Company: Anderida Group
Reporting to: Directors
Location: Currently three sites across East Sussex
Salary: £65,000 – £80,000 (commensurate with experience and professional qualification)
SEND, SEMH, trauma, and social care involvement, ages 11–18
About Our Company:
We are a dedicated and expanding organisation committed to providing outstanding residential care and education for children and young people with complex needs. Operating a network of therapeutic homes across the region and multiple school sites, we focus on creating safe, nurturing, and empowering environments. Our head office in Eastbourne provides essential support, overseeing care, clinical governance, finance, and human resources for all our homes and schools.
Core Purpose
The Head of School is an exceptional and highly specialist leadership role within Anderida Group, responsible for providing visionary educational leadership across a unique multi-site vocational school catering to students aged 11–18 with complex and often overlapping needs, including SEND, SEMH, trauma, and social care involvement.
This is not a conventional headship. Education is delivered across multiple vocational hubs including workshops, farm settings, digital labs, and professional kitchens requiring a leader who can hold a clear educational vision whilst managing significant operational complexity. You will ensure that every student, regardless of their starting point, receives a personalised, therapeutic, and industry-relevant education that equips them for meaningful adult life.
Key Responsibilities
1. Strategic Leadership and Ethos
- Define and articulate a clear, compelling vision for a multi-site vocational model that balances academic progress with professional skill acquisition, ensuring all stakeholders staff, students, families, and external partners understand and are committed to the school’s purpose.
- Work with the directors to design and deliver a clear strategic approach and action plan working across both sides of the organisation
- Foster a culture of high expectations, psychological safety, inclusivity, and resilience across all physical sites, ensuring that every environment reflects the school’s therapeutic values and commitment to student dignity.
- Lead the annual School Development Plan (SDP), setting ambitious and measurable priorities that address the unique logistical, pedagogical, and therapeutic challenges of a distributed campus model.
- Represent the school at a senior level with the Local Authority, Ofsted, commissioning bodies, and other external stakeholders, maintaining strong professional relationships that support the school’s reputation and funding position.
- Report regularly to the Directors and the Board on school performance, safeguarding, staffing, and strategic developments, presenting data-driven insights with clarity and confidence.
- Undertake strategic projects with deep dives into different areas of the school to identify improvements and growth
- Financial oversight, analysis and recommendations
- Lead on quarterly reports for the Governor team and Anderida board which provides a strategic overview and is focused on school improvement, key metrics, statutory compliance, successes and challenges, attainment data, attendance and safeguarding matters.
- Attend appropriate events and activities to build contacts which will promote and market the school in order to increase income over time
- Lead change, such as educational changes in curriculum, policies, effectively by involving staff and addressing concerns
2. Strategic Team Leadership
- Build and lead the team across all sites and build a positive, collaborative working culture
- Lead by example in professionalism, integrity and commitment whilst providing support and positive challenge
- Ensure staff development, CPD and performance management are delivered
- Lead and appraise the Deputy Head and head of KS3 to ensure high performance across all sites
- Assign key responsibilities to senior and middle leaders and empower staff to take leadership roles and make decision
- Ensure accountability whilst encouraging accountability
- Build open, transparent and regular communications with staff, focus on building employee engagement and ensure clarity of roles and expectations
- Manage conflict and build wellbeing through swift action in a supportive environment and ensure fair treatment across all staff
- Foster teamwork, trust and mutual respect, celebrate achievements and recognise staff contributions
- Encourage innovation and a commitment to continuous improvement based on evidence-based practices
3. Curriculum and Vocational Excellence
- Oversee the design and continuous improvement of a bespoke, “work-ready” curriculum that meets statutory requirements across the 11–18 phase whilst prioritising specialist vocational pathways tailored to each student’s strengths, interests, and post-16 aspirations.
- Ensure that curriculum delivery across all site's workshops, farms, digital labs, professional kitchens, and other vocational environments maintains a consistently high standard of teaching, learning, and assessment.
- Drive and manage partnerships with local industries, employers, colleges, and awarding bodies to ensure vocational training remains current, industry-relevant, and leads to meaningful, recognised accreditation for all learners.
- Implement robust quality assurance processes for teaching and learning across sites, including lesson observations, work scrutiny, and learning walks, ensuring findings are used to drive targeted staff development and curriculum refinement.
- Lead the development of personalised transition plans for all post-16 students, working closely with Local Authorities, colleges, employers, and families to secure positive, sustained destinations beyond the school.
- Be prepared and ready for Ofsted and Provision inspections ensuring the school gains a minimum ‘good’ outcome.
4. Specialist Provision and Inclusion
- Ensure that Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision is seamlessly and meaningfully integrated into every aspect of the vocational environment, with EHCPs reviewed, implemented, and monitored to the highest standard.
- Collaborate closely with multi-disciplinary teams including Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Educational Psychologists, and clinical leads to ensure therapeutic interventions are embedded into the school day and actively support vocational engagement.
- Maintain a robust, data-driven system for monitoring the progress of students with complex profiles, ensuring that “small step” achievements are systematically celebrated, recorded, and used to inform next steps in learning.
- Lead Annual Review processes, ensuring that EHCPs are accurate, aspirational, and reflect the genuine voice of the student and their family, with outcomes that are ambitious and achievable within the school’s unique provision.
- Champion an inclusive ethos in which every student’s identity, background, and individual needs are respected, and where the curriculum actively reflects and celebrates diversity in all its forms.
5. Operational and Multi-Site Management
- Manage the full complexity of a multi-site operation, including staff deployment and timetabling, health and safety compliance in specialist vocational settings, student transport logistics, and site-specific resource management.
- Ensure each vocational site meets stringent Health and Safety standards relevant to specific trades and environments, including COSHH compliance, equipment maintenance schedules, risk assessment frameworks, and safe working practice training for all staff.
- Lead, develop, and performance-manage a distributed middle leadership team, establishing clear lines of accountability and ensuring consistency in policy, practice, and culture regardless of physical location.
- Manage the school budget with rigour and transparency, overseeing resource allocation across sites, monitoring expenditure against agreed plans, and providing clear financial reporting to the Director of Education and the Board.
- Oversee the recruitment, induction, and ongoing development of all school staff, working in close partnership with the HR function to ensure Safer Recruitment compliance and a high-performing, stable workforce across all sites.
6. Safeguarding and Student Wellbeing
- Act as a senior lead for safeguarding across all school sites, maintaining expert-level knowledge of KCSIE and recognising the specific and heightened risks associated with off-site vocational learning, adolescent transitions, and students with complex social care histories.
- Implement and continuously review trauma-informed behaviour support strategies across all sites, ensuring all staff are trained, confident, and consistent in their approach to de-escalation, regulation, and restorative practice.
- Maintain effective, timely, and accurate safeguarding records, ensuring all concerns are acted upon, reported, and reviewed in line with statutory obligations and Anderida Group’s internal safeguarding policy.
- Work closely with Local Authority Designated Officers (LADOs), social workers, and other statutory agencies to manage allegations, referrals, and complex case planning, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all students is always the primary concern.
- Develop and embed a whole-school approach to student mental health and emotional wellbeing, ensuring appropriate pastoral support structures are in place across all sites and that students have access to trusted, consistent adults at all times.
7. Family and Community Engagement
- Build and sustain strong, trust-based relationships with the families and carers of all students, ensuring they are actively involved in their child’s education, progress reviews, and transition planning.
- Develop the school’s community presence and employer network, creating meaningful opportunities for students to experience the world of work, build professional relationships, and develop the social capital that will support their long-term independence.
- Lead on the school’s communication strategy with parents, carers, and placing authorities, ensuring that all stakeholders receive timely, accurate, and meaningful information about their child’s progress, wellbeing, and achievements.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and NPQH (National Professional Qualification for Headship), or equivalent senior leadership experience in a specialist setting.
Desirable
- Advanced degree or postgraduate qualification in SEND, Educational Psychology, Vocational Leadership, or a related field.
Experience
Essential
- Substantial senior leadership experience in a specialist SEND or alternative provision setting catering to the 11–18 age range.
- Proven track record of school improvement and raising outcomes for students with complex needs.
- Experience leading and managing staff across multiple teams or locations.
Desirable
- Experience managing multi-site operations or alternative provision.
- Prior experience leading a school through an Ofsted inspection with a positive outcome.
- Experience of change management or scaling a specialist provision.
Knowledge
Essential
- Deep, current knowledge of the SEND Code of Practice, KCSIE, and Post-16 funding and compliance requirements.
- Strong understanding of trauma-informed practice, attachment theory, and therapeutic approaches to education.
- Sound knowledge of vocational curriculum design and quality assurance frameworks.
Desirable
- Familiarity with vocational awarding bodies (BTEC, City & Guilds, T-Levels, AQA).
- Knowledge of Youth Justice, complex Social Care systems, or multi-agency working in high-need settings.
Leadership Style
Essential
- Highly resilient, adaptable, and able to inspire and motivate teams across different locations and in high-pressure situations.
- Visible, relational leadership style that builds deep trust with students, staff, and families.
- Transparent decision-maker who communicates with clarity and purpose.
Desirable
- Experience leading organisational change or scaling a specialist provision.
- Coaching or mentoring qualification.
Safeguarding
Essential
- Expert, up-to-date knowledge of KCSIE and safeguarding in non-traditional educational settings.
- Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) trained.
- Proven ability to manage complex safeguarding concerns with appropriate urgency, discretion, and professional judgement.
Desirable
- Experience working with Youth Justice services, complex Social Care cases, or multi-agency safeguarding hubs (MASH).
Business Acumen
- Ability to manage complex, multi-site budgets and physical resources with transparency and accountability.
- Experience producing financial reports and presenting budget positions to senior leaders or governance bodies.
Desirable
- Experience building corporate or employer partnerships.
- Familiarity with ESFA funding streams or alternative provision commissioning processes.
Personal Qualities
- A pioneering spirit, comfortable operating outside the traditional school building and energised by the complexity of a non-conventional model.
- Deep relational authority with students who may have had negative prior experiences of education.
- Analytical rigour in using data to demonstrate that a non-traditional model delivers exceptional outcomes.
- Calm, steady, and decisive under pressure.
- Unconditional commitment to the welfare of children and young people.
- Highly resilient and able to operate in an environment of uncertainty.
We actively promote Neuroinclusivity, please ask for any support that may be needed to apply for this position.
Safeguarding Statement:
Our company is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff to share this commitment. This role involves working with highly sensitive personal data. The successful applicant will be required to undertake an Enhanced DBS check, and other rigorous pre-employment checks, in line with safer recruitment practices and our commitment to ensuring the safety of children and young people.
To apply, please request an application form
Closing date: 6th July midday
Interviews to be held 9th July
Pay: £65,000.00-£80,000.00 per year
Work Location: In person
