Assistant Head of Secondary - Pastoral

at  GEMS Founders School Masdar CityUnited Arab Emirates

SALARY:

All positions attract an excellent remuneration package including: Competitive tax-free salary, individual fully furnished accommodation, free schooling, private medical insurance, annual airfares to country of residence and end of Service Gratuity.

JOB OVERVIEW

GEMS Founders School Abu Dhabi is seeking an experienced and dynamic Vice Principal to provide professional leadership and management across our school. In this role, you will be responsible for ensuring high-quality teaching, effective use of resources, and the improvement of student outcomes within the school. You will work closely with the Principal/CEO and school leadership team to achieve our vision to help our people Grow, Flourish and Succeed.
This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced leader to gain valuable international exposure within a global leading company and within a world-class International School located in the heart of Abu Dhabi.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• NPQH / Postgraduate Diploma / Masters in Educational Leadership.
• Proven experience in teaching and a leadership role within an educational setting.
• Strong understanding of the curriculum and teaching methodologies.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• A commitment to improving student achievement and teacher performance.
• Ability to work collaboratively with staff, students, parents, and external stakeholders

JOB ROLE AND DESCRIPTION:

As Assistant Head of Secondary, you will have the opportunity to make a significant impact on the direction and success of the Secondary Department. Your main responsibilities will include:

• Work strategically with colleagues to lead and deliver an efficient Secondary School timetable, ensuring effective deployment of staff, allocation of rooms and other resources.
• Lead and quality assure Secondary School assessment systems and processes, ensuring consistency of application and approach across subject areas. Work with Heads of Department to ensure assessment system enables effective analysis of attainment and progress of students.
• Through liaison with Heads of Year and Heads of Department, ensure students in Years 7-13, achieve the highest possible outcomes with regard to academic attainment and progress, highlighting subject-specific and cross-subject student underachievement to appropriate stakeholders.
• Develop reporting systems for all stakeholders to ensure moment, granular-level analysis of student performance is available to parents, students’ teachers and school leaders, alongside scheduled summative reports to parents.
• Collaborate with the school’s Admissions department, pastoral and academic leaders in leading the allocation of Secondary School students to classes, ensuring an even distribution of academic, pastoral, gender profiles across classes.
• Lead, consult and compile the annual assessment calendar, ensuring general awareness of dates, booking of resources and coordination with concerned teams. Ensure the assessment calendar is represented within the whole-school calendar reporting.
• Oversee and administer the scheduling, rooming and invigilation of internal and external examinations. Collect and quality assure subject examination requirements, storage & distribution of papers, working with heads of department as necessary. Lead, meet and support the Examinations Officer in executing his/her duties as necessary.
• Work with Primary School counterparts to ensure the ECA programme is broad in nature, appropriately staffed and distributed across the school week.
• Manage the daily staff absence and cover process for Secondary School lessons. Develop a comprehensive cover-rota that prioritises assignment based on key factors including teaching load and subject specialism.
• Lead the organisation in all aspects of Secondary School Academic Review Days and Parents Evenings. Ensure parents are communicated with in a timely fashion to facilitate booking of appointments.
• Lead in balancing staff workloads across timetabled lessons, ECA commitments, duties, cover and examination invigilation.
• Lead and administer benchmarking assessments including CAT4, GL Progress Tests ensuring regulatory requirements are consistently met. Develop processes to ensure students are prepared for assessments, the results of which are incorporated within the holistic assessment system.
• Attend school-based Local Advisory Board meetings as necessary and play an active role in the National Agenda Priorities Sub-Committee, driving improvement within this area.
• Proactively work with colleagues to ensure the school meets and exceeds its UAE National Agenda targets.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES

• Collaborate with the Secondary School Leadership Team, to assist in the recruitment, training, supervision, and evaluation of teaching staff. Provide mentorship, coaching, and professional development opportunities to enhance teaching effectiveness as necessary.
• Collaborate with the Secondary School Leadership Team and curriculum coordinators to review, develop, implement, and evaluate the curriculum.
• Collaborate with colleagues within the Senior School and broader school community. Participate in professional development activities, contribute to the school’s professional learning community, and share best practices to enhance teaching and learning outcomes.
• Contribute effectively to the school’s strategic improvement planning, actively leading in areas pertinent to this job description, while supporting wider school development. Collaboratively lead and support as required with regard to school inspections, audits and accreditation.
• Encourage and support employees to use work hours efficiently and priorities tasks effectively.