Are you a passionate and ambitious educator ready to take the next step in your leadership journey? Illuminate Minds Trust is seeking a dedicated Deputy Head Teacher to join our team and make a real difference in the lives of our pupils. This isn't just a job, it's an opportunity to drive our commitment to "Excellence Every Day" and lead on our crucial inclusion agenda.

As Deputy Head Teacher, you will be a vital part of our senior leadership team, working closely with the Executive Head Teacher, Head Teacher, and the Trust’s Director of SEND, Safeguarding and Inclusion. You will be responsible for the strategic leadership of relationships, behaviour, and attendance, ensuring that every child particularly our most vulnerable benefits from a culture of high aspirations.

This is a role where truly getting to know each pupil and being able to build positive relationships with clear boundaries combined with care and compassion are vital elements of the role. Our expectations for all our pupils are high and we promote a fully inclusive culture where barriers to learning are addressed through targeted interventions and everyone in the school promotes quality first teaching, outstanding learning and confidence in the understanding and management of behaviour. If you are ambitious for all children and keen to develop your skills and expertise, this role could be for you! 

Fairford Academy Barnehurst is a three-form entry primary school within Illuminate Minds Trust, a small thriving academy of two trust schools. The school is located on the borders of Barnehurst and Erith with excellent transport links. Pelham Primary School is a two-form entry primary school within Illuminate Minds Trust. The school is located in the centre of Bexleyheath with excellent transport links. Partnership working between the schools is essential!

About Our Trust

Illuminate Minds Trust is a small but aspirational trust with ambitions to grow and work collaboratively with primary mainstream and SEND schools in order to creatively meet the needs of all pupils in our communities. We are highly inclusive and forward-thinking, believing that every child deserves the best education with the mission statement of “Excellence Every Day” as the golden thread woven through our schools.

Illuminate Minds is proud of our schools’ inclusive principles, creative solutions to SEND, our culture of embedded safeguarding and the focus we put on quality CPD, evidence-based research and our coaching culture. We encourage all of our staff to engage in professional development and peer support with the aim of everyone working together to strengthen our offer and achieve their best. We recognise that for our pupils to succeed and make outstanding progress, they need staff working with them who are committed to the continual drive for improvement and keen to upskill themselves.

If you believe that every child has the potential to achieve and experience success, truly enjoy working with children and understand the value of education as a means of opening doors and widening horizons, then Illuminate Minds may be the right organisation for you!

Our core purpose is “Excellence Every Day” through: -

• Working with children, young people and their families to promote engagement in learning and a work ethic which will help them secure a positive future.

• Delivering a curriculum in every school which meets the needs of the cohort and supports the development of rounded individuals with the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions and have agency over their futures.

• Offering experiences which are rich and diverse and widen the perspectives of all of our pupils beyond their lived experiences, reducing gaps and disadvantage.

• Encouraging participation and ownership of the school communities by all members of our staff to enable Trust development through contribution and collaboration.

• Creating a coaching culture to develop a workforce which is flexible to meet the need of every child or young person within our academies and “future proofs” us as a Trust in an ever-changing landscape.

• Developing systems and processes which safeguard our communities and reduce workload through sharing of resources and practices and avoidance of duplication.

• Ensuring the learning environment is fit for purpose, safe and stimulating to support the development of confident, happy pupils who want to attend school and are kept safe.

• Ethical leadership of the Trust

Recruitment Information

You can apply for this vacancy using the apply button above.

References will be requested for shortlisted candidates prior to interview. Only those shortlisted for interview will be contacted.

Illuminate Minds Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We ensure that we have a range of policies and procedures in place which promote safeguarding and safer working practice across the school.

Illuminate Minds Trust is committed to equality and diversity in employment practice and service delivery and expects employees to comply with our values of promoting equality and diversity, treating colleagues and service users with dignity and respect at all times. This commitment must be evidenced in practice. Any behavior that falls below these standards is unacceptable to the School and potentially constitutes misconduct.

This post is considered to be a customer-facing position; as such it falls within scope of the Code of Practice on English language requirement for public sector workers. The school therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the person specification. These will be applied during the recruitment/selection and probationary stages.

A copy of the job description, our child protection & safeguarding policy and recruitment pack are attached for your information. 

Link to our website: https://www.illuminateminds.org/

We reserve the right to close this advertisement early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications.