DescriptionSupporting documentsEmployerLocation
Headteacher Virtual School
Scale point: Leadership Group Pay Range L18-L21 | Based across Kingston, Richmond, Windsor and Maidenhead
Salary from L18 82,816
Salary to L21 88,812
Hours: 36
Estimated Interview date/s: TBC
Closing Date: 05/06/2026
About the service
AfC Virtual School supports the education of all children with a social worker. This includes Children Looked After (CLA), Previously Looked After Children, children in Kinship Care, Children in Need, those on Child Protection Plans, and Care Leavers across Kingston, Richmond, and Windsor and Maidenhead. This role will report directly to the Deputy Director of Education.
About the role
The Virtual School Headteacher is a statutory and senior role within all local authorities. The role is to drive forward, at a strategic and operational level, the best possible educational and employment outcomes for children looked after and previously looked after, care leavers and children with a social worker.
In this role the post holder will:
1. provide visible and effective leadership to a diverse team of professionals within the service including line management, budget management, and resource allocation.
2. lead and strategically manage the team, including leadership of quality assurance, educational tracking and intervention, training and support;
3. lead and promote outstanding practice that supports children and young peopleʼs engagement in education, employment and training;
4. develop, sustain and embed productive relationships with senior leaders and professionals in Childrenʼs Social Care, Education Services, schools and other agencies;
5. establish and maintain robust performance management frameworks and reporting mechanisms, using data and feedback to drive service improvement and ensure compliance with all relevant safeguarding and quality standards.
6. shine a light on the disadvantages that children can experience, including raising awareness of the impact of trauma on learning and development and challenge the inequality that exists for children from some community groups and those with care experience.
The role will lead on developing, implementing, and embedding the strategic plan for the service and the operation action plan. The post will lead on identifying and securing opportunities for creative partnerships and funding that will improve the integrated support available to children, young peopleand families locally.
About you: our role specification
Qualifications
7. Educated to a degree level with qualified teacher status and Leadership experience
8. Evidence of continuing professional development.
Skills and experience
9. Extensive experience in leading a team, undertaking line management, performance management and change management and Virtual School Leadership experience
10. Experience of building strong partnerships, maintaining relationships and co-producing solutions to challenges across a diverse set of stakeholders, including children, young people and their families. Advocating the voices of those we are working with.
11. Proven ability to effectively use data, intelligence and evidence to create meaningful insight, to inform own decision making and to support the raising of attainment and standards in education.
12. Excellent organisational experience of supporting vulnerable children including Looked after Children in Education settings and working knowledge of OFSTED inspection frameworks
13. Knowledge of barriers to learning for our cohorts, underlining causes and strategies to address the impact.
14. Knowledge of statutory legislation (for example Childrenʼs Act) and national policy drivers that will affect childrenʼs services and your role
15. Excellent knowledge of assessment practice and ability to advise on the setting and review of suitable SMART targets.
16. Experience of addressing specific equality or diversity issues within your practice with colleagues/service users and taking action to solve them.
Personal attributes
17. A passion for Achieving for Childrenʼs vision, mission and values (trust, empower. respect) to support children and young people to live safe, happy, healthy and successful lives.
18. Displays a commitment to the protection and safeguarding of children and young
19. Able to use a range of digital hardware or software to support your work effectively i.e. microsoft or Google software.
20. A caring approach and inclination to handle difficult situations in a sensitive and confidential manner.
21. Strong organisational abilities including: time management, creative-thinking, problem-solving and multitasking.
22. Able to work flexibly and independently with limited management oversight.
23. Personal determination, drive, energy and ambition to achieve challenging objectives, celebrate success and deliver excellent outcomes for children using a strength based approach.
24. Commitment to resource-sharing and collaborative working within Achieving for Children and across organisational boundaries in the best interests of children and families.
25. Good communication and interpersonal skills that are open, honest, persuasive and pragmatic, including excellent negotiation and influencing skills.
The post holder will be expected to undertake other duties commensurate with the grade of the post, including deputising or working flexibly across the week to meet the business demands. This job profile is provided for guidance only.
About our benefits
We are focused on creating a positive supportive environment, where you will have access to a really wide range of resources, as well as a competitive salary and all the perks to enable hybrid working. In AfC you will also have access to:
26. 29 days annual leave, increasing to 33 days after 2 years and 35 days after 4 years with an additional day off in your birthday month (Or for term-time workers, your leave entitlement consists of the non-working periods in your contract)
27. Tailored induction sessions commencing on the date you start working for AfC
28. Local Government salary and pension scheme (LGPS or Teachers Pension)
29. Flexible working options - helping to keep a good work life balance
30. A comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
31. A range of staff benefits and discounts
32. An excellent learning and development offer to support your career pathway
Safeguarding Statement
Achieving for Children is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). Achieving for Children are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We particularly welcome applications from under represented groups including ethnicity, gender, transgender, age, disability, sexual orientation or religion. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)