Deputy Headteacher for Specialist SLD and PMLD School
Job Ref No. ECC0-19L
Position Type: Deputy Headteacher
Pay Range: Leadership pay scale - Range L14 - L18
Position Start Date: 04/01/2027
Contract Type: Full-time
Contract Term: Permanent
Application Close: 22/06/2026 Midnight
Date of Interviews: 3rd July 2026
We are building a new specialist school for Essex! Importantly within that, we are now starting to build the incredible team who will shape the vision and culture for this much‑needed provision for learners with complex, severe, and profound and multiple learning difficulties.
We are looking for a passionate leader who will play a pivotal role in the creation and ongoing success of The Wolsey Park School. Success will be grounded in our shared values of dignity, positivity, collaboration and aspiration, with families at the heart of decision‑making. If this is a mission that excites and inspires you, with the understanding that underpinning this will be a myriad of detailed, explicit planning and implementation for exceptional teaching and learning, then please read on.
The successful candidate will work collaboratively alongside the Headteacher to build and develop our school: our vision and ethos, our team, and our specialist curriculum. They will play a central role in ensuring learners thrive, and parents are valued, contributing to both the strategic and operational leadership of the school.
On completion, The Wolsey Park School will be a split site, with primary‑age learners located at Wolsey Park Rayleigh, and KS3 and 4 at Wolsey Park Woodham (in South Woodham Ferrers). By 2028, there will be two deputy‑head teachers. Due to the split‑site, for the majority of the week, each Deputy will lead on day‑to‑day management, staffing and parent support, holding key responsibility and front‑facing leadership for one of our two sites. Both deputies will hold leadership responsibilities over school‑wide strategy, details of which to be agreed on appointment according to skill set. We will be opening Wolsey Park Rayleigh, our primary provision, first, however candidates interested in leading either provision are encouraged to apply at this time.
This post begins one term before the school opens, with the successful candidate working alongside the headteacher on recruitment, admissions, curriculum, and assessment, alongside wider practical preparations.
If you are an outstanding teacher and leader, with a detailed knowledge and understanding of curriculum and assessment for learners with SLD and/or PMLD, and you have the desire to build an amazing culture and the wider team to meet those same high standards of teaching and learning, then we need you! Although this role will have only light teaching responsibilities, we want someone who wants to teach, loves to interact with exceptional children and young people, and is passionate about improving long‑term outcomes alongside the day‑to‑day experience for all our learners.
All learners in our care deserve the very best from our schools, and the successful candidate will share a deep commitment to our mission, aims, and values, which should be clearly demonstrated at both the application and interview stages.
Leigh Christensen
c/o The King John School
Shipwrights Drive, Benfleet
Essex, SS7 1RQ
Telephone: 01702 558 284
Email: recruitment@zmat.co.uk
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