10 days remaining to apply

  • Job start date

    1 January 2027

  • Closing date

    12 October 2026 at 12pm (midday)

  • Date listed

    2 October 2026

Job details

Job role

  • Assistant headteacher

Visa sponsorship

Visas cannot be sponsored

Key stage

Key stage 3, Key stage 4, Key stage 5

Working pattern

Full time

Contract type

Permanent

Pay scale

L11-L15

What skills and experience we're looking for

  • A highly effective classroom practitioner with a strong current teaching record, who intends to keep teaching
  • Successful leadership of teaching and learning or professional development beyond your own classroom
  • Experience of leading change that improved practice in other people's lessons
  • Experience of designing and delivering professional development for teachers
  • Experience of working with and developing middle leaders
  • The ability to develop colleagues without diminishing them
  • The ability to gather and interpret evidence about classroom practice accurately, and to translate research into practical classroom routines
  • A genuine appetite for improvement, in yourself and in others, and the patience to keep going when there are no quick wins
  • The judgement to know when to hold a line and when to adapt, and the confidence to change what is not working once you understand it
  • Qualified Teacher Status, a good honours degree and evidence of continuing professional development
  • A deep understanding of safeguarding practice and principles
  • Desirable: experience at senior leadership level in a secondary school; experience of ITT or ECT induction; experience of instructional coaching; an NPQ in leading teaching or senior leadership; familiarity with Making Every Lesson Count or a comparable framework

What the school offers its staff

  • A key senior leadership post with genuine licence: a philosophy that is established but not sacred, and a Headteacher who will back you in changing what is not working
  • A seat on the Senior Leadership Team with real influence on whole-school decisions, and a meaningful timetable so the role stays rooted in the classroom
  • An established professional development structure to lead: whole-staff CPD every Tuesday morning, every department meeting given over to CPD, and a year organised into twelve three-week improvement cycles
  • A shared teaching framework based on Making Every Lesson Count, with a common language that staff know and use
  • A staff team with a real appetite to get better, and a calm school where teachers can teach
  • A workload charter that is not decoration: three data drops a year, fully analysed for staff; directed time built with staff at the forefront; the building closes at 6pm; CPD that is relevant, never to tick a box; nothing done for Ofsted
  • Pele Trust leadership development, National Professional Qualifications, peer reviews, networks and cross-trust placements
  • A school with deep roots in its community, strong support from local families, and the coast and the Cheviots within half an hour
  • A January 2027 start, deliberately mid-cycle, so you have two terms to understand the school before you own a full year of the programme

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.
  • The Duchess's Community High School is an 11 to 18 secondary school in Alnwick, serving a catchment that stretches from the Northumberland coast to the edge of the national park. Around fifty buses bring students in each day from market towns, villages and remote rural communities
  • Our students arrive from very different contexts and quickly become part of one school community with common expectations. They are known, challenged and supported to succeed
  • The school has been open since 1808 and its purpose has not changed: to open doors through excellent teaching, rich opportunities and high expectations for every student
  • Over the past three years the culture has changed. Removals from lessons have fallen by around 80 per cent and teachers here can teach without constant interruption. That came from the same expectations applied consistently, in every room, every day
  • That work created the conditions. This role is about what we do with them. Teaching is strong in many classrooms and less consistent in others, and closing that gap is the heart of the job
  • We believe the ordinary lesson is the unit of improvement. We are interested in the typical lesson on a wet Thursday in February, not the showcase
  • We look at lessons to find out what is happening, not to grade them. Teachers here should be able to be seen on an ordinary day without fear
  • Our values are ambition, resilience, community, trust, integrity, care and optimism. We care personally and we challenge directly
  • Families here choose this school, stay with it and expect a great deal of it. The relationships between school, families and local partners are a genuine strength
  • We are part of Pele Trust, a family of fourteen primary and secondary schools across Northumberland and North Tyneside
  • Prospective candidates are strongly encouraged to visit before applying. Visits include time in classrooms and time with teachers without a senior leader present. Contact Teresa Donaldson on t.donaldson@dchs.uk
  • Closing date midday on Monday 12 October 2026. Interviews Thursday 15 October. The post starts in January 2027

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

Apply for the job by following the link below.

CVs will not be accepted for this application.

View advert on school website (opens in new tab)

About The Duchess's Community High School

Organisation type
Academy, ages 11 to 18
Education phase
Secondary school
Size
1276 pupils enrolled
Age range
11 to 18
Ofsted report
View Ofsted report
Website
The Duchess's Community High School website
Email address
admin@dchs-alnwick.uk
See more jobs
teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/the-duchess-s-community-high-school-alnwick

Arranging a visit to The Duchess's Community High School

To arrange a visit and increase the chance of a successful application email admin@dchs-alnwick.uk.

School location

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