Vice Principal - Pastoral

Longsands Academy, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, PE19 1LQ

12 days remaining to apply

• Start date details

  September

• Closing date

  15 May 2026 at 9am

• Date listed

  3 May 2026

Job details

• Job role:
  • Other leadership roles
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Working pattern: Full time
• Contract type: Permanent
• Full-time equivalent salary: £84,303.00 - £92,976.00 Annually (Actual) LS20-24

Vice Principal - Pastoral job summary

Vice Principal - Longsands Academy - Pastoral

Full time | Permanent | Start: September | Salary: Leadership Scale (LS) 20-24 | Closing date: 15 May

Longsands Academy is seeking an outstanding, visible and values-driven leader to join our Senior Leadership Team as Vice Principal. This is a rare opportunity to lead transformational change across the pastoral landscape of the academy—shaping a culture where high standards of behaviour, safety, kindness, and belonging are non-negotiable, and where every minute of learning is protected so that every child can flourish.

As part of Astrea Academy Trust, Longsands is a community that is unapologetically ambitious for every scholar, regardless of background, prior attainment, or need. Our values—scholarship, curiosity, tenacity, respect and responsibility—sit at the heart of daily life, and our mission is clear: to work relentlessly to remove barriers and disrupt disadvantage.

About Longsands Academy and Astrea

At Longsands, you will join a team committed to a calm, purposeful and inclusive environment where staff are supported to do their best work and scholars are supported to achieve exceptional outcomes. As a Trust, Astrea is committed to ensuring all children have accelerated opportunities to learn, thrive, and lead successful lives, with a clear 2030 strategy and an unwavering focus on inclusion and excellence.

We welcome visits to the school before you apply—please contact Sharon Kontou at Sharon.Kontou@astrea-longsands.org to arrange a visit or an informal conversation.

The Role: Purpose and Impact

This role exists to lead and drive rapid, sustainable improvement in behaviour, culture and pastoral systems so that high-quality teaching and learning can happen in every classroom, every day.

You will be instrumental in:

• Building a culture where scholars feel safe, experience joy and belonging, and where expectations are explicit, consistent and upheld with warmth.
• Leading with strategic clarity and relentless follow-through, ensuring systems are embedded, understood, and delivered with precision.
• Strengthening the academy’s pastoral “engine room” so that staff are supported, accountability is clear, and improvement is continuous.

Key Responsibilities

Working alongside the Principal and Senior Leadership Team, the Vice Principal will:

• Lead and drive transformational improvement across behaviour, culture, safeguarding and wider pastoral systems, ensuring consistently high standards for all scholars.
• Take shared responsibility for the day-to-day leadership and management of the academy alongside the Principal, deputising where required.
• Establish and sustain a calm, safe and orderly learning environment where disruption-free learning is the norm and every minute of learning is protected.
• Ensure safeguarding arrangements are robust, effective and responsive, promoting the wellbeing and safety of scholars and staff at all times.
• Use pastoral, behaviour and attendance data intelligently to identify trends, diagnose barriers and implement timely, impactful interventions.
• Be a highly visible senior leader who models the academy’s values, commands presence, and consistently upholds high expectations across the school.
• Line manage and develop senior and pastoral leaders through coaching, challenge and high-quality professional development.
• Strengthen systems, routines and accountability to secure consistency, tackle underperformance and sustain continual improvement.
• Champion inclusion and equity, ensuring disadvantaged and vulnerable scholars are supported to thrive academically and personally.

What We’re Looking For

We are looking for a leader who is aligned to our mission and ready to make a significant, measurable impact.

You will bring:

• Senior leadership experience with a proven track record of securing improvement and delivering impact at scale.
• Deep expertise and conviction about how strong culture, clear routines, and high expectations enable scholars to thrive.
• The ability to inspire and influence—commanding presence, excellent communication, and the drive to follow through relentlessly.
• A strong commitment to inclusion, safeguarding and equitable outcomes—especially for disadvantaged pupils—reflecting Astrea’s mission to disrupt disadvantage.
• The strategic capacity to design, implement, evaluate and refine systems, using evidence and data to sustain improvement

Interested in Applying?

If you are passionate about education, looking for a fresh opportunity, or simply want to make a positive impact, we would love to hear from you. Take a look at the job description and candidate pack to find out more about the role and how to apply or contact our recruitment team at recruitment@astreaacademytrust.org.

Commitment to Safeguarding and EDI:

Astrea Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All appointments are subject to satisfactory background checks, including references and an enhanced DBS check. We value diversity and welcome applications from underrepresented groups. As a Disability Confident employer, we provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process to ensure all candidates can fully demonstrate their abilities.

In line with Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 and the statutory Code of Practice, the Trust requires all public-facing post holders to demonstrate fluent English. Within a school setting, this applies to all roles that involve direct or indirect interaction with pupils, parents, or members of the public.

Flexible Interview Dates:

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early, so don't miss out on this exciting opportunity. Please note that interview dates are flexible, and the academy reserves the right to interview shortlisted candidates during the application window.

Ready to Make a Difference?

If you're ready to take the next step in your career and contribute to our dynamic and forward-thinking team, apply today and be a part of our mission to create a positive impact!

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

Astrea Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people and we expect all staff to share this commitment.

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 Longsands Academy

• School type: Academy, ages 11 to 18
• Education phase: Secondary school
• School size: 1554 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 11 to 18
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report
• School website: Longsands Academy website
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/longsands-academy

Longsands Academy, part of Astrea Academy Trust, is a successful, fully-inclusive secondary school at the heart of its community. We pride ourselves on providing an engaging and supportive environment in which our students feel empowered to reach and embrace their full potential with confidence. Our staff are committed to nurturing the abilities of every child with a curriculum which promotes academic excellence and is delivered by subject specialists. The opportunities we provide allow all students to showcase their talents, whether through the traditional school day or as a result of the wealth of extra-curricular activities on offer. Furthermore, in order to develop the important qualities of independent learning and resilience, our students are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning both in and out of lessons. We are extremely proud of the achievements of our students that are a result of the high expectations, students’ hard work and commitment and the supportive relationships that exist between staff, students and their parents/carers.

The pursuit of academic excellence is at the heart of the Academy. Through high expectations of behaviour, a commitment to great standards of teaching delivering a knowledge-rich curriculum, and positive working relationships with all members of the academy community, all students, regardless of their background or personal circumstances, are encouraged to achieve their academic aspirations. We believe that schools must teach powerful knowledge that takes students beyond their everyday experiences. We believe in a traditional, subject-based approach to teaching in order to create a scholarly culture that is disciplined and joyful. We want to ensure that we open doors for every students’ future and develop in them a life-long love of learning.

We are committed to developing our staff to be the very best that they can be by striving to ensure that all of our colleagues can access high-quality Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Our CPD programme is both department-based and in collaboration with academies within the Astrea family and external partners. Wide-ranging opportunities for professional development are available for staff at all stages of their career, including ECTs, experienced classroom teachers, middle and senior leaders and support staff.

School location

Get a job alert when similar jobs are listed

Find more school jobs in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough