Headteacher

John Hampden Grammar School, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP11 1SZ

36 days remaining to apply

• Job start date

  1 September 2026

• Closing date

  7 January 2026 at 9am

• Date listed

  2 December 2025

Job details

• Job role:
  • Headteacher
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Working pattern: Full time
• Contract type: Permanent
• Full-time equivalent salary: £108,202.00 Annually (Actual) Minimum point 31 on the Leadership Scale (England excluding London/Fringe). Relocation expenses up to £8,000 will be paid if appropriate.

Headteacher job summary

The successful candidate should have substantial experience at the level of Headteacher or Deputy Headteacher/SLT working in a large secondary school serving a diverse community.

Key attributes:

• Have a proven record of leadership and management at a senior level with the skillset required to be a highly effective Headteacher of a boys Grammar School.

• Can demonstrate a range of leadership styles to inspire and develop staff and students.

• Have excellent interpersonal skills recognising the importance of everyone in our community.

• Have demonstrable success in raising standards and be ambitious for the further success of the school.

• Be passionate about maintaining excellence in pastoral care and safeguarding as well as academic standards.

• Be a versatile thinker who can look forwards and outwards to develop and champion innovative solutions.

• Have a willingness to engage collaboratively across a successful partnership of local schools and beyond.

Successful candidates must be able to articulate a clear vision for the School as it faces an ever-changing educational environment.

Application Form and Candidate Pack are available via My New Term and the school website. Applicants should address how they meet the job description and person specification in their covering letter or statement.

Applications close on Wednesday 7 January 2026 at 9:00am.

Interviews will be held on Wednesday and Thursday 14 & 15 January 2026.

Salary: minimum point 31 on the Leadership Scale (England & Wales)

Relocation expenses up to £8,000 will be paid if appropriate.

JHGS is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All staff are required, before taking up post, to undertake an enhanced criminal record check through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). Candidates for teaching and support staff posts will be assessed at interview for their suitability to work with children. Appointment is conditional upon at least two satisfactory references which include specific comments on working with children and young people. All staff at the school have a responsibility to promote and safeguard the welfare of students at the school.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (2013 and 2020). This means that certain convictions and cautions are considered ‘protected’ and do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account. Guidance about whether a conviction or caution should be disclosed can be found on the Ministry of Justice website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-guidance-on-the-rehabilitation-of-offenders-act-1974.

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

John Hampden Grammar School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful applicant will be subject to pre-employment vetting checks which include an audit of social media presence and an Enhanced DBS check. John Hampden Grammar School is an equal opportunities employer.

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 John Hampden Grammar School

• School type: Academy, ages 11 to 18
• Education phase: Secondary
• School size: 1271 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 11 to 18
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report
• School website: John Hampden Grammar School website
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/john-hampden-grammar-school

John Hampden Grammar School is remarkable. We seek to give our young men the personal qualities as well as the qualifications to carve out their own bold paths into the future. As you would expect, a challenging academic education is at the heart of what we do. John Hampden is an outstanding school with exceptional academic success. But in a changing world our young men will need more. They will need character, spirit, resilience. They will need to lead, to inspire, to take responsibility. They will need to care, collaborate and create. This is what we mean by #BeMore at John Hampden. We support every individual to build these qualities necessary for happy, successful and fulfilled lives, ‘Big lives’ as one of our students recently described it.
Our exam results are excellent at GCSE and A level and place us amongst the top performing schools in the country. These results equip our students to succeed at the best Universities in Britain and abroad, to secure places on ultra competitive level 3 apprenticeships and even to set up their own companies upon leaving the Sixth Form. Over 125 years ago JHGS was educating young men and women to work in the Wycombe Furniture Industry. Today, we maintain strong links with many local and global companies, preparing our students to succeed and lead in a rapidly changing global economy. Alongside the academic rigour of the taught curriculum the #BeMore campaign develops in the boys “soft skills” to succeed as a JHGS Learner and in the future world of work.

Our parents praise our commitment to genuinely caring for their son and believe it is what makes JHGS unique.

JHGS is a forward thinking, innovative school which embraces technology to support and promote learning and personal development. We have recently opened our new Design Technology studio and workshops, 2 new Science labs and in Autumn 2021 we have opened our brand new £3.5m Innovation Hub of learning spaces and IT suites. This now houses our Maths, Business, Economics and Psychology departments and will be a true Innovation Hub for the 21st Century.

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