Headteacher
St Paul's Church of England Primary School, Wigan, Lancashire, WN3 6SB21 days remaining to apply
Job start date
1 January 2026
Closing date
3 October 2025 at 9am
Date listed
12 September 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 / Term time only
Contract type
- Permanent
Pay scale
- L15 - L21
What skills and experience we're looking for
Please see full job pack for personal specification.
What the school offers its staff
What we can offer you
- Continuing Professional Development – All support staff can apply for fully-funded apprenticeships up to degree level.
- Leadership Pathways – We have a wealth of development opportunities that are open to colleagues and we are exceptionally proud of our very high levels of internal promotion.
- Annual Trust Wide Conference – For all colleagues to celebrate and learn together.
- Collaboration – Regular networking opportunities across our networks for different staff groups.
- A Trust commitment to wellbeing and workload:
Further information about the job
A. The Core Purpose of the Headteacher
The headteacher is the prime mover in creating, inspiring and embodying the Christian ethos and culture of this Church school, securing its Mission statement with all members of the school community and ensuring an environment for teaching and learning that empowers both staff and students to achieve their highest potential.
The core purpose of the headteacher is to provide professional leadership and management for the school within the context of the Trust Deed. This will promote a secure foundation from which to achieve high standards in all areas of the school’s work. To gain this success the headteacher must establish high quality education by effectively managing teaching and learning and using personalised learning to realise the potential of all pupils. The headteacher should establish a culture that promotes excellence, equality, and high expectations of all pupils within a strong Christian ethos.
The headteacher is the leading professional in the school. Accountable to the CEO and Local governing body, the headteacher provides vision, leadership and direction for the school and ensures that it is managed and organised to meet its aims and targets. The headteacher, working with others, is responsible for evaluating the school’s performance to identify the priorities for continuous improvement and raising standards; ensuring equality of opportunity for all; developing policies and practices; ensuring that resources are efficiently and effectively used to achieve the school’s aims and objectives and for the day-to- day management, organisation and administration of the school.
The headteacher, working with and through others, secures the commitment of the wider community to the school by developing and maintaining effective partnerships with, for example, schools, other services and agencies for children, the LDST, the Diocese, higher education institutions and employers. Through such partnerships and other activities, headteachers play a key role in contributing to the development of the education system as a whole and collaborate with others to raise standards locally.
Drawing on the support provided by members of the school community, the Headteacher is responsible for creating a productive learning environment which is engaging and fulfilling for all pupils.
B. The Four Domains of Headship
Domain One: Qualities and knowledge.
Within the school’s Christian ethos, the headteacher will:
1. Hold and articulate clear Christian values and moral purpose focused on providing a world-class education for the pupils they serve and reflecting the Church foundation of the school.
2. Demonstrate optimistic personal behaviour, positive relationships and attitudes towards their pupils and staff, and towards parents, governors and members of the local Church and wider community.
3. Lead by example – with integrity, creativity, resilience, and clarity – drawing on their own scholarship, expertise, and skills, and that of those around them.
4. Sustain wide, current knowledge and understanding of education and school systems locally, nationally, and globally, and pursue continuous professional development that reflects the needs of a Church of England school.
5. Work with political and financial astuteness, within a clear set of principles centred on the school's Christian vision, ably translating local, national, and Diocesan policy into the school's context.
6. Communicate compellingly the school's vision and drive the strategic leadership, empowering all pupils and staff to excel.
Domain Two: Pupils and staff.
Within the school’s Christian ethos, the headteacher will:
1. Demand ambitious standards of achievement and attendance for all pupils, overcoming disadvantage and advancing equality, instilling a strong sense of accountability in staff for the impact of their work on pupils' outcomes.
2. Secure excellent teaching through an analytical understanding of how pupils learn and of the core features of successful classroom practice and curriculum design, leading to rich curriculum opportunities and pupils' well-being, taking full account of the school’s Church of England foundation.
3. Establish an educational culture of "open classrooms" as a basis for sharing best practice within and between schools, drawing on and conducting relevant research and robust data analysis.
4. Create an ethos based on Christian values within which all staff are motivated and supported to develop their own skills and subject knowledge, and to support each other.
5. Identify emerging talents, coaching current and aspiring leaders in a climate where excellence is the standard, leading to clear succession planning.
6. Hold all staff to account for their professional conduct and practice.
Domain Three: Systems and process.
In a Church school, the relationship between the mission statement and the provision of effective governance, organisation and management should reflect the school’s Christian aims. In order to provide an efficient, effective, and safe Christian learning environment, the headteacher will:
1. Ensure that the school's systems, organisation, and processes are well considered, efficient and fit for purpose, upholding the principles of transparency, integrity, and probity within a Christian context.
2. Within the school’s Christian ethos, provide a safe, calm, and well-ordered environment for all pupils and staff, focused on safeguarding pupils and developing their exemplary behaviour in school and in the wider society.
3. Establish rigorous, fair, and transparent systems and measures for managing the performance of all staff, addressing any under- performance, supporting staff to improve, and valuing excellent practice.
4. Welcome strong governance and actively support the local governing body to understand its role and deliver its functions effectively – in particular its functions to set school strategy and hold the headteacher to account for pupil, staff, and financial performance.
5. Exercise strategic, curriculum-led financial planning to ensure the equitable deployment of budgets and resources, in the best interests of pupils' achievements, the school's sustainability and its Christian character.
6. Distribute leadership throughout the organisation, forging teams of colleagues who have distinct roles and responsibilities and hold each other to account for their decision making.
Domain Four: The self-improving school system
Working in a spirit of collaboration to secure Christian principles of equity and entitlement, the headteacher will:
1. Create an outward-facing school which works with other schools, organisations, and the local community– in a climate of mutual challenge – to champion best practice and secure excellent achievements for all pupils.
2. Develop effective relationships with fellow professionals, colleagues in other public services, parents/carers, and the Church community to improve academic and social outcomes for all pupils.
3. Challenge educational orthodoxies in the best interests of achieving excellence, harnessing the findings of well evidenced research to frame self-regulating and self-improving schools.
4. Shape the current and future quality of the teaching profession through high quality training and sustained professional development of all staff.
5. Within the school’s Christian ethos, model entrepreneurial and innovative approaches to school improvement, leadership, and governance, confident of the vital contribution of internal and external accountability.
6. Inspire and influence others -within and beyond schools- to believe in the fundamental importance of education in young people's lives and to promote the value of education especially within a Christian context.
The Headteacher/senior leader must ensure the school’s safeguarding arrangements remain effective and are in keeping with expectations set out in key legislation and statutory guidance. The Headteacher/senior leaders should implement the Trust's Safeguarding Strategy, developing a culture which promotes the protection, safeguarding and well-being of all children, young people and adults working at the school.
This job description forms part of the contract of employment of the person appointed to the post. It reflects the position at the present time only and may be reviewed in negotiation with the employee in the future. The appointment is subject to the current conditions of employment in the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document as they relate to headteachers.
All applicants must be committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The Headteacher is expected to demonstrate this commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and is expected to hold all staff and volunteers accountable for their contribution to the safeguarding regulations.
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.
About St Paul's Church of England Primary School
- School type
- Academy, Church of England, ages 4 to 11
- Education phase
- Primary
- School size
- 181 pupils enrolled
- Age range
- 4 to 11
- Ofsted report
- View Ofsted report
- School website
- St Paul's Church of England Primary School website
- Email address
- stpw.recruitment@ldst.org.uk
- Phone number
- 07782790636
St Paul’s CofE Primary school is a small school which has God at the centre. We have excellent links with St Paul’s Church and the school and Church regularly worship together. St Paul's School believes in the uniqueness of every child created in the image of God. For this reason, we aim to enable each child to grow and develop in mind, body and spirit, through challenging and creative teaching within the context of healthy and meaningful relationships, set in a caring and supportive environment.
Arranging a visit to St Paul's Church of England Primary School
To arrange a visit and increase the chance of a successful application email stpw.recruitment@ldst.org.uk.
School location
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