Principal

Description
About ISP
The International Schools Partnership (ISP) is a growing group of
committed colleagues, in financially responsible schools around the world, all
of which aim to be the school of choice in their local area. Learning is at
the heart of everything we do for our students, colleagues, and parents. We
are committed to getting better, all the time.
ISP was founded by an experienced team of committed educationalists and
operators who have worked together over many years. Our growing group of
private schools located in the UK, the USA, Canada, Spain, Italy, India,
Switzerland Costa Rica, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Malaysia, Mexico,
Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru educate children and students from ‎2-‎18
years of age. We have now expanded to ‎56 schools that employ over ‎8,000
sta ff and deliver multiple curricula to over ‎50,000 students located
across the globe.
We believe that successful schools are the ones that put learning at the heart
of everything they do, always aiming to create rounded individuals that can
forge successful careers and lives, in a rapidly changing world. Our goal is
to enable our schools to be the leading school of choice in their local area.
At ISP we continue to engage with schools around the world that are interested
in becoming part of our global group of schools and look forward to welcoming
more students and staff to the group.
Role context
We are currently seeking to appoint a Principal for a Bilingual school in
Kuwait city. The successful candidate would be required to be onboarded by
September ‎2022. The Principal will have a demonstrable track record of
outstanding senior leadership in a school. It is preferred the candidate is
experienced in American independent schools and/ or IB schools in the GCC/
Middle East. They will be a visionary, strategic leader, and a committed team
player who demonstrates a collegiate and collaborative approach to working
with others. They will have excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to
develop and maintain strong and positive relationships with all of the school
's stakeholders.
Main responsibilities include:
‎1 Wellbeing and safety
* You are responsible for the safety and wellbeing for all students and adults in your school. This means all activities, functions and policies are monitored to ensure students and adults are kept safe, both physically and mentally, enabling them to learn without barriers.
* You model and foster an open and inclusive culture, where everyone looks out for one another and focuses on learning and getting better.
* You work in partnership with your leadership team and colleagues to learn from their feedback and you collaborate on action plans to improve the school.
* You make the school welcoming, safe, supportive and an inspiring space for everyone to grow and develop.
‎2 Learning and Embedding Quality
* You empower your teachers to focus on the quality of learning in your school, and work in partnership with them to ensure progress towards the ‎9 criteria in the ISP Learning Improvement Process.
* Where applicable, you use the process to support your school 's accreditation(s) and external reviews.
* You see the quality of learning across all ‎5 key pillars of the learning offering, as integral to the success of your school and its position as a school of choice within the local community.
* Every teachers' professional learning and development thrives under your stewardship of the school.
* You facilitate and engage in a professional and respectful dialogue with teachers, parents and the ISP community, about learning and teaching, so that you inspire a shared commitment to getting better.
* Your teachers feel confident to have open and honest conversations about the learning of their students, their own learning and how they can get better.
* You regularly gather, document and analyse evidence of learning from around your school and use this to inform your decision-making process. You work with your teachers to identify targets and action steps to improving learning.
* Parents/carers and students recognise and endorse the school for Amazing Learning.
‎3 Leadership and Development
* You lead your school with vision, empathy and integrity.
* You connect, collaborate and engage with colleagues throughout the school and the wider ISP organisation intentionally, and have a clear understanding of what is going on across all functions.
* You understand your own strengths and areas for development, knowing when to push ahead and when to seek out advice, support or mentorship. You recruit, develop and retain talent using appropriate policies.
* You identify who to bring together to leverage skills and ability, and you use this to build and empower high calibre senior and middle leadership teams. • You are attuned to the needs of others, helping to discover, nurture and amplify employees' strengths and inspiring your leadership team to do the same.
‎4 Vision and Strategy
* You are fully focused on the ISP Principles and Educational Philosophy.
* You use your own insight and knowledge and seek others ' input, to understand what this means within your local context.
* You create and lead on this strategy in partnership with your senior leadership team and ISP.
* You align with and model the ISP Principles ensuring these are at the heart of your school strategy, as well as visible through your daily actions and the actions of your leadership team and colleagues.
* You make public commitments to learning and getting better through transparency, communication and action
‎5 Marketing, Admissions and Communication
* You are a clear and compelling storyteller, articulating the vision and story of your school and ISP in a way that inspires parents, students and colleagues.
* You have a clear understanding of your school 's market, new and existing target audiences and understand how best to reach and engage with them, consistently tailoring and personalising your message and differentiators as appropriate.
* You work closely with ISP Regional Marketing and Communications to optimise the branding of your school and communicate an inspiring vision of the offering to attract the right families and students, as well as making current families ambassadors for the school.
* With the support of ISP Regional Admissions, you ensure that families have the best and most personalised experience possible during the admissions process maintaining a high lead to enrolment conversion rate.
* You use parent feedback and sentiment to guide future plans and parent engagement. This all translates into enrolment growth and student retention.
‎6 Commercial Success and KPIs
* You see the school as your business to nurture and grow.
* You understand your commercial responsibility for the school as Principal, co-creating, owning and taking responsibility for your school delivering on its targets and KPIs ( financial, learning, people, marketing, health & safety and safeguarding).
* You successfully lead your team and organise and manage resources to drive profitability.
* You specifically monitor and communicate progress towards enrolment growth and income generating KPIs, thereby facilitating the achievement of your school's financial goals. You identify and implement new and improved ways of doing things that have a demonstrable impact on the school's success.
* Through the school's finance team, you ensure fees are paid promptly and that any debts are managed and recovered appropriately, with sensitivity to individual situations.
* As well as enrolment growth, you recognise the importance of student retention as a priority and this focus feeds your approach to building parent relationships.
* You drive the delivery of the parent and employee NPS and engagement surveys, taking action where improvement is needed and to ensure good becomes even better.
‎7 Partnership with ISP
* You are committed to working in partnership with ISP.
* You understand, value and articulate ISP 's role as a trusted advisor and resource to support you in building and creating your school as a school of choice.
* You work collaboratively and effectively with your RMD and the regional functional leads.
* You and your school team see the school as part of ISP and articulate the wider benefits of being an ISP School to your team.
* You understand your collective responsibility to the school and ISP, successfully balancing the school's interests with the ISP vision and strategy and asserting yourself confidently and with consideration and respect for others' views.
‎8 Partnership with Parents, Carers and the wider community.
* You lead the school in forming e ffective relationships and partnerships within the community.
* You understand our students and their families; their expectations and their future requirements; and you focus on identifying opportunities to provide value to students and their families beyond their expectations.
* As well as the formal mechanisms, such as surveys and assessments, you foster a culture of partnership based on effective, regular and direct communication, as well as two-way feedback between teachers and parents.
* Together with your teaching team you help parents and carers understand the school's shared ideas about learners and learning, in ways that help them to engage confidently when talking about what their child is getting better at, what their next steps are, and how they will be supported at home.
* Accessible and available to parents and carers, you ensure their individual needs are understood and that they feel informed and involved as valued members of the school's learning community. You are the face of your school to a wider community of employers, third party vendors, regulatory bodies and others, and you excel in forging and developing beneficial connections.
Person Speci fication
* Bachelor's degree and Qualified Teacher Status. Master's degree in Education (desirable but not essential).
* Minimum ‎5 years' successful and relevant experience in a position of school leadership.
* Experience working in an international schools group
* Up-to-date knowledge and experience of the IB, American and/ OR UK curriculum.
* Fluent in English, both written and spoken. Arabic will be an advantage
* Overseas teaching experience, GCC/ Middle East is preferred.
* Collaborative leadership style, with excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
* Evidence of relevant Continuous Professional Development.
* Ambitious, hard-working, motivated and a role model
* Flexible and adaptable to change, growth and development.
Safeguarding & Safer Recruitment
ISP is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and
young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
All post holders are subject to appropriate vetting procedures and
satisfactory Criminal Background Checks or equivalent covering the previous ‎10
years employment history.