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Headteacher
Mercia School, Sheffield, S7 2DYThis job expired on 12 April 2026 – see similar jobs
Job start date
1 September 2026
Closing date
12 April 2026 at 11:59pm
Date listed
20 March 2026
Job details
Job role
- 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
Full time equivalent salary
- L32-L36 (£110,892 - £122,306)
Headteacher job summary
Salary: L32 to L36 (salary negotiable dependent on experience)
Contract term: Full time, 1.0FTE, permanent
Start date: September 2026
Closing date: Midnight Sunday 12 April 2026
Mercia Learning Trust
Mercia Learning Trust is a successful partnership of four primary and three secondary schools located in the south-west of Sheffield. Established in 2012, with one secondary school, our trust has grown to serving over 5000 pupils, with 650 staff.
Why do we exist?
- To empower everyone in our communities, especially the most disadvantaged, to succeed.
How do we behave?
- We are kind - showing care and supporting each other.
- We have integrity - doing the right thing and always putting children first.
- We work with diligence - overcoming obstacles and having no excuses.
What do we do?
- We run schools that focus on academic excellence, cultural capital and the development of character.
How will we succeed?
- A culture of excellence – high standards shaped by clarity, not control.
- Academic focus – empowering all children through an exceptional curriculum.
- Purposeful collaboration – relationships built on trust, reducing sub-optimisation and driving collective success.
Our staff are a crucial part of our trust, just like our pupils. We are devoted to recruiting, training, retaining and taking good care of our highly skilled and dedicated team.
Mercia School
Mercia School (11-18) opened in 2018 in a brand-new building. Since opening, the school has secured a strong national reputation for educational excellence.
In February 2023, Ofsted inspected the school and graded all aspects of provision to be ‘Outstanding’. GCSE results are consistently exceptional, with all pupils securing high levels of attainment. In the summer of 2023, Mercia School achieved the highest Progress 8 score for disadvantaged pupils, this high-level of performance was repeated in 2024.
In September 2023, Mercia Collegiate Sixth Form opened and the first set of results in 2025 were the highest of any state school in Sheffield.
The role
Due to Mercia School's current headteacher taking up a new post within our trust, we are looking for a new leader who has experience of working in high performing schools. Ultimately, this individual will have the drive and skill to keep Mercia School as one of the best schools nationally, maintaining the successful model that has already been created.
The successful candidate will be supported by our trust leadership team to implement strategies with fidelity and rigour.
Further information about the job
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.
About Mercia School
- Organisation type
- Free School, ages 11 to 18
- Education phase
- Secondary school
- Size
- 1070 pupils enrolled
- Age range
- 11 to 18
- Ofsted report
- View Ofsted report
- Website
- Mercia School website
Mercia School (11-18+) opened in September 2018 and has grown incrementally each year since then. We now have pupils in years 7-13, have published exceptional GCSE results in 2023 and 2024, and we opened our Collegiate Sixth Form in September 2023.
We are a traditional school, and aspects of our approach and practice are like other highly effective schools across the country. We have a strong reputation for educational excellence and have been the most oversubscribed school in the city for the last four years. In February 2023 Ofsted inspected the school and graded all aspects of provision and overall effectiveness to be outstanding. Our aim is to provide all pupils, no matter what their background or starting point, with a rich, coherent, and demanding education, facilitated by a longer school day.
This ultimately equips and inspires them to progress to university or a high-quality alternative. We care about every pupil and want the absolute best for them.
Our school is a warm and welcoming place where all pupils feel happy and safe and can flourish. Staff are free to teach without distraction and deliver exceptional lessons, and leaders focus persistently on what matters.
We wish to recruit, develop, and retain the best staff, and we have a strong commitment to reducing the workload for teachers.
School location
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