Primary Juniors Year Leader

The Alice Smith School (Primary); Malaysia; On-site; MYR 100,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The Alice Smith School (Primary) in Malaysia is seeking a Primary Juniors Year Leader to provide professional leadership and management of a year group. The role focuses on delivering high-quality teaching, effective pastoral care and efficient year-group operations within our vibrant international community.

You will lead a high-performing team, build strong parent partnerships, manage the year group budget and ensure safeguarding is central to all practice.

Qualifications

• Leadership and management of a year group within primary school.
• Ability to lead teaching, pastoral care and year group systems.
• Experience in influencing improvements and safeguarding adherence.

Responsibilities

• Lead, manage and develop a year group to ensure high teaching standards and pastoral care.
• Coordinate year group events, performances and parent communications.
• Line manage teachers and teaching assistants within the year group.
• Monitor attainment, progress and assessment within the year group.
• Develop curriculum planning aligned with school policy and PLT guidance.
• Ensure budget management for the year group and report variances.
• Maintain safeguarding and child protection as a central priority.

Skills

Leadership

Team building

Decision making

Delegation

Communication

Self management

Budget management

Performance management

Job description

In 1946, with no schools available for expat children in post-war Malaya, Alice Fairfield-Smith began teaching two children from a spare bedroom in Kuala Lumpur. By Christmas, her class had grown to ten, the beginning of Alice Smith School, one of the pioneers of British overseas schooling and now the oldest International School in Malaysia.

“I was amazed and delighted that it was a happy place, I wanted it to be so and was proud of its reputation for excellence. I believe most firmly that to do your best you must enjoy what you are doing, whether it is sport, learning or work, & enter into what you are doing with enthusiasm.”

Eighty years on, that same spirit continues to shape Alice Smith School and our purpose: to spark courageous exploration to inspire a better world.

To build a better world together.

Our purpose is embedded through our community promise and strategic pillars

Our Community Promise

Our Community Promise is a clear set of statements that reflect our shared values in action. It outlines the specific behaviours we expect from all members of our community: parents, carers, staff, and students alike. By embracing these behaviours, we create a positive atmosphere that supports learning, wellbeing, and mutual respect. Please click HERE for more information.

Our People

We are a diverse collective of experts and curious minds, working together to push the boundaries of education to lead learning for an ever-changing world.

Our Students

We encourage students to explore different paths with courage and curiosity, in an environment that empowers them to make an impact as their best self.

Our World

We are a supportive, connected community that innovates, explores and learns together.

Job Description

Job Title : Primary Juniors Year Leader

Our Purpose at The Alice Smith School

In 1946, with no schools available for expat children in post‑war Malaya, Alice Fairfield‑Smith began teaching two children from a spare bedroom in Kuala Lumpur. By Christmas, her class had grown to ten, the beginning of Alice Smith School, one of the pioneers of British overseas schooling and now the oldest International School in Malaysia.

“I was amazed and delighted that it was a happy place, I wanted it to be so and was proud of its reputation for excellence. I believe most firmly that to do your best you must enjoy what you are doing, whether it is sport, learning or work, & enter into what you are doing with enthusiasm.”

Eighty years on, that same spirit continues to shape Alice Smith School and our purpose: to spark courageous exploration to inspire a better world.

To build a better world together.

Our purpose is embedded through our community promise and strategic pillars

Our Community Promise

Our Community Promise is a clear set of statements that reflect our shared values in action. It outlines the specific behaviours we expect from all members of our community: parents, carers, staff, and students alike. By embracing these behaviours, we create a positive atmosphere that supports learning, wellbeing, and mutual respect. Please click HERE for more information.

Our People

We are a diverse collective of experts and curious minds, working together to push the boundaries of education to lead learning for an ever-changing world.

Our Students

We encourage students to explore different paths with courage and curiosity, in an environment that empowers them to make an impact as their best self.

Our World

We are a supportive, connected community that innovates, explores and learns together.

Job Purpose

To provide professional leadership and management of a year group, ensuring it is run in a smooth, effective and efficient manner, resulting in a high-quality of teaching, learning and pastoral experience for students.

Expectations:

In addition, to be an effective leader, teacher and manager, the Year Leader is expected to have, or demonstrate the capacity to develop skills and attributes in the following key areas deemed necessary for the position:

• Leadership
• Team building
• Decision making
• Delegation and empowerment
• Communication
• Self management
• Budget management
• Performance management

As a leading professional in education, the Year Leader should be able to demonstrate that they are an effective leader, teacher and manager who challenges and supports all staff and students to do their best through:

• Inspiring trust and confidence.
• Building a high-performing team
• Creating a psychologically safe environment where students and staff can flourish
• Engaging and motivating students
• Analytical thinking
• Positive action to improve the quality of students’ learning
• Adhere to the school's policies and procedures.

All staff are responsible for ensuring that safeguarding is central to everything we do, adopting a whole-school approach. Please refer to the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy for more information.

Line management:

The Year Leader is responsible to the PLT. Year Leader’s will meet frequently with their Vice Principal (VP) phase leader to discuss their year group. The Year Leader is a decision maker at year group level in line with the vision, aims and values of the school under the direction of the Primary Leadership Team (PLT.) They:

• Implement and monitor whole school and year group systems and policies and communicates these within their year group
• Takes overall responsibility for coordinating year group events e.g performances, trips, parent evenings, assemblies etc
• Advises PLT of any priorities for development within the year group.
• Attends regular Leadership meetings.
• Directly leads and manages the teachers within the year group to ensure that pastoral care, learning and teaching and achievement and progression are of the highest quality.

Responsibilities:

WHOLE SCHOOL

• Ensure that the practice in and across the year group is representative and in line with school policies, to ensure consistency of provision across the school.
• Communicate the whole school message, as communicated to them, through liaison with the PLT in all matters relating to whole school issues.

LEARNING AND TEACHING

• Leads, develops and enhances the teaching practice of those in their year group to fulfill the accountability requirements of Evidence of Impact model. This includes reflecting on and reporting on the quality of teaching and learning within the year group to the phase VP.
• Monitoring and moderating of student work in line with relevant teaching and learning and assessment policies, including posts in online journals from both year team members and specialists. To work with PLT, as necessary, to put in place systems and procedures to enhance learning, teaching and progress as a result of monitoring and moderating
• Maintaining high standards of teaching, learning and achievement through the excellence of her/his own teaching (see annex: Teacher: Job Description).
• Play a key part in raising standards of teaching and learning through modeling the excellence of her/his own teaching and by supporting the professional development of her/his colleagues.
• To ensure curriculum planning is in line with direction and guidance given by PLT.
• Monitor classroom displays and learning environments.

MANAGEMENT OF STUDENTS’ ATTAINMENT AND PROGRESS

• Carry out monitoring systems for assessing and improving students’ attainment and progress.
• Reporting on student attainment and progress of the year group to the VP.
• Carry out monitoring systems for the provision of effective pastoral care and guidance and report to the VP.
• Coordinate, monitor and discuss assessment and target setting within the year group.
• Drive improvement interventions according to the analysis of the attainment and achievement of the pupils in the year group.

MANAGEMENT OF STAFF (Including TAs & support staff)

• Ensure that standards of pastoral care and guidance are of a high standard and in line with school policy.
• Lead, motivate and manage the year team, providing insight and advice, where necessary, to enable staff to become more effective in their pastoral work with the children and young people in their care.
• Create a climate of high quality professional dialogue, with constant striving for improvement and sharing of best practice between teachers, to enrich and enhance the learning process.
• To have an overview, and manage the use of teaching assistants (including the assessment of their development needs) and parent support within the year group.
• To hold weekly year group meetings that are well structured, including an agenda. Minutes are to be detailed and accessible at all times.
• To delegate responsibilities within the year group, including line management of TAs.
• To advise and support members of the year team and play a major role in the induction and orientation of new staff.

MANAGEMENT OF CURRICULUM

• Provide for all students an enriched, challenging and continually improving curriculum to ensure breadth, balance and relevance, whatever the students’ abilities, aptitudes and needs that is in line with school policy
• Ensure that the curriculum offered fully reflects, embodies and contributes to the special strengths and specialisms of the Alice Smith School.
• Assist PLT to evaluate and revise the strategic development of the curriculum within the context of the school as a whole

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

• Manage the year group’s annual budget.
• To ensure budget deadlines are met, keep accurate records and monitor expenditure within the year group.

REPRESENTATION OF THE SCHOOL WITHIN THE COMMUNITY

• Establish, encourage and maintain strong curriculum links with local, regional and international organizations (e.g. Universities, WWF, Malaysia Nature Society, visiting authors and artists etc).
• Liaise with parents on year group developments.
• Ensure that parents are made to feel welcome in the school at appropriate times.
• Leads on year group curriculum evenings and parent workshops as appropriate

The duties and responsibilities of this post may vary from time to time according to the changing demands of the school. The performance of the Year Leader in these key responsibility areas is formatively reviewed over the year as part of the school’s PRD process.

Review:

The duties and responsibilities of this post may vary from time to time according to the changing demands of the school.

This job description will be reviewed annually.

All responsibility points are subject to review at the point of every contract renewal.

This job description should be adhered to in addition to the WS Teacher JD.

The Year Leader will normally be required to teach up to 65% of the week.

Safe Recruitment Practices:

As a school with a diverse collective of experts, we uphold recruitment protocols that adhere to the highest possible international standards. We conduct thorough pre-employment checks on candidate references and verify qualifications. If you require further information regarding the School's 'Pre-Appointment Checks,' please liaise with our People and Culture representative, as the process may vary for individuals of different nationalities.

We prioritize the careful scrutiny of checks as they are essential in ensuring a safe and secure environment for our students. By maintaining stringent recruitment practices, we aim to provide a nurturing and protected learning environment for all our students.

The duties and responsibilities of this post may vary from time to time according to the changing demands of the school. This job description may be reviewed at the reasonable discretion of the Head of School and school leadership in the light of those changing requirements and in consultation with the post holder.