Interim Middle Leader - Special School

Brava Education; Greater London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Contract through Christmas

Protected leadership time

Senior leadership team support

Job summary

Brava Education is seeking an Interim Middle Leader for a specialist school in South London. The role combines substantial classroom teaching with dedicated leadership time for a highly complex pupil group.

The balance is around 3.5–4 days of teaching and 1–1.5 days of leadership, with potential to increase leadership time. An established senior team supports strategic development.

Qualifications

• Strong classroom practitioner with a specialist background in autism, SLD or SEMH provision.
• Ability to manage challenging behaviour with credibility.
• Experience at senior teacher or head of department level, or a very experienced middle leader.
• Experience of the Equals curriculum or similar semi-formal framework is advantageous.
• No subject specialism required; focus on broad core-skills teaching for highly complex learners.
• QTS and an enhanced DBS on the update service, or willingness to obtain one.

Responsibilities

• You will lead within your phase as part of the wider leadership team, combining a substantial classroom commitment with dedicated leadership time.
• The current split is around 3.5 to 4 days teaching and 1 to 1.5 days non-teaching leadership time; balance may move toward leadership.
• The pupil group is highly complex; teaching is broad and core-skills focused with differentiated curriculum.

Skills

Autism specialist

Challenging behaviour

Senior teaching/leadership

Equals curriculum experience

Broad core-skills teaching

QTS + DBS on update service

Job description

Interim Middle Leader, Specialist School, South London

We are working with a specialist school in South London to appoint an Interim Middle Leader as soon as possible. The school supports autistic pupils with severe learning difficulties, including pupils who present with challenging behaviour. The post sits just above teacher level and forms part of the wider leadership team.

This is a live vacancy, so the school is interviewing at short notice and can move quickly for the right person.

About the role

You will lead within your phase as part of the wider leadership team, combining a substantial classroom commitment with dedicated leadership time. The current split is around 3.5 to 4 days teaching and 1 to 1.5 days non-teaching leadership time. The school is actively working to reduce classroom time for leaders at this level, so the balance may move further toward leadership during the contract.

The pupil group is highly complex. Teaching is broad and core-skills focused, with the national curriculum heavily differentiated.

What we are looking for

• A strong classroom practitioner with a specialist background in autism, SLD or SEMH provision


• Confidence and credibility with challenging behaviour


• Experience at senior teacher or head of department level, or a very experienced middle leader


• Experience of the Equals curriculum or a similar semi-formal framework is a real advantage but not essential


• No subject specialism required. The need is broad, core-skills teaching for highly complex learners


• Someone who is happy in a teaching-led role with leadership responsibility built around it


• QTS and an enhanced DBS on the update service, or willingness to obtain one

What is on offer

• A contract through to Christmas in the first instance, with scope to discuss what happens beyond that


• A genuine leadership role rather than cover, with protected time to lead your phase


• An experienced senior team and a school that knows exactly what it needs