Headteacher

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Job Title:        Headteacher

Location:     Dibden Park School, Southampton

Salary:       Up to £75,000 per annum dependent on qualifications and experience 

Hours:       40 hours per week; Monday to Friday 

Contract:         Permanent, Term Time Only

Start date:   April 2025

UK applicants only. This role does not offer sponsorship.

Are you an innovative Headteacher committed to improving the lives of children and young people?

This is a great opportunity for an inspiring Headteacher to lead on the full set up and opening of our new specialist school supporting children with SEMH and other complex needs. As Headteacher, you will promote a relentless focus on high quality, creative learning, delivering our pupils educational needs, maximising children’s achievement, and their ability to develop.

Dibden Park School is part of Acorn Care and Education and can promise you plenty of challenges, and a rich variety of opportunities to develop your career. Our school is set to open in September 2023. 

As Headteacher you will have an infrastructure of support from central services for finance, resourcing, HR and IT including a network of supportive Headteachers from other schools alongside central school improvement support. 

About the role

You will exercise dynamic leadership of the school and to ensure the full development of the vision for the service, its promotion and continuous improvement. You will create and maintain a Centre of Excellence in the education of our students.

You will create a shared vision and strategic plan which inspires and motivates pupils, staff and all other members of the school community. This vision should express core educational values and moral purpose and be inclusive of stakeholders’ values and beliefs. The strategic planning process is critical to sustaining school improvement and ensuring that the school moves forward for the benefit of its pupils. 

You will work in collaboration with other senior managers, to provide a complete service and to develop and grow the wider services offered by the Centre to encourage an increase in referrals.

Essential

• Qualified Teacher Status of Equivalent
• Willingness to extend personal and professional development
• At least three years' experience as a senior leader in a specialist autism school for children with complex communication needs

Desirable

• Completion of NPQH
• Higher Degree Qualification, Postgraduate qualification in SEN

Please see job description for more details and information. 

About us

Dibden Park School is a brand-new school based in Southampton. Dibden Park School will place 60 students and will cater to students with social and emotional mental health and other complex needs. This is an exciting opportunity to grow and develop with a new staff team in a newly established independent special school. 

We are part of Acorn Education and can promise you plenty of challenges, and a rich variety of opportunities to develop your career.

We provide Education and Care across a number of schools and homes nationally. Our specialist SEN provision, coupled with our expertise within residential care means we offer thousands of vulnerable pupils across the UK a holistic, wraparound care, residential and education service, empowering them with everything they need to flourish.

We are really proud to say that in 2024, Outcomes First Group were officially certified as a ‘Great Place to Work’ for the fifth year running.

Why join Acorn Education & Care? 

Benefits

Your health and wellbeing are important to us, so you’ll get an exceptional reward package including:

• Life Assurance
• Pension scheme with options to increase your contributions
• “Your Wellbeing Matters” – access to a wide range of first-class mental health support services and physical health checks

And a market-leading benefit offering through our Flexible Benefits Platform, Vista, enables you to choose the package that’s right for you, including:

• A wide range of health, wellbeing, and insurance benefits
• 100’s of discount options valid in the UK and abroad
• Cycle to Work Schemes
• Electric Car Purchase Scheme
• Critical illness cover
• Family Growth Support - inclusive benefits package covering enhanced maternity and paternity leave, along with paid fertility treatment support. 

And that’s not all, we place the outcomes of the children and vulnerable young adults in our services at the heart of everything we do, so you’ll wake every day in the knowledge that your role will have a significant positive impact on the lives of others.

We are committed to the safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All successful applicants will be subject to a fully enhanced DBS.