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What skills and experience we're looking for

• Qualified teacher status
• National professional qualification for headship (NPQH) Desirable
• Successful leadership and management experience in a school
• Teaching experience across all key stages
• Involvement in school self-evaluation and development planning
• Demonstrable experience of successful line management and staff development
• Data analysis skills, and the ability to use data to set targets and identify weaknesses
• Understanding of high-quality teaching based on evidence, and the ability to model this for others and support others to improve
• Understanding of school finances and financial management
• Experience of Budget setting, audits and bid writing
• Experience of risk and estate management
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to communicate a vision and inspire others
• Ability to build effective working relationships
• Experience of leading board meetings and working with governors
• Commitment to uphold the 7 principles of public life (the Nolan principles) at all times
• A commitment to getting the best outcomes for all pupils and promoting the ethos and values of the school
• Ability to work under pressure and prioritise effectively
• Commitment to maintaining confidentiality at all times
• Commitment to safeguarding and equality, ensuring that personal beliefs are not expressed in ways that exploit the position

Qualities

The headteacher will:

• Uphold public trust in school leadership and maintain high standards of ethics, behaviour and professional conduct
• Build positive and respectful relationships across the school community
• Serve in the best interests of the school’s pupils

Duties and responsibilities

School culture and behaviour

The headteacher will:

• Create a culture where pupils experience a positive and enriching school life
• Be empathetic to the Christian ethos of the school as a Church of England Academy and work closely with the Church, Diocese and community to embed the school vison and Christian values.
• Uphold ambitious educational standards in order to prepare pupils from all backgrounds for their next phase of education and life
• Ensure a culture of staff professionalism
• Encourage high standards of behaviour from pupils, built on rules and routines that are understood by staff and pupils, and clearly demonstrated by all adults in school
• Use consistent and fair approaches to managing behaviour, in line with the school’s behaviour policy

Teaching, curriculum and assessment

The headteacher will:

• Establish and sustain high-quality teaching across all subjects and phases, based on evidence
• Ensure teaching is underpinned by subject expertise
• Effectively use formative assessment to inform strategy and decisions
• Ensure the teaching of a broad, structured and coherent curriculum
• Establish curriculum leadership, including subject leaders with relevant expertise and access to professional networks and communities
• Use valid, reliable and proportionate approaches to assessing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the curriculum
• Ensure the use of evidence-informed approaches to reading so that all pupils are taught to read

Additional and special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities

The headteacher will:

• Promote a culture and practices that enables all pupils to access the curriculum
• Have ambitious expectations for all pupils with SEN and disabilities
• Make sure the school works effectively with parents, carers and professionals to identify additional needs and provide support and adaptation where appropriate
• Make sure the school fulfils statutory duties regarding the SEND Code of Practice.
• Work closely with the Director of SEND and Inclusion

Managing the school

The headteacher will:

• Ensure staff and pupils’ safety and welfare through effective approaches to safeguarding, as part of a duty of care
• Manage staff well with due attention to workload
• Ensure rigorous approaches to identifying, managing and mitigating risk
• Be responsible for the Health and Safety of the site and ensure the school, is compliant in regards to premises and estates.

The headteacher will:

• Ensure staff have access to appropriate, high standard professional development opportunities
• Keep up to date with developments in education
• Ensure training and continuing professional development is effectively planned, delivered and evaluated
• Make sure professional development opportunities draw on experts both within, and beyond the school
• Seek training and continuing professional development to meet the needs of all staff members

Governance, accountability and working in partnership

The headteacher will:

• Understand and welcome the role of effective governance, including accepting responsibility
• Ensure that staff understand their professional responsibilities and are held to account
• Ensure the school effectively and efficiently operates within the required regulatory frameworks and meets all statutory duties
• Work successfully with other schools and organisations within and outside of the Trust
• Maintain working relationships with fellow professionals and colleagues to improve educational outcomes for all pupils

Please note that this is illustrative of the general nature and level of responsibility of the role. It is not a comprehensive list of all tasks that the headteacher will carry out. The postholder may be required to do other duties appropriate to the level of the role.

What the school offers its staff

Hopton is a small, friendly village school with a sense of community. We pride ourselves on knowing our children and families well and creating an environment where everyone feels that they belong.

As part of Elveden Schools Trust, you will also be part of a collaborative family of schools. We believe that schools are stronger when they work together, sharing expertise, supporting one another and creating opportunities for both children and staff.

Please use the below link to see more about our school:

For Safeguarding and other policies please see below:

Commitment to safeguarding

Our organisation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff, volunteers and trustees to share this commitment. Our recruitment process follows the keeping children safe in education guidance. Offers of employment may be subject to the following checks (where relevant): childcare disqualification Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) medical online and social media prohibition from teaching right to work satisfactory references suitability to work with children You must tell us about any unspent conviction, cautions, reprimands or warnings under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975.

Salary: Qualified Teachers Pay Scales: Main Pay Scale (MPS) to Upper Pay Scale (UPS)