Vice Principal

Special Vice-Principal - Person Specification
EssentialDesirable QualificationsThe criteria that will be applied at shortlisting is as follows:
Applicants must at the closing date for applications:

• Hold a teaching qualification which meets the requirements for recognition to teach in grant-aided schools in Northern Ireland.

Preference may be given to those applicants who: 4) Have successfully completed an additional post graduate (or equivalent or higher) qualification in Education.
Experience
The criteria that will be applied at shortlisting is as follows (please note that experience must be accrued by the closing date for receipt of completed applications):

• Have a minimum of 8 years teaching experience in a paid capacity in primary/post primary education and/or equivalent experience in an affiliated educational body, within the last 12 years, of which at least 5 years should have involved either teaching or management of a wide range of children and young people with special educational needs in a special school.
• Currently hold or have held for a minimum of 3 years AND within the last 5 years:
• A post with experience of strategic leadership or co-ordination of a whole school area at a minimum level of SMT/SLT to include monitoring and evaluation resulting in measurable school improvement; and/or
• A post of Principal or Vice-Principal; and/or
• A post with leadership and management experience within an affiliated body.

Promoted posts may be in an acting capacity.

• Evidence of having successfully led and managed a key aspect of school improvement;
• Evidence of involvement in strategic planning.

Preference may be given to those applicants who: 1) Can demonstrate evidence of involvement in staff development within school/s; 2) Have experience of financial and/or budgetary management within school/s. 3) Can demonstrate evidence of leading Safeguarding as either Designated Teacher or Deputy Designated Teacher.
Essential
Knowledge
The successful candidate must demonstrate extensive knowledge of:

• The Northern Ireland Curriculum in the context of a special school setting and current policies and procedures;
• Current educational developments and the ability to evaluate and respond to new educational challenges and manage change effectively;
• Effective classroom pedagogy and how to ensure high standards of teaching, learning and achievement throughout the school;
• Effective data management;
• Effective organisational management including the appropriate deployment of resources;
• Effective financial management;
• Sound financial governance.

Skills
The successful candidate must demonstrate highly developed skills in order to:

• Lead, motivate, manage, challenge and enthuse others;
• Create an ethos and articulate vision for the future of the school;
• Develop good relationships at all levels and promote a collaborative and team approach among staff, pupils, parents and governors;
• Lead strategically and develop self and others in order to achieve outcomes;
• Promote, achieve, monitor and evaluate high standards of teaching, learning and achievement throughout the school;
• Develop effective partnerships between the school and the local community;
• Communicate effectively orally and in writing;
• Organise and prioritise workload effectively;
• Deal with staffing matters in accordance with EA policies and procedures;
• Manage time effectively.

Personal Qualities
The Successful Candidate Must Demonstrate

• Vision;
• A sound value system;
• Enthusiasm and motivation;
• Assertiveness and confidence;
• A caring child centred approach;
• Integrity;
• Advocacy and empathy;
• Discretion;
• An ability to cope under pressure;
• Tact and diplomacy;
• Decisiveness;
• Adaptability.

The Board of Governors reserves the right to enhance the essential criteria if necessary in order to facilitate a manageable shortlist.
Applicants must be registered with the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI) upon taking up employment.
Please note the onus is on candidates to provide sufficient detailed information on their application forms in order to demonstrate how they meet each of the criteria. Failure to do so may result in a candidate not being shortlisted since selection panels cannot make assumptions in the absence of essential information.
DISCLOSURE OF CRIMINAL BACKGROUND
The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (Northern Ireland) Order 2007 defines working directly with children or young people or in specified places as 'regulated activity'.
In the event that you are recommended for appointed to a post that involves 'regulated activity', the Education Authority will be required to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure of Criminal Background. Please note that you WILL be expected to meet the cost of an Enhanced Disclosure Certificate. Details of how to make payment will be sent to you at the pre-employment stage.
Further information can be accessed at NI Direct or the Department of Justice.
The Education Authority is an Equal Opportunities Employer
PROFESSIONAL DUTIES OF A VICE-PRINCIPAL
Teachers' Terms and Conditions of Employment Regulations (NI) 1987
Schedule 2
Regulation 4
TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT OF VICE-PRINCIPALS
Duties
A person appointed Vice Principal in a school, in addition to carrying out the professional duties of a teacher, shall play a major role under the overall direction of the principal in:

• formulating the aims and objectives of the school;
• establishing the polices through which they will be achieved;
• managing staff and resources to that end
• monitoring progress towards their achievement;
• undertaking any professional duties of the principal delegated to him/her by the principal
• undertaking to the extent required by the principal or the relevant body or employing authority the professional duties of the principal in the event of his/her absence from the school; and
• entitlement to a break of at least 30 minutes between the hours of 12 noon and 2pm.

PROFESSIONAL DUTIES OF A TEACHER
Schedule 3
Regulation 5
TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT OF A TEACHER
Exercise Of General Professional Duties
1 A teacher who is not a Principal shall carry out the professional duties of a teacher as circumstances may require -

• If he/she is employed as a teacher in a school, under the reasonable direction of the Principal of that school;
• If he/she is employed by the Board on terms under which he/she is not

assigned to any one school, under the reasonable direction of that board and of the Principal of any school in which he/she may for the time being be required to work as a teacher.
Exercise of particular duties
2 (a) A teacher employed as a teacher (other than a Principal) in a school shall perform in accordance with any directions which may reasonably be given to him/her by the Principal from time to time, such particular duties as may reasonably be assigned to him/her.
Job Description - Teaching Posts
Main duties and Responsibilities

• Planning

1.1 Planning and preparing courses and lessons;
1.2 Teaching, according to their educational needs, the pupils assigned to him/her, including the setting and marking of work to be carried out by the pupils in school and elsewhere;
1.3 Assessing, recording and reporting on the development, progress and attainment of pupils.

• General

2.1 Promoting the general progress and well-being of individual pupils and of any class or group of pupils assigned to him/her;
2.2 Providing advice and guidance to pupils on educational and social matters and on their further education and future careers including information about sources of more expert advice on specific questions, making relevant records and reports;
2.3 Making records of and reports on the personal and social needs of pupils except in instances where to do so might be regarded as compromising a teacher's own position;
2.4 Communicating and consulting with the parents of pupils;
2.5 Communicating and co-operating with such persons or bodies outside the school as may be approved by the employing authority and the Board of Governors;
2.6 Participating in meetings arranged for any of the purposes described above.

• Assessment/Reporting

Providing or contributing to oral and written assessments, reports and references relating to individual pupils and groups of pupils except in instances where to do so might be regarded as compromising a teacher's own position.

• Staff Development/Professional Development

4.1 Participating, if required, in any scheme of staff development and performance review;
4.2 a) Reviewing from time to time his/her methods of teaching and programmes of work;

• Participating in arrangements for his/her further training and professional development as a teacher.

4.3 Advising and co-operating with the Principal and other teachers (or any one or more of them) on the preparation and development of courses of study, teaching materials, teaching programmes, methods of teaching and assessment and pastoral arrangements.

• Discipline/Health and Safety

5 . click apply for full job details