Virtual School Assistant Head Teacher

Join Our Dynamic Team as an Assistant Head Teacher!

We are looking for a passionate and dedicated Assistant Head Teacher with senior leadership experience and a substantial track record of success to join our ambitious and vibrant Virtual School Team.

Due to the internal promotion of the current post holder, we are now looking for our new Assistant Head Teacher of Cambridgeshire Virtual School to start in Spring 2025. We are searching for someone who will be committed to a challenging, fast paced, yet rewarding role leading our Achievement Through Access and Inclusion Team alongside other areas of leadership responsibility.

This is an exciting opportunity for a candidate wanting to have a real impact on the lives of Cambridgeshire Children in Care, Previously in Care, those in kinship care, and Children known to Social Care.

For more information or to chat about this opportunity please contact:

Heather Edwards (Deputy Head Teacher) - 07817466563

Heather.Edwards@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

For more information about Cambridgeshire Virtual School watch this video:

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes+

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

The Assistant Head Teacher will be pivotal in shaping both the operational success and strategic direction of the Virtual School. This role involves fostering cultural transformation and strengthening the role of the corporate parent through collaboration with key partners in education and social care. The postholder will take responsibility for leading and managing a team of Education Advisors, ensuring they are empowered to meet the diverse needs of our children and improve outcomes through effective leadership.

The Achievement Through Access and Inclusion team work to ensure that all Cambridgeshire children in care can fully access their entitlement to full-time, well-matched education, by supporting and challenging the teams and services involved to achieve this. You will provide the strategic development and operational oversight of this team, ensuring outcomes improve in a timely manner, and act as a point of escalation in and out of authority where needed.

A key aspect of the role includes enhancing partnerships across services within and outside of the Local Authority to promote a more cohesive and integrated approach, ultimately driving high-quality outcomes for all cohorts. The Assistant Head Teacher will utilise their expertise to guide Education Advisors in optimising processes, and ensuring effective service delivery that upholds the high standards needed to achieve positive results for children, families, and schools.

The successful candidate must be passionate about and have proven experience of improving the educational experiences and outcomes of vulnerable young people. They will be outcomes driven and able to motivate, challenge and support the Achievement Through Access and Inclusion team and other professionals in a sometimes complex, but also rewarding environment.

They will have up to date knowledge of the education system, recent experience of working in a leadership position in a School or Local Authority Education Service, and a strong understanding of the barriers faced by children in care and will offer support and challenge to ensure that educational outcomes are maximised.

You will be familiar with children in care and have a secure knowledge of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), suspensions, attendance, admissions and OFSTED guidance.

This is a great opportunity to join a successful team and to have a significant impact on the lives of young people across a wide range of settings.

You will be confident at communicating effectively, efficient, organised and be able to work using your own initiative within a wider team.

If you are ready to inspire and lead with a focus on excellence and inclusivity, we would love to hear from you!

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers