Headteacher

Longfield Primary School, Harrow, Middlesex, HA2 7NZ

28 days remaining to apply

• Start date details

  Start of Summer term 13th April 2026

• Closing date

  17 November 2025 at 12pm (midday)

• Date listed

  20 October 2025

Job details

• Job role:
  • Headteacher
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Key stage: Early years, Key stage 1, Key stage 2
• Working pattern: Full time: Full time Monday to Friday 27.5
• Contract type: Permanent
• Pay scale: L21 to L27 of the leadership pay scale

What skills and experience we're looking for

Headteacher role description Employment details

Role title Headteacher

Reports to Chair of Governors

Hours of work Full time

Salary Pay range L21-L27 (£88,812-£102,213)

School culture and values

• Establish and sustain the school’s ethos and strategic direction, in partnership with those responsible for governance and through consultation with the school community.
• Ensure the school’s ethos and strategic direction is in line with the values and vision of the Mission Statement.
• Create a culture where pupils experience a positive and enriching school life.
• Uphold ambitious educational standards which prepare pupils from all backgrounds for their next phase of education and life.
• Promote positive and respectful relationships across the school community, and a safe, orderly and inclusive environment.
• Promote a culture that ensures exceptional staff professionalism.

Whole-school organisation, strategy and development

• Provide overall strategic leadership and, alongside others, lead, develop and support the strategic direction, vision, values and priorities of the school.
• Ensure the strategic direction, vision and values are reflected in the school.
• Establish, oversee and evaluate systems, processes and policies that enable the school to operate effectively and efficiently.
• Produce and implement improvement plans and policies that benefit the development of the school.
• Make use of effective and proportional processes of evaluation to identify and analyse complex or persistent problems and barriers which limit school effectiveness, and identify priority areas for improvement.
• Develop appropriate evidence-informed strategies for improvement as part of well-targeted plans which are realistic, timely, appropriately sequenced and suited to the school’s context.
• Ensure careful and effective implementation of improvement strategies, which lead to sustained school improvement over time.

Teaching

• Establish and sustain high-quality, expert teaching across all subjects and phases, built on an evidence-informed understanding of effective teaching and how pupils learn.
• Ensure teaching is underpinned by high levels of subject expertise and approaches which respect the distinct nature of subject disciplines or specialist domains.
• Ensure effective use is made of formative assessment.
• Lead and manage teaching and learning throughout the school, including ensuring that a teacher is assigned in the school timetable to every class or group of pupils.
• Liaise with other leaders and the Governing Body to secure creative, responsive and effective approaches to teaching and learning.

Curriculum and assessment

• Ensure a broad, structured and coherent curriculum entitlement which sets out the knowledge, skills and values that will be taught.
• Establish effective curricular leadership, developing subject leaders with high levels of relevant expertise with access to professional networks and communities.
• Ensure that all pupils are taught to read through the provision of evidence-informed approaches to reading.
• Ensure valid, reliable and proportionate approaches are used when assessing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the curriculum.

Health, safety and behaviour

• Promote the safety and wellbeing of pupils and staff.
• Ensure rigorous approaches to identifying, managing and mitigating risk.
• Ensure the protection and safety of pupils and staff through effective approaches to safeguarding, as part of the duty of care.
• Ensure good order and discipline amongst pupils and staff.
• Establish and sustain high expectations of behaviour for all pupils, built upon relationships, rules and routines, which are understood clearly by all staff and pupils.
• Ensure high standards of pupil behaviour and courteous conduct, in accordance with the school’s behaviour policy.
• Implement consistent, fair and respectful approaches to managing behaviour.
• Ensure that adults within the school model and teach the behaviour expected .

SEND and additional needs

• Ensure the school holds ambitious expectations for all pupils with SEND and additional needs.
• Establish and sustain culture and practices that enable pupils with SEND and additional needs to access the curriculum and learn effectively.
• Ensure the school works effectively in partnership with parents and professionals to identify the those pupils, with SEND needs and ensure support and adaptation are provided where appropriate.
• Ensure the school fulfils its statutory duties with regards to the statutory requirements for those pupils with additional needs.

Management of staff and resources

• Lead, manage and develop staff members, including appraising and managing their performance.
• Develop clear arrangements for linking appraisal to pay progression and agree pay recommendations for teachers in discussion with relevant members of the governing body (currently the Finance and Personnel committee).
• Organise and deploy resources within the school.
• Prioritise and allocate financial resources appropriately, ensuring efficiency, effectiveness and probity in the use of public funds.
• Promote harmonious working relationships within the school.
• Maintain relationships with organisations representing staff members, e.g. unions.
• Ensure staff are deployed and managed well with due attention paid to workload.
• Ensure resources are managed in line with the Schools policies and procedures.

Professional development

• Promote the participation of staff in relevant CPD.
• Ensure staff have access to high-quality, sustained professional development opportunities, aligned to balance the priorities of whole-school improvement, team and individual needs.
• Prioritise the professional development of staff, ensuring effective planning, delivery and evaluation which is consistent with the approaches laid out in the ‘Standards for teachers’ professional development’.
• Ensure that professional development opportunities draw on expert provision from beyond the school, as well as within it, including nationally recognised career and professional frameworks and programmes to build capacity and support succession planning.
• Participate in arrangements for the appraisal and review of their own performance and, where appropriate, that of other staff members.
• Participate in arrangements for their own further training and professional development and, where appropriate, that of other teachers and support staff including induction.
• Take responsibility for their own CPD, engaging critically with Education research.

Communication and working with others

• Consult and communicate with the Governing body , staff, pupils and parents.
• Collaborate and work with colleagues and other relevant professionals within and beyond the school, including relevant external agencies and bodies.
• Forge constructive relationships beyond the school, working in partnership with parents, carers and the local community.
• Commit to ensuring the school works successfully with other schools and organisations in a climate of mutual challenge and support.
• Establish and maintain working relationships with fellow professionals and colleagues across other public services to improve educational outcomes for all pupils.
• Build and maintain excellent relationships with other schools.

Governance and accountability

• Understand and welcome the role of effective governance, upholding their obligation to give account and accept responsibility.
• Establish and sustain professional working relationship with those responsible for governance.
• Ensure that staff know and understand their professional responsibilities and are held to account.
• Ensure the school effectively and efficiently operates within the required regulatory frameworks and meets all statutory duties.

Ethics and professional conduct

• Uphold and demonstrate the Seven Principles of Public Life at all times – selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.
• Uphold public trust in school leadership and maintain high standards of ethics and behaviour.
• Build relationships rooted in mutual respect and observe proper boundaries appropriate to their position.
• Show tolerance of, and respect for, the rights of others, recognising differences and respecting cultural diversity.
• Uphold fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect, and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
• Ensure that personal beliefs are not expressed in ways which exploit their position or pupils’ vulnerability or which might lead pupils to break the law.
• Serve in the best interests of the school’s pupils.
• Conduct themselves in a manner compatible with their influential position in society by acting ethically.
• Uphold their obligation to give account and accept responsibility.
• Know, understand and act in line with the relevant statutory frameworks which set out their professional duties and responsibilities.
• Make a positive contribution to the wider education system.

Headteacher person specification

Qualifications and training

Essential

• Holder of National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH)
• A degree level qualification or equivalent
• Further relevant professional and/or academic study and evidence of CPD

• ILM7 qualification or willingness to obtain this qualification to support the coaching ethos embedded throughout the school

Desirable

• Knowledge of current issues in Education
• A relevant leadership qualification

Skills and experience

Essential

• Evidence of proven strong, successful leadership and management experience in a school.
• Evidence of demonstrating a strategic leadership style that is characterised by integrity, creativity, resilience and clarity.
• Experience of implementing, managing and evaluating change in a collaborative way.
• Experience of raising standards that have impacted positively on pupils and teaching and learning.
• Significant experience of evaluating and using data to plan and improve pupil outcomes.
• Experience of making effective use of funding and other resources.
• Strong financial planning and management skills.
• Excellent communication skills and proven ability to listen to, understand and work effectively with the school community.
• Strong operational skills to effectively manage school resources, oversee daily administrative tasks, and ensure the smooth running of the school's operations.

Knowledge

Essential

• An understanding of how to empower pupils and staff to excel.
• A clear understanding of what makes good and outstanding teaching through a deep understanding of how pupils learn, and the ability to develop a culture where striving for outstanding teaching and learning is central to the school’s work.
• An understanding of how to create whole-community accountability systems and implement them with the support of the SLT to combine data from a range of sources to maximise the achievement of pupils.
• A clear understanding of and commitment to promoting safeguarding pupils.
• Knowledge and understanding of the statutory frameworks which set out their professional duties and responsibilities.

Personal traits

The successful candidate will:

• Be able to build positive relationships rooted in mutual respect.
• Have a commitment to valuing, supporting and encouraging the professional development of all staff.
• Be able to build and nurture a strong, positive and collaborative team culture that enables all staff to carry out their roles to the highest standard and for all staff to work together to deliver school improvement.
• Be committed to building and maintaining effective and positive relationships with parents, governors, and the wider school community.
• Be able to inspire and influence others, within and beyond the school, to believe in the fundamental importance and value of education in young people’s lives.
• Be able to foster an open, transparent and equitable culture and deal effectively with difficult conversations and conflict at every level.
• Show tolerance and respect for the rights of others, recognising differences and cultural diversity, while upholding the fundamental British values.
• Ensure that their personal beliefs are not expressed in ways which exploit their position, pupils’ vulnerability or might lead to pupils breaking the law.

What the school offers its staff

Dear Prospective Headteacher Applicant,

A warm welcome to you from the Governing Board of Longfield Primary School. We are delighted that you are considering applying for the position of Headteacher at our school.

Our school’s values and vision underpins all that we stand for, Longfield prides itself on being part of a community that puts children at the heart of all we do. We are a partnership that strives to achieve excellence with a commitment to lifelong learning, hence our motto, ‘Learning together, Achieving forever’.

We have high expectations for all our children and teach a rich and nurturing curriculum that allows our teachers and children to be creative and encourages individuality. We promote this through the 5Rs to be responsible, resourceful, reflective, resilient and use reasoning.

We want to equip all our children with the skills and values to succeed in their journey through life to become strong, independent, self-confident learners with well-developed core moral values, encouraging them to work hard and always be their best.

Our core values are safety, independence, a positive attitude, mutual respect and safety.

We have a culture of coaching embedded throughout the school and we are seeking an inspirational and compassionate leader who will build upon our existing strengths and guide us through the next phase of our journey.

Specifically, we are looking for a Headteacher who:

• Demonstrates a proven track record of raising and sustaining educational standards.
• Is passionate about creating a nurturing and challenging learning environment for all pupils.
• Has experience in implementing successful whole-school systems and driving strategic change.
• Possesses strong interpersonal skills and a commitment to working in partnership with staff, parents, and the wider school community.
• Can articulate and champion our core values and inclusive ethos.

You are warmly encouraged to visit the school to see our pupils and staff in action and to get a feel for our wonderful school community. Please contact Hamish Cantlay at office@longfieldprimary.co.uk or 020 8866 7331 to arrange an appointment.

The detailed Job Description and information on the application process can be found in the accompanying recruitment pack.

We look forward to receiving your application by the 17th November.

Thank you once again for your interest in the role of Headteacher at Longfield Primary School. We wish you every success in your application and look forward to the possibility of you joining our journey.

Professional Development: We offer various professional development opportunities for staff, ensuring they have access to high-quality, sustained professional development opportunities aligned with the priorities of whole-school improvement, team, and individual needs.

How to Apply: Interested candidates are invited to submit their application to Nadia Iqbal clerk@longfieldprimary.co.uk . Please contact the school office if you would like to arrange informal visit. For more information about our school, please visit our website at https://www.longfieldprimaryschool.co.uk/

Closing Date: 9am Monday 17th November 2025

Interviews will take place on the 2nd & 3rd of December 2025

Longfield Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. An enhanced DBS check will be required for the successful candidate.

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 job requires you to download an application form, you will be able to upload the application once complete.

CVs will not be accepted for this application.

Upload additional documents

If you need these documents in an accessible format, please contact the school.

Heads data pack (1).docx - 30.6 KB (opens in new tab)

About Longfield Primary School

• School type: Local authority maintained school, ages 3 to 11
• Education phase: Primary
• School size: 670 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 3 to 11
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report
• School website: Longfield Primary School website
• Email address: recruitment@longfieldprimary.co.uk
• Phone number: 02088667331
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/longfield-primary-school

Longfield Primary is a four-form entry primary school situated in the heart of a vibrant multi-cultural community in Harrow.

Arranging a visit to Longfield Primary School

To arrange a visit and increase the chance of a successful application email recruitment@longfieldprimary.co.uk.

School location

Get a job alert when similar jobs are listed

Find more school jobs in Harrow