Assistant Principal - Safeguarding & Wellbeing Leader

GEMS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL - DUBAI HILLS; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

GEMS International School – Dubai Hills is seeking an experienced Assistant Principal – Safeguarding Lead to provide whole‑school leadership for safeguarding and child protection. The role reports to the Senior Vice Principal – Student Life & Culture and collaborates with external agencies to ensure every student feels safe and valued.

The position starts January 2027 (flexibility for later start). You will lead safeguarding training, policy reviews, and multi‑agency coordination as part of

Qualifications

• Overseeing safeguarding and child protection across all school phases.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for safeguarding and child protection across all school phases, ensuring compliance with GEMS, UAE and KHDA requirements.
• Oversee safeguarding concerns and complex child protection cases, ensuring timely identification, accurate recording, appropriate referrals and effective escalation.
• Promote a strong safeguarding culture through preventative education, student voice, early intervention and inclusive practices that support vulnerable learners.
• Lead safeguarding training, professional development and awareness initiatives, ensuring all staff understand their responsibilities, reporting procedures and professional boundaries.
• Work collaboratively with HR to support safer recruitment, staff vetting, professional conduct and appropriate safeguarding procedures.
• Drive safeguarding quality assurance, policy reviews, audits and school improvement initiatives, ensuring robust systems and inspection readiness.
• Provide professional guidance and support to safeguarding leads, pastoral teams and school leaders, strengthening consistency, accountability and effective multi‑agency collaboration.
• Contribute to whole‑school strategic planning, critical incident management, student wellbeing initiatives and wider school improvement priorities as a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

Skills

Safeguarding leadership

Policy compliance

Staff training

Multi-agency collaboration

Job description

GEMS International School – Dubai Hills is seeking an experienced Assistant Principal – Safeguarding Lead to provide whole‑school leadership for safeguarding and child protection. The role reports to the Senior Vice Principal – Student Life & Culture and collaborates with external agencies to ensure every student feels safe and valued.

The position starts January 2027 (flexibility for later start). You will lead safeguarding training, policy reviews, and multi‑agency coordination as part of