The King's School, Gloucester
Gloucestershire
Salary:
The salary offered is competitive and will be commensurate with the successful candidate's qualifications and experience.
Job type:
Full Time, Permanent
Start date:
01 January 2026
Apply by:
23 September 2025
Job overview
Bursar
Required January 2026 or earlier. For full details and appointment terms, please refer to the Applicant Information Pack available below.
The Bursar Role
The Headmaster and Governors of The King's School seek to appoint an outstanding Bursar to join the Senior Leadership Team at a pivotal moment in the School's long and distinguished history. This is an exceptional opportunity for a highly motivated, financially astute, and strategically minded individual to play a defining role in shaping the next chapter of King's development.
The Bursar provides the essential complement to the Headmaster's leadership, ensuring the School thrives both academically and operationally. As such, the role is integral to the School's continued success and future sustainability. The Bursar works in close partnership with the Headmaster and Governing Body, ensuring the School not only operates efficiently and effectively as a modern educational enterprise, but also sustains the highest standards of teaching, learning, and pastoral care.
This is a wide-ranging and dynamic position, overseeing finance, estates, operations, HR, compliance, health and safety, and commercial activities. The Bursar will lead a diverse team of talented and dedicated professionals, ensuring excellence in service delivery while building resilience for the future. They will also play a key role in major capital projects, long-term strategic planning, and the development of new opportunities to support the School's mission and enhance its facilities.
The role demands more than technical expertise. It requires resilience, versatility, and the ability to balance strategic foresight with day-to-day agility. Each day will present fresh challenges and opportunities, requiring calm leadership, sound judgement, and an ability to inspire confidence across the School community.
The successful candidate will be a proven senior leader with strong commercial and financial acumen, exceptional interpersonal skills, and the ability to lead complex projects with clarity and impact. An accounting qualification is not essential, but the ability to confidently interpret, manage, and communicate financial information is vital. Candidates may come from education, the independent or maintained sectors, or from the wider commercial, charitable, or public spheres. Above all, they will identify with the ethos and values of King's as a Cathedral School, along with the ambition and vision to help ensure the School continues to thrive for generations to come.
Key Responsibilities
As a central figure of the School's Senior Leadership Team, the Bursar undertakes a broad range of duties relating to Strategy, Leadership and Management, Financial Management, Estates Management, Operations, Human Resources and Commercial Activities. For full details, please refer to the Candidate Information Pack.
Person Specification
Financial fluency and operational oversight are essential, but true effectiveness lies in strategic thinking, sound judgement, and the ability to influence and lead across education, governance, and operations. Resilience, emotional intelligence, and adaptability are vital in a role that is both demanding and politically sensitive. The Bursar must be visible and engaged in the daily life of the School, fostering strong relationships across staff, pupils, parents, and the wider community. Above all, the Bursar must balance technical competence with the capacity to apply nuance, navigate complexity, and act as the critical link between the School's strategy, culture, and daily operations.
Qualifications and Experience:
* Educated to degree level (or equivalent);
* A professional qualification in finance, business, or accounting (desirable but not essential);
* A proven track record of senior leadership, ideally within a comparable organisational structure;
* Demonstrable experience of managing complex budgets and financial frameworks;
* Experience of working within regulatory and compliance frameworks;
* Proven ability to lead and develop successful multi-disciplinary teams.
Skills and Knowledge:
* Strong strategic capability with experience of guiding organisational change;
* Robust financial and commercial acumen, with the ability to assess, present, and manage risk;
* Sound knowledge of the disciplines within the postholder's remit (finance, estates, HR, operations, and commercial activities);
* Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence, resolve conflict, and build effective relationships across all areas of the School;
* A clear understanding of safeguarding and child protection responsibilities, with a strong commitment to best practice;
* A visible and engaged leader who contributes actively to the Senior Leadership Team while also working independently when required;
* Strong organisational skills, with attention to detail, adherence to deadlines, and awareness of the legal and regulatory frameworks impacting schools;
* Dedicated, empathetic, and resilient, with a good sense of humour;
* Alignment with the School's ethos and sensitivity to the unique context of running an independent school;
* A personal commitment to promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion.
Applications
Candidates should apply through TES, or by submitting a completed school Application Form and covering letter, (addressed to The Headmaster), to A CV is not required.
Closing date for applications is Tuesday 23rd September at 12:00 noon, with initial online interviews commencing on Thursday 25th September. Interviews at School for selected candidates will follow in due course: these will be in two stages and will conclude by Wednesday 8th October.
For further information or to arrange a visit to the School, please contact Mr Harry Fuller on, or via email to
Other document
3.09MB
School prospectus
1.91MB
Brochure
2.19MB
Vision
1.92MB
Applicant info pack
3.09MB
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About The King's School, Gloucester
The King's School, Gloucester
Pitt Street, Gloucester
Gloucestershire
GL1 2BG
United Kingdom
The King's School, Gloucester has a rich academic tradition as one of the seven famous Cathedral Schools established by Henry VIII in 1541. Now, it is a successful co-educational independent day school with around 750 pupils, aged three to eighteen, offering academic excellence, a celebrated range of extra-curricular activities and outstanding pastoral care.
King's is held in very high esteem amongst the local and wider community, winning Gloucestershire Independent School of the Year in 2020 and 2021, and being Highly Commended in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Following the 2022 ISI Inspection, King's was proud to be declared 'excellent in all areas'.
With small classes and inspiring teachers, The King's School offers a vibrant culture of endeavour and scholarship in the historic setting of Gloucester Cathedral. As a result, the school has a special sense of identity which encourages a moral framework and a powerful feeling of community.
The King's School aims to stimulate all pupils to the greatest possible academic, creative and extra-curricular achievement by encouraging the exploration of a wide range of cultural, intellectual and sporting activities. We offer a unique 'Keystones' approach which identifies and develops individual talents and personal qualities.
Aims and Aspirations
The life of the School at all levels is underpinned by our long term aims and aspirations, which represent the key principles on which King's is based.
* The King's School is a co-educational Independent School offering a distinctive education that is firmly based on Christian principles. We welcome into our community boys and girls of all religious faiths and cultures to promote the qualities of tolerance, understanding, compassion and commitment and to encourage young people to think of others, both within and beyond the community of which they are members.
* King's is by choice a medium-sized school with small classes from age 3 to 18, divided into two schools, Junior (ages 3 – 11) and Senior (ages 11 – 18). Since our Foundation in 1541 as a Cathedral School, we have educated the Choristers of Gloucester Cathedral; a role which is central to our ethos.
* To the best of our ability and resources, the School aims to educate young people from a variety of backgrounds, enhancing this capability by the further development of scholarships and bursaries.
* Through the expertise and dedication of our staff, through our facilities, close relationships with the Cathedral, excellent pastoral care and general ethos, we seek to stimulate all pupils to the greatest possible academic, creative and extra-curricular achievement by encouraging the exploration of a wide range of cultural, intellectual and sporting activities.
* Pupils are encouraged to think for themselves and to appreciate the importance of self-discipline. All pupils are treated as individuals, though at the same time they are encouraged to contribute to group work, teamwork and the community as a whole.
* The School is committed to a broad, balanced and well-knit curriculum which is relevant to the needs of its pupils. The curriculum offers scope for individual specialisation where appropriate and is constantly reviewed in the light of developments within the School, nationally and internationally. Innovation is encouraged.
* Whether pupils are of high or average academic ability, the School aims to enable them to develop fully as individuals, to prepare them for responsible adult life and to encourage qualities of initiative and leadership.
* Celebrating achievement is seen as a valued part of the School's success. Pupils' performances in academic life, sport, activities and the performing arts are all recognised in assemblies, in newsletters, on Speech Day, at Junior School Prizegiving and in many other ways.
Working at King's
King's places great importance on staff wellbeing and offers a number of benefits to support this, including:
* A peer-run staff wellbeing programme that operates year-round
* An on-site doctor available to staff for short consultations
* A staff "wellbeing day" - an additional day off that can even be taken during term time
As a School, it is our collective aim to develop all staff into reflective practitioners who are committed to the ethos and aspirations of the school, and to empower staff as they work towards their own objectives.
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