Deputy Headteacher (Ethos & Inclusion)

Contract type: Permanent, 1.0 FTE

Salary: L18 - L22

Location: Worle Community School - An Academy, BS22 8XX

Are you ready to lead with purpose, compassion, and vision? Worle Community School is seeking an exceptional Deputy Headteacher to join our dynamic Senior Leadership Team and help shape the future of our students and community.

We are also currently recruiting for a Deputy Headteacher with a focus on ‘Quality of Education’ so this is a great opportunity to join and have valuable input in creating and shaping something new and exciting.

About the role

You will hold a pivotal leadership position within our Senior Leadership Team, working at the heart of our school's journey towards excellence. You will champion student wellbeing, safety, and inclusion to ensure every young person thrives in a nurturing and secure environment. You will lead our pastoral provision with strategic clarity and operational precision, driving high standards in behaviour, attendance, and engagement.

This will involve:

• Leading student support systems to ensure every child has access to life-changing opportunities.
• Overseeing behaviour, attendance, and engagement with robust, consistent systems.
• Driving inclusive practices and interventions that remove barriers to learning.
• Championing student voice and embedding a culture of aspiration, celebration, and reward.
• Collaborating with colleagues across the Trust to share expertise and drive improvement.
• Teaching to an exemplary standard and modelling best practice across the school.
• Leading strategic planning and school self-evaluation alongside the Headteacher and SLT.

About you

We are looking for a professionally credible and inspiring leader who combines strategic thinking with evidence informed practice to diagnose barriers and implement high impact solutions that drive school wide inclusion and excellence.

To be successful in this role, you will need:

• Significant leadership experience within a secondary school setting
• Passionate about inclusion, equity, and student welfare.
• Skilled in leading whole-school initiatives that drive measurable impact.
• Reflective, pragmatic, and relentlessly optimistic.
• Able to inspire staff, students, and stakeholders alike.
• Committed to collaborative leadership and continuous professional development.
• Knowledgeable in safeguarding legislation and pupil premium strategy.

About us

This is a really exciting time to join Worle Community School. For over 50 years, WCSA has been a cornerstone of our town, providing a high-quality education built on a foundation of inclusivity and community spirit. As a mixed, fully inclusive secondary school, we are dedicated to serving our families and helping our local area thrive. We are incredibly proud to be an academy that continues to grow from strength to strength.

We pride ourselves on our CPD support, both at school and Trust level. As a school, we invest in personalised coaching for all staff, with a focus on subject-specific pedagogy and teaching and learning. We also have a central Trust education team who support and deliver high quality training.

We offer you

• Teachers Pension Scheme: Secure your future with the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, one of the most generous and reliable public sector schemes in the UK. As a member, you will benefit from an exceptional 28.6% employer contribution. The TPS provides a guaranteed, inflation-proofed income for life, calculated based on your career earnings. With built in peace of mind, including a tax-free Death in Service lump sum, it ensures that your long-term financial well-being is as robust as your professional legacy.
• Enhanced Sick Pay: Generous enhanced sick pay scheme during illness or unexpected sickness related emergencies, so you can focus on what matters most- your recovery.
• Family Friendly: Enhanced leave packages to support your work-life balance.
• Great team dynamics: Become part of a highly collaborative professional community, working with inspiring senior leaders and colleagues and sharing ideas, resources, and best practice across our family of schools.
• Central partnership support: You will benefit from access to high-quality central services and specialist expertise, providing strategic support to enable you to focus on leading teaching, learning and school improvement.
• Continuous Service: Full recognition of prior service for benefits (Modification Order) which protects and enhances employment entitlements including sick pay entitlement, job security and protection of employment rights and access to family friendly leave.
• Exceptional CPD: Dedicated budget and time for your professional development.
• Diversity & Inclusion: A proactive commitment to creating a workspace where diversity is celebrated.
• Other benefits including access to an employee assistance programme available 24 hours a day 7 days a week to support your life outside the school gates.

The Priory Learning Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All roles across the trust have a varying level of responsibility for ensuring safeguarding practice, with some roles holding significant responsibility and involving working with children on a daily basis in regulated activity. Regardless of the level of responsibility and involvement in each role, we expect all staff, visiting professionals and volunteers to share this commitment.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974. Successful candidates will be required to provide a disclosure of any unspent convictions and cautions, as well as any spent convictions or cautions that are not ‘protected’ (i.e.filtered) under the Amendments to the Exceptions Order 1975 (2013 and 2020).

All appointments are subject to a comprehensive pre-employment checking process. This includes an Enhanced DBS check (including a Children’s Barred List check), satisfactory references, medical fitness, Right to Work in the UK, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching/management check. In line with KCSIE guidance, we will also conduct online searches on all shortlisted candidates.

Our full Recruitment and Selection policy is available on our website.

This role involves working with children on a daily basis and is therefore in regulated activity.

Closing Date: 22nd March 2026

Proposed Interview Dates: 31st March 2026 & 1st April 2026

Proposed Start Date: 1st September 2026

All paid positions which involve working regularly within academies are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. You must declare all convictions (including convictions with Absolute Discharge), cautions or bind-overs you may have, even if they would otherwise be regarded as ‘Spent’ under this Act and where applicable any disqualifications under the Childcare Act. The amendments to the Exceptions Order 1975 (2013) provide that certain spent convictions and cautions are ‘protected’ and are not subject to disclosure to employers, and cannot be taken into account. Guidance and criteria on the filtering of these cautions and convictions can be found on the Disclosure and Barring Service filtering guide.

Offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and Disclosure and Barring Service clearance.