Principal

Principal – InFocus College

Reporting to: CEO, InFocus Charity

Responsible for: Deputy Principal, Head of Admissions and Reviews, Pathway Leads, Head of VI Services, Education Admin

Working with: Director of Care and Support Services; Director of Operations; Director of Income Generation and Business Development; Tutors, Learning Support workers; College Residential Team; Health, Therapy and Mobility team.

Main purposes: To set the vision for and ensure the delivery of outstanding specialist further education at InFocus College, that maximises the potential of our young people and best prepares them to enter adulthood as full and participating citizens, with the highest quality of life and independence.

To contribute to the overall development of InFocus as a charity as a member of the executive team.

OVERALL OBJECTIVE

To provide leadership of InFocus College by:

• Acting as a role model and inspiring a culture of high ambitions and expectations for students and staff.
• Ensuring the effective management of all staff in the College and developing the staff of the College, making the best use of the skills and talents of our people.
• Leading the delivery of the InFocus College improvement plan, ensuring our college is on track to be rated as outstanding (or equivalent in any new framework).
• Making effective use of data to inform the delivery and improvement of education in the College.
• Promoting and maintaining through your leadership a safe, caring, welcoming, happy, stimulating and suitably ambitious learning environment for students and staff.
• Creating and maintaining effective partnerships with families and carers to support and improve the welfare and progress of students.
• Being the lead education professional in all discussions with commissioners and other providers.
• Taking the lead in all Ofsted inspections of college and supporting the Care and Support team on CQC inspections of the college residential provision.

To ensure excellent outcomes for students by:

• Ensuring the effective delivery of InFocus College’s education provision with a strong focus on preparation for adulthood
• Ensuring all students needs and aspirations are identified accurately through initial and baseline assessment, ongoing monitoring and annual reviews and are provided for consistently and coherently to maximise progress and achievement
• Ensuring that there is a suitable and specialised curriculum that meets the particular needs of InFocus College students of all abilities (now and in the future) and maximises the practical application of our knowledge of visual impairment, multi-sensory impairment and complex needs.
• Ensuring that there is a common understanding of what constitutes outstanding teaching at InFocus College and that this is regularly and consistently applied to lesson planning and teaching.
• Ensuring all staff employ an appropriate range of teaching strategies suitable for people with vision impairment and complex needs that engages all students and offers a suitable level of challenge to each individual.
• Ensuring the consistent and regular assessment of progress against targets for each student, ensuring that attainment data is collected and actively used within the college.
• Working with the Director of Care and Support to ensure a joined-up approach to learning across the College day and the college residential provision.
• Ensuring the highest quality of therapeutic support to our students and the full integration of health, therapy and mobility into the InFocus College curriculum.
• Ensuring the effective deployment of our VI specialists into classrooms working with students and college staff
• Supporting transition preparation and arrangements for leavers including ensuring that appropriate transition plans are in place.

To manage the College on a day to basis by:

• Systematically reviewing the education provision made for students and its effectiveness in light of student needs, InFocus Charity’s priorities, and national and regional education policy and development.
• Managing the budget for the College including all aspects of staffing and resourcing of the college
• Creating effective relationships with commissioners and ensuring value for money and clarity of our offer
• Ensuring that all policies relevant to education are effectively implemented and reviewed on a regular basis.
• Ensuring the effective use and improvement of the College space and other buildings, and encouraging a culture of “learning happens everywhere”.
• Co-operating and working with all relevant agencies to safeguard the young people at InFocus College.
• Being a member of the safeguarding team, working with the DSL and taking part in the safeguarding on call rota as a deputy DSL.
• Ensuring positive links with a wide range of organisations across the specialist field of visual impairment, multi-sensory impairment and complex needs to widen our knowledge for the benefit of students and to share our knowledge and enhance our reputation in the sector.

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