Assistant Head – Pastoral Lead and DSL

Northern House Academy, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX2 7JN

12 days remaining to apply

• Job start date

  1 September 2026

• Closing date

  10 May 2026 at 5pm

• Date listed

  27 April 2026

Job details

• Job role:
  • Assistant headteacher
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Working pattern: Full time
• Contract type: Permanent
• Full-time equivalent salary: £61,534.00 - £67,898.00 Annually (FTE) Leadership Scale L8 - L12

Assistant Head – Pastoral Lead and DSL job summary

If you are committed to enriching and improving the lives of young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, if you would like to join a team which delivers an exciting and diverse curriculum which is not driven by the National Curriculum or exam outcomes, and if you want to work in a vibrant Special Academy - we want to hear from you.

Students are taught through a differentiated and bespoke curriculum designed to enhance academic and social development, with a strong emphasis on independence skills. The curriculum delivers a thematic, cyclical approach to provide a meaningful and interesting context for the development of basic skills, knowledge and understanding while providing the relevant National Curriculum requirements. Classes are grouped into stage, not age, allowing for innovative and creative approaches to teaching and learning and are taught predominantly by one class teacher, supported by additional class adults.

The Academy provides support for the social and emotional needs of students through a qualified and skilled therapeutic team, underpinned by a pastoral support team. The offer to students is enhanced by additional specialist therapies and interventions. Our focus is to recruit teachers who are keen to grasp the possibilities offered by the Academy where practice is based on SEN pedagogy and evidence: who would relish getting involved in exciting national professional development projects, and who want to work as part of a multidisciplinary and specialist team. The teaching team actively informs developments and collectively identifies the best ways to improve the school further.

The Assistant Headteacher, Pastoral Lead, forms part of the core senior leadership team alongside the Co-Headteachers, providing strategic leadership of pastoral systems to ensure a fully integrated approach between behaviour, wellbeing and learning.

The Assistant Headteacher (Pastoral) works in close partnership with the Assistant Headteacher (Inclusion, SEND and Personal Development) to ensure that inclusive provision and pastoral systems are aligned.

The post holder, as Designated Safeguarding Lead, will lead the operational management of safeguarding, ensure safeguarding systems are fully compliant with statutory guidance and embedded within the culture of the school.

The Co-Headteachers retain overall accountability for safeguarding across the academy Northern House Academy’s approach is rooted in relational practice, nurture and high expectations, ensuring pupils feel safe, understood and able to engage positively with learning.

The Assistant Headteacher will play a key role in ensuring relational approaches underpin behaviour systems, pastoral provision and staff practice across the academy. As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, the Assistant Headteacher will contribute to whole-school leadership and will deputise for the Co-Headteachers when required.

Please see the attached pack for details of the role.

Further information about the job

The candidate will be required to undergo a full enhanced DBS check and must be eligible to work in the UK.

Visas cannot be sponsored.

If you're interested in teaching or training to teach in England as an international citizen, we can help you understand your next steps.

Commitment to safeguarding

Our organisation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff, volunteers and trustees to share this commitment.

Our recruitment process follows the keeping children safe in education guidance.

Offers of employment may be subject to the following checks (where relevant):
childcare disqualification
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
medical
online and social media
prohibition from teaching
right to work
satisfactory references
suitability to work with children

You must tell us about any unspent conviction, cautions, reprimands or warnings under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975.

Applying for the job

This school accepts applications through their own website, where you may also find more information about this job.

CVs will not be accepted for this application.

About Northern House Academy

• School type: Academy, ages 5 to 11
• School size: 85 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 5 to 11
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report
• School website: Northern House Academy website
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/northern-house-academy

We are a special school for pupils who have been identified as having Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) difficulties. All our pupils have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) therefore SEND is at the centre of everything that we do at the school.

School location

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