Vice Principal - Inclusion, SEND and Support

Tameside College; Ashton-under-Lyne; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employer pension contribution

33 days holiday + 5 efficiency days

Costa Coffee on site

Free on-site gym

Restaurant at Tameside One

Retail discounts

Cycle to work

Health care plan

Savings club

Job summary

Tameside College in Ashton-Under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, is seeking a Vice Principal: Inclusion, SEND and Support to join our Senior Leadership Team. You will drive inclusive practice, lead SEND reform and ensure robust student support, curriculum alignment and progression pathways to enable learners to access employment and further study.

The role requires senior leadership experience in FE/HE and a strong track record in inclusion, safeguarding and partnership development.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated passion for inclusion and reducing inequality.
• Experience leading FE/HE, SEND, curriculum and student support initiatives.
• Enthusiastic, resilient and highly motivated senior leader with strong change management skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead SEND strategy and NEET reduction efforts across the college.
• Provide leadership to SLT and cross-team collaboration with external partners.
• Ensure high-quality teaching, learning and student support aligned to policies.

Skills

Strategic leadership

SEND expertise

Stakeholder engagement

OFSTED inspector experience

Education

Masters degree (desirable)

Job description

We’re looking for a Vice Principal: Inclusion, SEND and Support to join us on our journey to excellence! It is an exciting time to join #TeamTameside. You will be a valued member of our Senior Leadership Team and will play a key role in our mission to transform lives and be the skills engine for our Tameside community. Our 2025-2030 strategic plan outlines the importance we place on recruiting, valuing and retaining good people and our absolute commitment to being an inclusive College, working hard to remove barriers to education particularly social and educational disadvantage.

You will have access to the relevant pension scheme with a generous employer contribution. You’ll enjoy some really great benefit’s too, for example, a great holiday allowance of 33 days which doesn’t include bank holidays and up to 5 efficiency days at Christmas, Costa Coffee on site, Free on site Gym at Beaufort Road, onsite bakery products at Tameside One, dining experiences at our Restaurant at Tameside One, retail discounts, a cycle to work scheme, a cash health care plan via simply health and a savings club via the Manchester Credit Union.

What you’ll need

• You’ll need to be enthusiastic, resilient and are a highly motivated individual with relevant Senior Leadership experience. You will be appropriately qualified and it would also be desirable that you have a Masters qualification and experience as an Ofsted inspector. You’ll need significant experience of working with FE and HE, with relevant SEND, curriculum and student support experience.

Here’s the standard bit

• The successful candidate will be passionate about inclusion and tackling social and educational disadvantage. They will fully understand the intrinsic links between high quality teaching, learning and support and preparing our students with the skills needed to progress to further learning and ultimately into employment. They will possess an excellent understanding of how best to promote inclusivity through continuous improvement in our SEND strategy, teaching and learning, curriculum design (particularly foundation and literacy & numeracy), progression pathways, attendance strategies, behaviour management strategies and student support. They will develop thoughtful and innovative strategies to remove barriers to learning. They must have a thorough understanding of related national and local policy, curriculum reform and developments, related quality frameworks and funding methodologies. They will drive the College’s approach to SEND reform and NEET reduction. They will have the ability to provide strong leadership to a number of teams and strong systems leadership working with colleagues both across the College and with external partners to forward the College’s strategic objectives.

The successful candidate will be an active and effective member of the College’s SLT and make a positive contribution to the leadership of the College. They will provide leadership, direction, support and co-ordination of services within their remit.

About us

Tameside College in Ashton-Under-Lyne Greater Manchester is a diverse and vibrant further education college that offers a wide range of courses from entry level to A level and advanced level vocational study programmes, Apprenticeships and adult courses up to degree Level. We aim to give all our students an exceptional experience. We believe in excellence and back that up with high expectations, a superb working environment (as part of the Vision Tameside £100 million+ accommodation strategy) and outstanding teaching. We also believe that attending college is about more than achieving a qualification, important though that is. This is why we aim to give learners every opportunity to develop their full potential in a supportive and friendly environment.

Tameside College is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all learners and expects all staff to share this commitment. Employment at Tameside College is subject to an Enhanced DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service) Check via the Disclosure and Barring Service and any post in regulated activity will also be subject to an additional barred list check. Tameside College will meet the costs associated with this.

Please note Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance requires us to carry out an online search as part of our due diligence on shortlisted candidates. This is to enables us to identify any incidents or issues which we might want to explore at interview with you. Once shortlisting has taken place, this search will be carried out for all candidates who are invited to attend an interview.

Subject to the volume of applications we may decide to close the vacancy earlier than advertised.

Come join us on our journey to outstanding!

Recruitment Agencies

We are not utilising the service of recruitment agencies for this vacancy and will accept direct applications only. Unsolicited CV’s will be treated as a gift. We will not be subject to or liable under your terms and conditions for agency fees.