Assistant Principal - SEND and Inclusion

Are you passionate about inclusion and committed to supporting all learners to thrive? Are you ready to take a senior leadership role that makes a real difference to young people and adults' lives? Weston College is seeking a driven and innovative Assistant Principal - SEND and Inclusion to join our senior management team. Through an ethos of high expectations and high empathy, they will lead on SEND provision and strategy across the College, playing a key role in shaping our inclusive culture and supporting the College to achieve its mission of 'Creating Brighter Futures'.

We are looking for an individual who is unafraid to challenge the status quo and determined to build a truly inclusive education system within the College in collaboration with our local community. The ideal candidate will have a strong background of SEND provision within an education setting and will have a proven track record of delivering exceptional outcomes for learners across curriculum and specifically within specialist provision. At the same time, the Assistant Principal will have a deep understanding of the SEND Code of Practice and inclusive education, as well as a sound knowledge of funding and regulation requirements.

If you can balance idealism with realism, advocacy with pragmatism and passion with patience, we would love to hear from you. This is a full-time role, working 37 hours per week. Interviews for this role will take place on-site, at one of our college campuses in Weston-super-Mare.

Day to day duties of the role:

• Leadership and Vision: set and inspire a clear vision for SEND and inclusion, ensuring high-performing teams that are accountable and goal-oriented.
• Compliance & Innovation: ensure compliance with SEND legislation while driving innovative changes in curriculum and SEND services. This also includes maximising funding and resources to support students effectively.
• Lead Curriculum Heads of Area and teams, ensuring consistent management and a comprehensive experience for all departments that delivers a high-quality specialist curriculum provision.
• Lead on advising Executive and senior leadership on financial implications, improving outcomes, and meeting statutory obligations for SEND provision. At the same time, taking overall responsibility for the quality of funding data, preparing accurate forecasts, reports and recommendations and negotiating best value.

Required skills and qualifications:

• Degree-level qualification (or equivalent).
• Professional qualification in SEND or a related field.
• Relevant experience working in an educational setting.
• You will also need to have extensive understanding of SEND legislation, policies and funding.
• You will need to have awareness of current research and practice in inclusive education.

Benefits:

• Generous holiday entitlement
• 2-week Christmas closure
• Potential for hybrid working opportunities
• Dedicated staff welfare officer and wellbeing champions
• Generous pension scheme
• Local and national staff discounts
• Free parking across sites
• Various staff committees including Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Autism and Menopause
• Focus on staff wellbeing
• Wellbeing@weston hub
• Eye care including free eye test and a contribution towards glasses
• Annual staff conference with guest speakers
• Employee assistance programme - available 24/7, 365 days a year
• Training and development opportunities with a focus on progression

Weston College is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Please be aware that Weston College reserves the right to close this vacancy early should sufficient applications be received. Due to the volume of recruitment, we are unable to offer feedback to any unsuccessful candidates. We reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date if a sufficient number of applications have been received.