Assistant Headteacher: Inclusion, Safeguarding & Culture

About this Role

Yorkswood Primary School is on an ambitious journey of rapid transformation. Our community deserves an outstanding school, and we are determined to deliver it. We are seeking an Assistant Headteacher for Inclusion, Safeguarding & Culture to complete our Senior Leadership Team.

Our School at the Heart of the Community

Yorkswood is situated in an area of high social deprivation. For our children and their families, school is an essential community hub, a safe environment, and a vital service. We understand deeply how crucial a supportive school environment is to our families' lives, and we want to expand and develop this civic presence even further. We are looking for a leader who shares this community mission—someone who will support our vision for rapid improvement while bringing their own evidence-informed ideas to help our community flourish.

Professional Development

We invest heavily in our staff through a robust culture of instructional coaching, deliberate practice, and evidence-informed research. If you want to lead in an environment where professional development is highly valued, and where pastoral care is driven by deep empathy and rigorous educational research, Yorkswood is the school for you.

As our Assistant Headteacher, you will hold strategic, macro-level responsibility for our entire pastoral and inclusion landscape. You will oversee the strategic direction of inclusion, serve as our Lead DSL, and champion our Looked After Children (LAC). You will lead behaviour and pastoral care across the school, which includes leading and developing our lunchtime staff to ensure our culture of safety and positive behaviour is sustained throughout the entire school day.

• School: Yorkswood Primary School

• Salary Scale: Leadership Pay Range L5 - L9

• Contract Type: Permanent

• Working Pattern: Full-time (may include a flexible teaching commitment to model "Quality First" teaching)

What We Offer You:

• A Collaborative Support Network: Working as part of our SLT, you will receive close, supportive mentorship from the Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher, alongside direct, strategic partnership with our MAT Inclusion Lead and MAT Safeguarding Lead.

• Comprehensive Training and Development: We recognise that exceptional leaders come from a variety of backgrounds. If you are an experienced middle leader, specialist, or outstanding classroom teacher who has not yet led safeguarding or inclusion at a whole-school level, we will provide and fund all the statutory training, qualifications, and mentoring you need to succeed.

• True Strategic Influence: Ultimate oversight of a complete inclusion and pastoral directorate, with direct line management and appraisal responsibility.

• Professional Growth: Supported pathways for masters-level qualifications, NPQs, and accredited coaching programmes.

• Protected SLT Workload: A flexible, protected leadership allocation ensuring you have the dedicated, quality time required to execute complex safeguarding and macro-inclusion duties effectively.

• Collaboration: High-level networking, peer-to-peer coaching, and collaborative support across the Robin Hood Multi Academy Trust.

• Wellbeing Focus: Access to comprehensive trust wellbeing initiatives, including a network of mental health first aiders and one fully paid Staff Wellbeing Day per year.

Who We Are Looking For:

• An Ambitious Pastoral Leader: A professional with a real passion for pastoral care, operating under the core philosophy that "behaviour is a form of communication."

• An Evidence-Informed Practitioner: Someone eager to lead pastoral developments through the lens of cognitive, educational, and social research, with a proven track record of closing achievement and progress gaps for vulnerable groups (SEND, PP, EAL, and LAC).

• A Committed, Resilient Leader: Someone determined to make a measurable difference in a community that requires high-quality support, holding expectations high for our children while nurturing relationships of trust with families and staff alike.

We strongly encourage prospective candidates to visit our school and experience our culture first-hand before applying. To arrange a visit, please contact the school office on 0121 468 4351 or email enquiries@yorkswoodprimary.co.uk.

Safeguarding Statement

Robin Hood MAT is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff, including those within our Central Team, to share this commitment and to maintain a vigilant and safe environment across all any of our academies.

This post is considered "regulated activity" (and involves regular access to our school sites) and is therefore subject to an Enhanced DBS check with a check of the Children’s Barred List. It is an offence to apply for this role if you are barred from engaging in regulated activity.

All shortlisted candidates will be required to complete a self-declaration of their criminal record or information that would make them unsuitable to work with children.

In line with the requirements of Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), we will conduct an online search on all shortlisted candidates as part of our due diligence process. We will discuss any information flagged during this process with the candidate during the interview stage before making a final recruitment decision.

This school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expect all staff to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be subject to all necessary pre-employment checks, including an enhanced DBS; Childcare Disqualification (where applicable); qualifications (where applicable); medical fitness; identity and right to work.

Our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy and Recruitment of Ex-Offenders Policy are available on our website. You are encouraged to read these policies prior to applying to work for us.

This post is 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.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the amendments to the Exceptions Order 1975, 2013 and 2020.

Terms and conditions:

• Robin Hood MAT is a Living Wage employer.

• Contract includes one fully paid Staff Wellbeing Day per year.