Assistant Headteacher

Pleckgate High School, Blackburn, Lancashire, BB1 8QA

23 days remaining to apply

• Job start date

  1 September 2026

• Closing date

  22 April 2026 at 9am

• Date listed

  30 March 2026

Job details

• Job role:
  • Assistant headteacher
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Key stage: Key stage 3, Key stage 4
• Working pattern: Full time
• Contract type: Permanent
• Full-time equivalent salary: £71,330-£78,702

Assistant Headteacher job summary

The Job:

Pleckgate High School wishes to appoint an experienced, dynamic and inspiring Assistant Headteacher (Teaching and Learning) to join a committed and dedicated leadership team.  The Senior Leadership team consists of senior leaders who are fully committed to ensuring Pleckgate High School fulfils its potential as an outstanding school and creating an environment where there are the highest expectations for all members of the school community. This post offers outstanding opportunities for continuous personal and professional development for a highly motivated and ambitious leader looking for career advancement.

We warmly welcome a visit to the school or an informal conversation prior to application. Please contact Carrie Smith - csmith@pleckgate-ept.com

What does this job do?

• To work in partnership with other members of the Senior Leadership Team in providing a high level strategic, management and operational direction for the school.
• To share with other members of SLT the responsibility for setting, maintaining, monitoring and leading standards in the school.
• To lead the teaching and learning strategy across the school that is in line with the priorities of school improvement and offers and outstanding learning experience for all pupils
• Strategically lead a quality assurance programme that is structured, impactful and drives school improvement.
• Design and deliver a professional development programme working alongside middle leaders to embed evidence-based pedagogy across all subject areas.
• Lead a reading strategy ensuring that reading is high priority for all subject areas and pupils develop a love of reading.
• Contribute to the school’s self-evaluation cycle and quality assurance procedures across the school, specifically in line managed subjects and year teams.

What are the job requirements?

• An experienced leader with a range of educational experiences in different settings.
• Proven track record of driving whole school improvement in teaching and learning.
• Ability to interpret and analyse school performance data to inform strategic decisions.
• An excellent understanding and experience of how pupils learn successfully.
• Committed to outstanding teaching and learning practices, which result in successful outcomes.
• Evidence of excellent outcomes in your own teaching.
• Able to think strategically and creatively with an excellent understanding of developments across the educational landscape.
• Ability to design, lead and deliver CPD.
• An excellent understanding of subject specific pedagogical research.

About Pleckgate High School:

We are a large secondary school, part of the Education Partnership Trust (EPT), situated on the northern outskirts of Blackburn. Our school community is made up of 1350 students and 180 staff with excellent facilities to benefit both the school and local community. Pleckgate High School is a thriving multicultural community that places the best interests of young people at the heart of everything we do.

 

We are an ambitious school with high expectations for ourselves and our pupils. We are committed to providing excellent teaching and learning and we want all our pupils to be safe, happy and successful. In our Ofsted report in June 2024, our school was described as offering a “harmonious and supportive environment. Pupils learn the importance of being kind and respectful towards others”. Every pupil at Pleckgate is encouraged to have ambitious goals and to work hard. A copy of our full report is available from the school website.

 

We are proud of our achievements – our ambitious curriculum, our examination success, opportunities for pupils' personal development, our charity work and our community involvement. We are significantly oversubscribed and pupils achieve positive outcomes at Pleckgate.

 

We are significantly oversubscribed and pupils achieve positive outcomes at Pleckgate. We are proud of how staff support pupils in achieving success both academically and through sport.

 

As a staff member of Pleckgate High School, you will be able to take advantage of the staff benefits, available through the EPT, which includes access to both the Simply Health and Discount for Teachers schemes. We also have an Associate member of our Senior Leadership Team whose role is to work with our staff on staff wellbeing, working to ensure you have a balanced home and work life-style.

 

If you have any questions about our school, or the role itself, please don't hesitate to get in touch and please visit our school website http://www.pleckgate.com to get a flavour of what we have to offer.

About the Education Partnership Trust (EPT):

EPT was established in 2012 as a multi-academy trust and is an approved academy sponsor. Our vision is to create outstanding schools which transform learning, lives and communities. We benefit from our diverse and unique range of schools which include secondary mainstream, alternative provision and special and have a proven track record of sustained improvement. Our schools are united by a drive to improve opportunities and outcomes for children and young people within a collaborative learning culture.

Our staff are our most valued asset so we continually invest in our colleagues and we believe that all teaching and support staff posts within our schools are key in terms of supporting pupil achievement and improving their life chances. As such we are keen to recruit dedicated and ambitious professionals who will add value to our schools and trust by helping our young people to succeed. 

Our extensive range of rewards and benefits include:

• Healthcare cash back plan provided free by the trust includes optical, dental, physio, diagnostics, health assessment, NHS prescription charges, hospital cover, discounted gym memberships plus lots more.
• Employee Assistance Programme, including counselling, CBT, and wellbeing initiatives.
• Cycle to Work scheme.
• Access to teachers' pension scheme.
• Free parking.
• Training, mentoring and progression opportunities.
• Trust wide intranet to share knowledge and resources. 

Incomplete application forms will not be shortlisted, if you need to discuss a reason for being unable to complete a section, please contact the recruitment team HR@ept-uk.com

Please be advised, as part of due diligence checks, online searches will be carried out on shortlisted candidates.

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

Education Partnership Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people and vulnerable adults, and all appointments are subject to enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks and satisfactory references.

Education Partnership Trust is also committed to promoting equality, challenging discrimination and developing community cohesion. We welcome applications from all sections of the community.

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 Pleckgate High School

• School type: Academy, ages 11 to 16
• Education phase: Secondary school
• School size: 1354 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 11 to 16
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report
• School website: Pleckgate High School website
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/pleckgate-high-school

Pleckgate High School is thriving multi-cultural community that places the best interests of young people at the heart of everything we do. All students are challenged and supported to Aspire and Believe, Act and Succeed. We are a large secondary that is part of the Education Partnership Trust (EPT), situated on the northern outskirts of Blackburn with Darwen. Our school community has 1150 students and 180 staff, with state of the art facilities that benefit both the school and local community.

In January 2019, the school was judged as outstanding in all areas by Ofsted. Inspectors found our school to have a “great sense of industry and endeavour” and described the school as “harmonious” with a “common goal to excel”.

School location

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