Headteacher Virtual School

We're proud to announce that AfC's Children's Services in Richmond have been awarded an Outstanding rating by Ofsted. This places Richmond alongside Kingston, which also holds an Outstanding rating, as a top-performing service. Our separately inspected Fostering Service has achieved a strong ‘Good’ rating, recognising our skilled and dedicated fostering workforce. Come work with a skilled, stable workforce and be part of an organization that's truly making a difference.

AfC Virtual School supports the education of all children with a social worker. This includes Children Looked After (CLA), Previously Looked After Children, children in Kinship Care, Children in Need, those on Child Protection Plans, and Care Leavers across Kingston, Richmond, and Windsor and Maidenhead.

About the role:

The Virtual School Headteacher is a statutory and senior role within all local authorities and will report directly to the Deputy Director of Education. The successful candidate will drive forward, at a strategic and operational level, the best possible educational and employment outcomes for children looked after and previously looked after, care leavers and children with a social worker. This is a key role that will lead on developing, implementing, and embedding the strategic plan for the service and the operation action plan. The postholder will lead on identifying and securing opportunities for creative partnerships and funding that will improve the integrated support available to children, young people and families locally.

For an informal chat about the role please contact Clive Haines, Deputy Director for Education, clive.haines@achievingforchildren.org.uk

About you:

• Educated to a degree level with qualified teacher status and Leadership experience.
• Extensive experience in leading a team, undertaking line management, performance management and change management and Virtual School Leadership experience.
• Experience of building strong partnerships, maintaining relationships and co-producing solutions to challenges across a diverse set of stakeholders, including children, young people and their families.
• Advocating the voices of those we are working with.
• Proven ability to effectively use data, intelligence and evidence to create meaningful insight, to inform own decision making and to support the raising of attainment and standards in education.
• Excellent organisational experience of supporting vulnerable children including Looked after Children in Education settings and working knowledge of OFSTED inspection frameworks.
• Knowledge of barriers to learning for our cohorts, underlining causes and strategies to address the impact.
• Knowledge of statutory legislation (for example Children’s Act) and national policy drivers that will affect children’s services and your role.
• Excellent knowledge of assessment practice and ability to advise on the setting and review of suitable SMART targets.
• Experience of addressing specific equality or diversity issues within your practice with colleagues/service users and taking action to solve them.

About our benefits:

We are focused on creating a positive supportive environment, where you will have access to a really wide range of resources, as well as a competitive salary and all the perks to enable hybrid working. In AfC you will also have access to:

• 29 days annual leave, increasing to 33 days after 2 years and 35 days after 4 years with an additional day off in your birthday month (Or for term-time workers, your leave entitlement consists of the non-working periods in your contract).
• Tailored induction sessions commencing on the date you start working for AfC.
• Local Government salary and pension scheme (LGPS or Teachers Pension).
• Flexible working options - helping to keep a good work life balance.
• A comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme.