delivery of the National Curriculum, is aligned with the Core Content Framework and ensures a smooth transition into becoming an Early Careers Teacher.
More information can be found at: https://www.bscteach.co.uk
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