JOB TITLE: Principal
CONTRACT TYPE: Full Time
START DATE: As soon as possible (dependent on successful candidate notice period)
CLOSING DATE: Wednesday 24th June 2026
INTERVIEW DATE: Wednesday 1st July and Thursday 2nd July 2026
SALARY: L30 £105,595 to L34 £116,456 + LGPS Pension Scheme
LOCATION: Oasis Restore in Rochester, Medway, Kent.
- Do you dare to care?
- Do you have the skills, resilience and commitment to work with children who are on remand or sentenced to time in custody?
- Do you want to support children to develop their life skills as well as their emotional, social and cognitive abilities?
- Are you passionate about transforming the lives of the most vulnerable children?
- Do you want to be part of a revolution in youth justice?
Are you a dynamic, transformational leader with credible experience in leading people and strategy, building unity and creating aspiration through teams.
Oasis Restore Trust is a Secure Academy Trust part of the national Oasis group of charities that have been pioneering models of sustainable and holistic education and community development over the last 40 years.
We are seeking a transformational leader as the Principal of Oasis Restore.
Oasis Restore represents an opportunity for children within the criminal justice system to experience a restorative environment that creates the potential for them to thrive both now and for the future. Our vision for Oasis Restore is focussed on restoration, on creating a safe environment with a holistic approach to life where every child is given opportunity equal to those offered their peers; ones that enable young people to make different choices and lead positive, productive lives.
Using a psychologically informed approach that integrates theories on attachment, trauma and human development. Oasis Restore is based on three cornerstones of relationships, discovery, and community that aim to bring together all staff, and their specialisms, in the service of our common goal of transforming children’s lives.
We are seeking someone with a proven track record of transformative leadership – leading and inspiring people to be their best within complex systems and processes. You will be values-led, understanding people-centred leadership while working in context of statutory frameworks.
You will be adaptive to the leadership styles of your team and will lead others through ambiguity and complexity. The successful candidate will be ego-aware and understand the pivotal role that character plays in transformational leadership. You will be able to ask for help and create psychological safety for others to do the same.
You will champion the Oasis ethos and be a known advocate for children who are often without a voice to ensure that others play their role to deliver the high-quality education, care and well being that meets needs of children in our care.
Our successful candidate will:
- Have credible three to five years’ experience of executive leadership in an integrated, multi-disciplinary organisation or service.
- Have led integrated teams within complex systems, thinking laterally and strategically to build organisation that drives change.
- A champion of divergent thinking and innovative practice balanced with commitment to providing psychologically informed leadership and clear decision making that empowers and contains others.
- Committed to values-led leadership with a proven track record of advocating for children.
Our Academy
Oasis Restore is the country’s first secure school that is a proof-of-concept policy initiative funded by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). Oasis Restore’s mission is to transform the life chances of children aged 12-18 years in the criminal justice system through delivering psychologically informed, integrated practice that centres on trusted, safe relationships between staff and children. Oasis Restore is a learning community that seeks to embed hope, stability, and opportunity for children beyond the secure school.
To read more about us please visit our website www.oasisrestore.org.
Our offer to you
As a recently established subsidiary of the Oasis Charitable Trust, you will enjoy the benefit of being part of a national organisation that aims to support all staff to reach their full potential and a once in a lifetime opportunity to create, develop and grow a new collaborative and innovative values-based organisation. As well as this you will also benefit from the following opportunities:
- A mixture of one to one and group reflective practise, coaching & supervision sessions as well as regular line management.
- Experience an Appraisal policy that decouples pay and performance.
- An elected staff forum to listen to, and act on staff feedback
- Access to a competitive defined benefit pension scheme (either the Teachers Pensions Scheme or Local Government Pension Scheme subject to individual scheme rules).
- Subject to meeting basic eligibility criteria, be entitled to up to 8 weeks full-pay and 18 weeks half-pay paid maternity/adoption/shared parental leave (based broadly on the NHS Employers scheme).
- Subject to meeting basic eligibility criteria be entitled to up to 3 weeks fully paid paternity leave.
- Paid time off to attend antenatal appointments (those staff who are either pregnant or whose partner is pregnant)
- Have a structured and bespoke induction training plan plus access to a training offer bespoke to our context leading to a level 4 qualification in the therapeutic care of adolescents.
- Receive the same offer of sick leave pay (based broadly on the length of service framework in the national ‘Green Book’ framework) from Day 1 of employment.
- Up to 5 days discretionary paid compassionate/emergency/general leave plus further discretionary unpaid leave
- Up to 4 weeks paid parental bereavement leave plus up to 5 days paid bereavement leave for the death of other specified close relatives.
- Blue Light Card (subject to meeting their eligibility criteria)
- Expenses and travel costs incurred as part of the working day (as appropriate, not including travel to work)
- Access to an eye care vouchers scheme, season Ticket Loans, a cycle to work scheme and free car parking.
- Access to an Employee Assistance Programme and Health Cash Plan Scheme
What are you waiting for?
Apply today!
If you would like some more information or to have an informal conversation, please contact us at [email protected]
The closing date for applications is 24th June 2026 and interviews are on 1st and 2nd July 2026.
We reserve the right to bring forward the closing date for applications and interviews where interest and applications received are of high quality or quantity. Therefore, we encourage early applications.
Safeguarding and Pre-Employment Checks
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff to share this commitment. All successful candidates will be subject to Disclosure and Barring Service checks along with other relevant employment checks including references and right to work checks. It is an offence to apply for a role if you are barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children.
This post is also covered by Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) and therefore the ability to speak fluent and spoken English is an essential requirement for this role.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
At Oasis Restore we recognise that our team is strengthened by the knowledge, experience and insights people from a wide range of backgrounds can bring. These beliefs and values are underpinned by decades of work and experience that Oasis has had in a wide range of sectors including education, housing and youth-work supported further by a wide range of independent research and studies elsewhere which evidence that creating teams with diverse experience and perspectives, and encouraging healthy debate, reduces the risk of ‘blind spots’ that often form barriers to success. Oasis Restore aim is to attract and retain the very best diverse talent and role models to help create an innovative, caring and extraordinary working environment for our staff, that enables us to deliver exceptional, caring and psychologically informed learning experience for our students.
We would therefore like to encourage applications from people with varied skillsets, life experiences, and from different backgrounds and sectors to help shape Oasis Restore. If you can demonstrate some of the criteria and believe you have what it takes, then we’d love to hear from you.
Given the nature of our work we also welcome applications from candidates with the following lived experience:
- Experience of working successfully with vulnerable children who sometimes have multiple and complex needs.
- Personal experience of the criminal justice system or lived experience of the issues facing this client group (i.e. involved in gangs or knife crime).
- Knowledge of the issues facing this client group, such as gangs, knife crime, social exclusion and isolation, child criminal exploitation, adverse childhood experiences and trauma.
- Ability to actively listen and motivate young people.
- Personal experience of the Care system
- Ability to be a positive role model, demonstrating the virtues of a crime-free life to young people.
- The Equal Opportunities Form will not be shared with anyone involved in processing your application. Please complete this as part of the application process though it is voluntary. Please note that if you have a disability and you require this form or submitting the information with regard to this form in another format, such as in larger print, please contact the People Services Team
Our aim is for children to value their time at Oasis Restore, to enjoy learning, and to leave ready to contribute to society. We acknowledge that traumatic early life experiences, adversity and exploitation negatively affect the children we serve and those around them, including the victims of their crimes. Young people placed at the secure school will need to come to terms with the consequences of their criminal behaviour: the sentence is their punishment.
Our job is to listen and understand the stories behind those actions, to support them to start making amends in whatever ways they can, and to help them build the skills they need for a positive future.
Oasis Restore, Sir Evelyn Road, Rochester, Kent ME1 3YB
