Chief Operating Officer (COO)

The Independent Schools Council; Farnham; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

More House School is seeking a Chief Operating Officer to lead Business Operations including Finance, HR, Estates, IT, and Administration, while playing a key role in governance and safeguarding. You will drive the school’s growth strategy, evaluate opportunities, and manage due diligence and external advisers to deliver new provision.

You will work closely with the Headmaster and Board, reporting on financial strategy and the expansion plan for a values-led charity committed to inclusion and

Qualifications

• Must be an experienced senior leader with the ability to own the finance function.
• Experience in mergers, acquisitions, group formation, or opening/integrating a new site or division.
• Understanding of local authority commissioning and EHCP funding.
• This is a values-led charity, not a commercial group.
• Ability to model where the school is in one year, five years and ten.

Responsibilities

• Lead Business Operations—Finance, HR, Estates, IT, Administration, Catering and governance support, about 60 staff.
• Oversee operational, financial and regulatory compliance to the standards of inspections.
• Act as executive lead on the commercial, financial and delivery side of expansion: appraise opportunities, build models, perform due diligence, direct advisers, manage transactions to completion and integration.

Skills

Senior leadership

Finance leadership

Mergers & acquisitions

Strategic planning

Governance

Job description

We have built something that works. Now we want to build more of it — and we are looking for the person who can help us do it.

More House School is the leading independent school in the country for pupils who experience Specific Learning Difficulties, Developmental Language Disorder and associated conditions. Over thirty years we have grown from 65 pupils to 515. We have been awarded the highest gradings in six successive Ofsted inspections over more than a decade, and were judged Exceptional under the new inspection framework in February 2026. Around 270 mainstream schools across the UK now come to us for help in becoming more inclusive.

We are full. Demand for places exceeds what our campus can provide, and it has done for years. Nearly 70% of our pupils have their places funded by one of 35 local authorities under an EHCP, which gives us an unusually resilient income base — and a waiting list we cannot serve. That is why the next chapter of More House is about growth, and why we are recruiting a Chief Operating Officer with the range to lead it.

What we want to do

We are in year two of a five-year strategy. Its central ambitions are:

• To extend our provision to girls. This is our foremost priority. There are many girls who would flourish in a More House education and who cannot currently access one, and we have committed publicly to changing that.
• To grow beyond the Frensham campus — by merger, acquisition, partnership or new site. We are actively evaluating opportunities, and we would expect to be the senior partner in any of them, protecting the model and the culture that make this school what it is.
• To continue developing our Frensham campus. Construction of a major new sports facility begins this summer, and the next phase of campus development is being planned now.
• To grow our outreach and consultancy work, and to keep influencing national policy on SEND and inclusion.

The role

The Chief Operating Officer is the most senior non-teaching post in the School, reporting to the Headmaster and working closely with the Board of Governors and the Core Leadership Group. The role has two dimensions, and we mean both of them.

Run. You will lead Business Operations — Finance, HR, Estates, IT, Administration, Catering and governance support, some 60 staff in total — and hold our operational, financial and regulatory position at the standard our inspections reflect. Our foundations are sound; your job is to keep them that way while the School changes around them.

Grow. Alongside the Headmaster, you will be the executive lead on the commercial, financial and delivery side of our expansion: appraising opportunities, building the models, running due diligence, directing the external advisers, and project managing transactions and new provision through to completion and integration.

Who we are looking for

You will be an experienced senior leader who enjoys running a broad and diverse operation well, and who wants to do something more ambitious than steady state. You do not need to be an accountant, but you must be able to own the finance function, hold your own with the Governors on financial matters, and be comfortable modelling where this School is in one year, five years and ten.

Experience of mergers, acquisitions, group formation, or of opening and integrating a new site or division would set a candidate apart — as would an understanding of local authority commissioning and EHCP funding. We will resource specialist transaction advice externally; what we need in this role is the judgement and the project discipline to direct it.

Above all, you will need a real affinity with what we do here. This is a values-led charity, not a commercial group, and our values of Kindness, Spirit and Responsibility are not decoration. Candidates are welcome from a broad range of backgrounds, in and beyond education.

Founder’s Day at More House was described by one parent as “a beautifully emotional, thoroughly uplifting celebration of achievement, resilience and fellowship”. It is a fair description of the school as a whole.

Role: Chief Operating Officer — the senior non-teaching post in the School

Reporting to: The Headmaster, and to the Board of Governors

Location: Frensham, Surrey (Farnham station one hour from London Waterloo)

Closing date: 12 noon, Monday 7 September 2026

Interviews: Weeks commencing Monday 14 September 2026 and Monday 21 September 2026

This post is subject to Enhanced DBS clearance and satisfactory references. More House School is firmly committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.