Do you want to be part of a leadership team where you will help make a lasting impact on our students, many of whom are disadvantaged, and rapidly accelerate their progress?

Do you want to work in a school where you are free to teach, with impeccable student behaviour and unhindered by bureaucracy?

Astrea Academy Trust is looking for a candidate who is ready to take their next step in leadership to become an Assistant Principal at Longsands Academy. This is an excellent opportunity for an existing or aspiring senior leader with a track record of whole-school impact.

The position is a great match for someone who shares the Trust’s vision for educational excellence and has the focus to drive improvement at a pace, building on the school’s strong academic foundations. The academy and Trust are committed to a knowledge-rich curriculum and a traditional approach to teaching, behaviour and culture.

Longsands Academy is an 11-18 fully-inclusive secondary school serving the community of St Neots and the surrounding area. The academy has around 1750 students including 250 in the Sixth Form. Longsands is proud of its inclusive and aspirational approach, whether that is in supporting students preparing for Oxbridge or working with students with special educational needs. We are ambitious for every child, no matter their background or circumstance, prior attainment or needs. The academy also has a strong track record of supporting of staff by ensuring excellent mentoring, a supportive culture and many opportunities for development and involvement in wider school activities. 

We are values-driven and our vision is to provide an inclusive, aspirational and academic education for all our students, so that all of them will learn, thrive and lead successful lives. We are unapologetically ambitious for every child, no matter what their background, prior attainment or needs. We want to ensure that all our students have the option to be able to go to university or aspirational alternative. We are not going to reduce expectations because of a child’s background or home life, or because they are new to English or have a special education need. In fact, the opposite is true. It is our job to redouble our efforts to help children overcome these barriers so that they can flourish. 

 We value our staff highly, and treat workload very seriously. Our systems are high leverage, ensuring you can really focus on your core purpose – teaching, in a sustainable way, unhindered by bureaucracy or poor behaviour. 

What we offer: 

• Highly effective support and various progression opportunities
• A knowledge rich curriculum, built on ‘powerful knowledge’
• A traditional Teaching and Learning approach built around Rosenshine and Teach Like a Champion
• Collaborative planning with centralised, shared units of work and resources
• Excellent support from the Astrea Trust Central team
• Disruption-free learning and a ‘warm/strict’ behaviour system
• Centralised systems including detentions, homework
• No formal graded lesson observations – just ongoing ‘no-stakes’ instructional coaching, helping colleagues to continuously develop
• Excellent ongoing CPD, career development and promotion opportunities across the Astrea Cambridgeshire region.

What we are looking for: 

The successful candidate will be: 

• A highly effective and inspiring leader, who is able to motivate and encourage colleagues to the shared vision
• Aligned to our values and mission with a passion for Core Routines, Deliberate Practice and a Behaviour Curriculum
• Someone who is driven to raise the expectation and consistency of behaviour standards across the academy.

Interested in applying? 

If this is something you’re interested in, looking for a new challenge, have a passion for education or maybe all of the above, take a look at the Applicant Brief to find out more.

We actively welcome visits and would be delighted to show you around our Academy to fully appreciate our excellent learning environment. Please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Astrea Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All posts are subject to satisfactory background checks including references and enhanced DBS checks. 

If you are joining us from another school, academy or trust we recognise your continuous service date with confirmation from your current employer. This can be discussed in more detail at interview. 

The Astrea Resourcing Team supports this job advert. Agency involvement is not required.