Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Independent Schools Association (ISA); Farnham; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

More House School seeks a senior leader to become Chief Operating Officer, driving strategic planning, finance, HR, estates and governance while guiding growth across the campus network. You will partner with the Headmaster and Board to steer the five-year strategy, mergers opportunities and external transactions with rigorous due diligence.

We value kindness, spirit and responsibility, and welcome candidates from diverse backgrounds who align with our values-led charity ethos and inclusive

Qualifications

• Experience in senior leadership roles with broad operational remit.
• Proven ability to lead complex strategic initiatives and growth.
• Comfortable modelling financial scenarios and business cases.

Responsibilities

• Lead Business Operations: Finance, HR, Estates, IT, Administration, Catering and governance support (≈60 staff).
• Drive expansion through mergers, acquisitions or new sites with due diligence and external advisers.
• Partner with Headmaster and Board to deliver the five-year strategy with strong governance.

Skills

Strategic planning

Operational oversight

Senior leadership

Mergers & acquisitions

Financial modelling

Tools

Governance reporting

Job description

The Governors and Headmaster of More House School, Frensham seek to appoint a highly skilled senior leader, expert in strategic planning and operational oversight, for the post of Chief Operating Officer (COO).

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

Start date

At the earliest date the successful candidate’s notice permits

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.