Rumworth School
Assistant Headteacher
Required for September 2026
Salary Range: L16 to L20 (£75,049 to £82,654)
Full‑time and permanent
We are seeking to recruit an exceptional & innovative experienced senior leader to join us in this newly created role to assist us in the effective running of one of the largest secondary special schools in the country. Rumworth School is a highly regarded Local Education Authority maintained special school in Bolton with an excellent reputation for providing an outstanding provision for all students. Visitors to our school always comment on the “lovely feeling and buzz” and the calm & purposeful learning environment. We currently cater for a range of learning difficulties and additional needs for around 365 students, with a planned expansion to offer 400 places by September 2026. Our students are aged 11-19 and they all have an EHCP because they have a range of SEND which may include: Moderate and Severe Learning Difficulties, Complex Needs, Neurodiversity, Hearing and Visual Impairment, Physical Disability and Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs. What our students most definitely do all have is a wonderful sense of fun, a love of learning, a high regard for each other and the adults who work with them, and they can’t wait to meet you!
You will already have senior leadership experience, and it is likely that you are currently working as an Assistant Headteacher or a Deputy Headteacher in another setting that might be mainstream or special, and secondary or primary. Together with your team of Pastoral Lead Teachers and Family Liaison Officers, you will have overall day to day pastoral and behavioural responsibility for students aged 11-16 in around 30 form classes that we will have across KS3 & KS4 in September 2026. You will also play a key role in working collaboratively with our extended middle leadership team, teachers, instructors and teaching assistants within our curriculum Faculty structure to ensure that the pastoral curriculum offer and the enrichment opportunities that we offer continue to be engaging, appropriate and suitably challenging for our SEND students who have a wide range of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Ideally, you will have experience and expertise in developing pastoral initiatives, together with relevant training in positive behavioural management and physical intervention e.g. Team Teach.
Our ethos is “Start with the young person” therefore you will be a champion for education as the vehicle to improve the life chances and outcomes for our students. Our vision is “You can do it, we will help” – in order to meet the needs of our students, we do have small teaching group sizes and high adult to student ratios. You will embody our philosophy of supporting young people to be more “Confident, Resilient and Independent” through our rich offer of wider life experiences and activities.
Year 7 operates as a “Foundation Year” where students have a more class-based transition from their primary school with the Year 7 team delivering the majority of learning. Year 7 students also access specialist rooms including our dedicated Science laboratories, and they are taught by specialist subject teachers for lessons such as Science, Design Technology, Forest School, Art, Music, PE and ICT.
Students in Years 8 to 11 then follow a differentiated curriculum model, according to their needs:
- Some follow a more formal curriculum with a modified mainstream approach
- Some have less transition and spend more time on the consolidation of basic skills in a based class
All students access appropriate external accreditation at the end of KS4 and during KS5, and our full accreditation offer includes GCSEs, ASDAN, BTEC, Functional Skills and Entry Level Certification, dependent upon subject and student ability. In KS5, students continue to follow the most suitable curriculum for their ability. We offer a Year 14 Transition where some students continue on to the “Pathway to Employment” route, and those with SLD and complex needs would usually follow a “Pathway to Independence” route.
We are always keen to recruit staff of the highest calibre, and what matters most to us is that you are the “right fit” for our students and our staff. We welcome applications from suitably experienced leaders with relevant mainstream experience, as well as those with SEND experience.
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