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Deputy Headteacher - Full-time - Special Needs Position

Whitfield Aspen School, Dover

  • Ref:KCC886-2471-96L
  • Posted:11/03/2020
  • Pay:L4 £44,218 - L8 £48,808
  • Start Date:September 2020
  • App Close Date:27/03/2020 at 12:00
  • Interviews:Wednesday 22nd April 2020

Advert

Whitfield Aspen School are seeking a Deputy Headteacher to join its well-established leadership team from September 2020.  This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a unique school, which is a combination of mainstream and special school pupils with profound, severe and complex needs.   As well as being part of a supportive team, we will be able to offer both training and opportunities, in order to develop your leadership skills further.  You must be passionate about and committed to, supporting inclusion, with the rewards and challenges that brings.  You need vision and creativity to be able to problem-solve and positively overcome barriers.  Building relationships must be at the heart of everything you do in order to fulfil the school’s vision of Learning Together with Aspiration, Imagination and Determination.

We are hoping to find someone who has already had some experience of leadership and they must be able to demonstrate knowledge of how to plan and initiate improvement across the school, based on sound research.

Visits to the school are essential prior to application and can be arranged by contacting Juliette Fletcher on juliette.fletcher@whitfield.kent.sch.uk or by telephoning the school office on 01304 821526.

Our school and all its personnel are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children.  Any contract will be subject to satisfactory references, Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks, qualification checks, and pre-employment health screening.

Information about the school

Whitfield Aspen School is unusual in a national context.  It is a combination of a mainstream primary and a Specialist Resource Provision (SRP) for primary age pupils with profound, severe and complex learning needs (PSCN). In September 2022, we developed the Engagement Model as an approach across the whole school to support children with complex social emotional and mental health needs (SEMH), who are disengaged with their learning. In addition, there is a Specialist Intervention Nursery team who support interventions and next steps for identified children in local mainstream Nurseries. We also offer on-site provision for Specialist Intervention, for Nursery age children who are not able to access a mainstream setting, due to their complex needs.   

Whitfield Aspen School works collaboratively with a group of 11 other local mainstream schools, the Samphire Learning Hub. We are a group of schools that work collaboratively to improve outcomes for children. We also are part of Kent Special Educational Needs Trust which contains all the Special Schools within Kent. We work closely with them to ensure the staff within the SRP are as competent as those teachers working within Special Schools.

At Whitfield Aspen school the proportion of pupils with profound, severe and complex learning needs far exceeds the national average for a mainstream school.    In September 2021, the school split over 2 sites. The Richmond site opened for Yr. 4, Yr. 5, Yr. 6 and KS2 (Key Stage 2) pupils on the SRP roll. The lower school for EY, Yr.1, Yr.2 and Yr.3 and KS1 (Key Stage 1) pupils on the SRP roll, continues to be based on Mayfield Road. We are maintaining the fully inclusive model over both sites. 

An additional block will be added to the Richmond site during 2024-2025. This will create the capacity, initially, for an additional 4 classrooms. We currently have 630 students across two sites and in excess of 230 staff. Our Governors play an active role in school life and support our school aims fully.

In January 2025 we went through a Graded Inspection and maintained our Good status.

Job Contact Information

Documents

Below are documents that have been added to this vacancy.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all our students. You are advised that this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and therefore this post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure Application to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). Please be aware that schools are also required to undertake online recruitment checks on shortlisted candidates under changes to Keeping Children Safe in Education.