Head of School

Purpose of Role

Accountable of complying with the Learning quality and Financial sustainability of the school in charge, ensuring alignment with ISP Philosophy and Commitment to society

ISP Head of School Key Responsibilities

• Wellbeing and safety. You are responsible for the safety and wellbeing for all children and adults in your school. This includes all activities, functions and policies to ensure students and adults are kept safe both physically and mentally, enabling them to learn without barriers. You model and foster an open culture and inclusive atmosphere where everyone looks out for one another and focuses on learning and getting better. You work in partnership with your leadership team and colleagues to learn from their feedback and you collaborate on action plans and improvements.
• Learning and Embedding Quality. You empower your teachers to focus on the quality of learning in your school, working in partnership with them to ensure progress towards the 9 criteria in the Learning Improvement Process. Where applicable, you use the process to support your school’s accreditation(s) and external reviews. You see the quality of learning across all 5 key pillars of the learning offering as integral to the success of your school and its position as a School of Choice within the local community. Teachers’ professional learning and development thrives under your stewardship of the school. You facilitate and engage in a professional and respectful dialogue with teachers, parents and the ISP community about learning and teaching, inspiring a shared commitment to getting better. Your teachers feel confident to have open and honest conversations about the learning of their students, their own learning and how they can get better. You regularly gather, document and analyse evidence of learning from around your school and use this to inform your decision-making process and work with your teachers to identify targets and action steps for improving learning.
• Leadership and Development. You lead your school with vision, empathy and integrity. You connect, collaborate and engage with colleagues throughout the school and the wider ISP organisation intentionally and have a clear understanding of what is going on across all functions. You understand your own strengths and areas for development, knowing when to push ahead and when to seek out advice, support or mentorship. You recruit, develop and retain talent. You identify who to bring together to leverage skills and ability and you use this to build and empower high calibre senior and middle leadership teams.
• Vision and Strategy. You are fully focused on the ISP Vision of Schools of Choice. You use your own insight and knowledge and seek others’ input to understand what this means within your local context. You create and lead on this strategy in partnership with your senior leadership team and ISP. You align with and model the ISP Purpose and Principles, ensuring these are at the heart of your school strategy as well as visible through your daily actions and the actions of your leadership team and colleagues.
• Marketing, Admissions and Communication. You are a clear and compelling storyteller, articulating the vision and story of your school and ISP in a way that inspires parents, students and colleagues. You have a clear understanding of your school’s market, new and existing target audiences and understand how best to reach and engage with them, consistently tailoring and personalising your message and differentiators as appropriate. You work closely with ISP regional marketing to optimise the branding of your school and communicate an inspiring vision of the offering to attract the right families and students as well as making current families ambassadors for the school. With the support of ISP regional admissions, you ensure that families have the best and most personalised experience possible during the admissions process, maintaining a high lead to enrolment conversion rate.
• Commercial Success and KPIs. You see the school as your business to nurture and grow. You understand your commercial responsibility for the school as Head, co-creating, owning and taking responsibility for your school delivering on its targets and KPIs (financial, learning, people and marketing). You successfully lead your team and organise and manage resources to drive profitability. You specifically monitor and communicate progress towards enrolment growth and income generation KPIs, thereby facilitating the achievement of your school’s financial goals. You identify and implement new and improved ways of doing things that have a demonstrable impact on the school’s success.
• Partnership with ISP. You are committed to working in partnership with ISP. You understand, value and articulate ISP’s role as a trusted advisor and resource to support you in building and creating your School of Choice. You work collaboratively and effectively with your RMD and the regional functional leads. You and your school team see the school as part of ISP and articulate the wider benefits of being an ISP school to your team. You understand your collective responsibility to the school and ISP, successfully balancing the school’s interests with the ISP vision and strategy and asserting yourself confidently and with consideration and respect for others’ views.
• Partnership with Parents and Carers. You lead the school in the building of effective parent and carer relationships. You understand our students and their families, their expectations and their future requirements and you focus on identifying opportunities to provide value to students and their families beyond their expectations. As well as the formal mechanisms, such as surveys and assessments, you foster a culture of partnership based on effective, regular direct communication and two-way feedback between teachers and parents. Together with your teaching team you help parents and carers understand the school’s shared ideas about learners and learning in ways that help them to engage confidently when talking about what their child is getting better at, what their next steps are, and how they will be supported at home.

Skills, Qualifications and Experience

• Experience as Principal for at least 5 years in more than 800 students’ schools.
• Learning Focus including online platforms
• Financial Understanding and KPI compliance
• PGCE, QTS certification + Master and desirable PHD in Education

If you are interested in applying for the position of Head of School and you are open to move to other locations, that due to growth, we may be opening in the ISP Iberia Region (Spain and Portugal), please send you CV to smcaleese@ispschools.com.

ISP Commitment to Safeguarding Principles

ISP is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All post holders are subject to appropriate vetting procedures and satisfactory Criminal Background Checks or equivalent covering the previous 10 years’ employment history.

ISP Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

ISP is committed to strengthening our inclusive culture by identifying, hiring, developing, and retaining high-performing teammates regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender expression, age, disability status, neurodivergence, socio-economic background or other demographic characteristics. Candidates who share our vision and principles and are interested in contributing to the success of ISP through this role are strongly encouraged to apply.