Assistant Principal

Lift Montgomery, Birmingham, West Midlands, B11 1EH

14 days remaining to apply

• Start date details

  ASAP

• Closing date

  21 September 2026 at 9:27am

• Date listed

  7 September 2026

Job details

• Job role:
  • Assistant headteacher
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Working pattern: Full time
• Contract type: Permanent
• Full time equivalent salary: £65599 - £72384 per annum

Assistant Principal job summary

An exciting and rare opportunity has arisen for an ambitious, passionate leader to join Lift Montgomery Primary as an Assistant Principal, following the promotion of a senior leader within Lift Schools.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an aspiring or experienced senior leader committed to improving outcomes for children and ensuring every pupil receives an excellent education every day. The role will have a strategic focus on English leadership across Key Stage 2.

Your new school

Lift Montgomery Primary isn't just a school; it's a community built on high expectations, genuine care and a belief that every child, regardless of background, deserves the very best education. Graded Outstanding in all areas by Ofsted, Montgomery has earned its reputation through consistent investment in its people, its pupils and its culture, not by accident, but by design. Here, collaboration is real. Staff wellbeing is prioritised. And the work you do in your classroom ripples outward into a community that notices, values and celebrates it.

Lift Montgomery Primary is led by Principal Fozia Nisar, who has been part of the school community for over a decade. Together with the wider leadership team, she has built a committed and enthusiastic team focused on high standards, collaboration and pride in the school community. Fozia brings over 20 years of experience in education and is passionate about equity, belonging and representation in education. She is a strong advocate for ensuring every child feels seen, valued and able to achieve their full potential.

A champion of arts and culture in education, Fozia works closely with organisations such as the Birmingham Hippodrome Education Network and has contributed to the national Theatre for Every Child initiative, reflecting Montgomery's commitment to a rich, creative and inclusive curriculum. Fozia also serves as a Trustee for Birmingham Services for Education, further reflecting her commitment to education and supporting children and communities across Birmingham.

Your new role

This role is particularly well-suited to an ambitious middle leader or aspiring senior leader who is ready to take the next step in their career within a highly supportive, development-focused environment.

The successful candidate will join the Senior Leadership Team and play a key role in driving school improvement, with strategic responsibility for leading English across the school and supporting high-quality teaching and learning in Key Stage 2. Working closely with senior leaders, subject leaders and teaching staff, you will help drive an ambitious, well-sequenced curriculum, high expectations and excellent outcomes for all pupils.

At Montgomery, leadership remains closely connected to the classroom, with all senior leaders actively teaching as part of the Lift Schools model. You will therefore combine strategic leadership with meaningful classroom practice, primarily within Key Stage 2. You will be coached and supported by an experienced leadership team, with opportunities to further develop your leadership experience through curriculum development, coaching colleagues and contributing to whole-school improvement.

Knowledge or experience of Talk for Writing would be advantageous but is not essential. We are particularly interested in candidates who are enthusiastic about developing their expertise and contributing to the continued development of English across the school.

We are looking for someone who:

* Is an experienced Key Stage 2 practitioner
* Has a strong understanding of teaching and learning within English
* Is passionate about curriculum development and school improvement
* Has high expectations for pupils and themselves
* Can inspire pupils and work collaboratively with colleagues
* Is committed to inclusion, safeguarding and pupil wellbeing
* Is motivated to develop into a future senior leader within a supportive environment

What you'll need to succeed

We are looking for an exceptional classroom practitioner and leader who is passionate about improving outcomes for all children.

You will:

* Be a qualified teacher with successful experience in primary education
* Have strong Key Stage 2 experience, ideally including Year 6
* Have a strong understanding of curriculum development and teaching and learning
* Demonstrate experience of leading or supporting whole-school improvement initiatives
* Be able to build positive relationships with pupils, families, staff and external agencies
* Be passionate about inclusion, safeguarding and pupil wellbeing
* Have excellent communication, organisation and leadership skills
* Be committed to maintaining high expectations and securing excellent outcomes for all pupils
* Experience working within disadvantaged communities or supporting vulnerable pupils would be highly beneficial.
* We will review applications and interview as soon as possible, so early applications are encouraged.

Who is Lift Schools?

Lift Schools is a diverse and inclusive network of 62 schools, united by one clear mission:

To provide an excellent education to every child, in every classroom, every day.

Just as we want our pupils to thrive, we want our staff to feel empowered to do their best work, supported by strong leadership and a culture of collaboration and development.

We offer you

* Comprehensive training: Access to some of the best developmental training to boost your career
* Generous benefits: From your pension plan to healthcare and financial support
* Lifestyle perks: Discounted gym memberships and travel deals

School visits

We strongly encourage prospective candidates to visit the school prior to applying. This is a great opportunity to experience our school community, meet the team and learn more about the role. For a confidential discussion or to arrange a tour, please contact Harpal Bhamra at

Closing date: Friday 18 September 2026
Interviews: Tuesday 29 September 2026

This is a full-time position, with a start date of January 2027.

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

Lift Schools are committed to ensuring the highest levels of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our pupils, and we expect all our people and volunteers to share this commitment. We adopt a fair and consistent recruitment process which is inline with Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance. This includes online checks for shortlisted candidates. All offers of employment are subject to an Enhanced DBS check, references, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching check.

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 Lift Montgomery

• Organisation type: Academy, ages 2 to 11
• Education phase: Primary school
• Size: 466 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 2 to 11
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report
• Website: Lift Montgomery website
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/montgomery-primary-academy

Lift Montgomery is an award winning and high achieving school with strong leadership and a commitment to staff development.

We are a 3 form entry primary and proud to serve the communities around Central Birmingham. Over the last three years, significant investment in our building and commitment from our talented staff team has meant that attainment has risen and we are an Outstanding school.

We work closely with our primary partner Lift Percy Shurmer, and we share resources, staff, training and place an emphasis on effective and tailored professional development.

Lift Montgomery and Lift Percy Shurmer work in partnership to provide our children with an outstanding education. As partner schools we have an overarching vision and shared values that bind our schools together. Through our collaboration both schools are strengthened. The efficient use of shared resources enables the partnership to provide additional resources to our pupils and offer a wide range of opportunities for pupils, parents, staff and the wider community. We ensure success for all our pupils through innovative and inspirational teaching , as both schools work together to share best practice.

Lift Montgomery and Lift Percy Shurmerare led by an Executive Principal and one management board. Each school has a Head of School. Their role is to ensure that each school gains the optimum benefit from the partnership, as they translate the values and vision to ensure success for each unique school.

Our Curriculum

We believe that children learn best when their learning experiences are evocative, therefore we teach most of our subjects through a connected curriculum.

This works by delivering a different theme in each year group for each term throughout the year. The curriculum is planned so that as many learning experiences as possible are linked to this theme; this allows the children to see that their skills are all connected. During the children's learning we try to integrate as many real life experiences as possible that are related to the area they are studying.

Literacy, Numeracy and ICT underline our curriculum to ensure that the key skills children need for success, are fully learned before the children move on to secondary education. Therefore, our curriculum is skills based and children learn to apply these skills in every part of their learning.

To view our curriculum across the year please click here

Reasons to come and work with us

The chance to work in a Talk for Writing training school
High quality CPD for all staff, including bespoke leadership programmes
Exciting opportunities to work within a Hearing Resource
Two well resourced schools with opportunities for development and promotion in both
The opportunity to work across both schools
Work alongside artists in residence, storytellers, specialists in outdoor learning
Be part of our journey to excellence; innovation and inspirational ideas are welcomed and encouraged
Opportunities to become Specialist Leaders in Education
Friendly, supportive staff. Social events arranged throughout the year
Action research encouraged and funded appropriately
Polite, respectful children who are willing to learn
Our Specialism and Awards

Lift Montgomery have won a local award in the Key Stage 2 category of the Pupil Premium Awards 2016. This celebrates that we have used our pupil premium funding in a highly effective way to improve the performance of disadvantaged pupils, including those who are currently or were previously looked after.

WHY JOIN OUR SCHOOL?

Who is Lift Schools?

Lift Schools is made up of 57 primary, secondary and special schools, educating more than 33,000 pupils across the country. We believe education can transform lives – and we want every child in our schools to achieve their full potential.

Our mission:

We will provide an excellent education to every child, in every classroom, every day.
With excellent leadership and teaching in every school, we will help children go on to lead successful and happy lives.
We will work with others beyond our network to benefit more children and communities.
Development:

We are committed to developing all staff at all levels through high quality development opportunities, resources, and experiences that will support you on your professional learning journey with Lift Schools.

Lifestyle:

We champion agile/flexible working across the Trust to help our people achieve an optimal work/life balance.

Money:

All staff have access to our pension schemes (Local Government Pension Scheme and Teachers’ Pension Scheme). Everyone has free access to financial advice & support and can access a wide range of retail discounts through our Lift Schools Benefits scheme. We also offer Technology Loans to help with any big digital purchases.

Wellbeing:

We recognise that mental wellbeing is just as important as physical and have set up employee assistance programmes which offer free and confidential counselling 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Our employees can access our health cash place scheme from BHSF.

School location

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