Following a long period of successful leadership, driven by our school values, our current Headteacher will be retiring at the end of the summer term 2025.
This is an exciting opportunity to build on the excellent foundations in place and continue to develop the school.
John Ruskin Primary and Language Classes is a successful and popular 2 form entry school which also has a resource base offering specialist provision for children with speech and language impairment in Camberwell, London. The school has an excellent reputation in the local area. We are a values-led school community. Our values lead all of our work and our children learn our school values from the earliest age in nursery.
We are looking for an exceptional, committed Headteacher with a proven record in educational leadership to share our ambition and strategic vision to build upon the Ofsted 'Outstanding' rating (October 2023). Your energy and enthusiasm will inspire, challenge, and empower all members of the school in achieving our vision. We want the best for all our pupils.
Our future Headteacher will have strong, all round leadership skills and be able to manage the demands of a large primary school. The school has a strong, motivated, and dedicated team of teaching and support staff, committed to ensuring high achievement and equality of opportunity for all.
The role is suitable for an experienced leader who is capable of meeting the challenges of the post. Governors have high expectations and are positive and supportive.
Job details
Salary: L18-L24; £85,092 - £97,068
Contract type: Full time, permeant
Reporting to: Governing Body
Responsible for: All staff
Main purpose
The headteacher will:
- Establish and sustain the school's ethos and strategic direction together with the governing board and through consultation with the school community
- Establish and oversee systems, processes and policies so the school can operate effectively
- Identify problems and barriers to school effectiveness, and develop strategies for school improvement that are realistic, timely and suited to the school's context
- Monitor progress towards achieving the school's aims and objectives
- Be responsible, along with the Governing Body, for the effective financial management of the school and implementation of robust financial practices
- Be responsible for the overall management and organization of the school, including the Language Unit and the effectiveness of all resources, including the deployment of teaching and support staff
- Be take an active involvement in all school activities, including assemblies and extra-curricular activities
- Be responsible for the performance management of all school staff and the implementation of CPD
- Be responsible for the effective management of school Health and Safety, security and school grounds to ensure a consistently safe environment for the whole school community
- Promote and live the school's ethos and core values
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
- Be an outstanding communicator across the school community including with pupils, parents and staff
- Be an innovator and drive high standards across the school
Duties and responsibilities
School culture and behaviour
The headteacher will:
- Create a culture where pupils experience a positive and enriching school life
- 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 and accountability
- 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
- Be responsible for the development of a curriculum within the context of the Language Classes, Nurseries, Foundation Stage, Literacy and Numeracy strategies appropriate to the needs and attainment of pupils.
- Ensure effective delivery with high standards of expectation that maximize achievement and positive outcomes for all pupils
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.
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 wellbeing with due attention to workload
- Ensure rigorous approaches to identifying, managing and mitigating risk
Professional development
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
- 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.
This job description may be amended at any time in consultation with the postholder.