Deputy Headteacher
Deputy Headteacher – Behaviour, Belonging and Inclusion
Leadership Scale L19-22 £84,769-£90,906
Heathcote School and Science College is an inclusive community school with key values to Encourage, Challenge and Succeed. The values are integral in everything we do to support and nurture pupils to achieve the best possible outcomes in a safe and happy learning environment. Feedback from our recent Ofsted report (February 2024) confirmed Staff greatly enjoy working at the school. They hugely value the support they receive for their workload and well-being.
We are seeking to appoint an exceptional Deputy Headteacher someone with vision, proven leadership, strong management skills, and the ability to secure high standards of accountability who will work closely with the Headteacher and the Governing Body to lead the school through the next stage of development. The ideal candidate will have extensive previous experience as a senior leader and the ability to lead and oversee Behaviour, Attendance, Safeguarding and Inclusion with evidence of impact in this area. This role offers a fantastic opportunity to work alongside our talented and highly committed staff team, supportive governors and amazing pupils.
Heathcote has undergone a successful transformational journey over the last 5 years and key performance indicators are strong in many areas, including being oversubscribed in Year 7. There needs to be a continued focus on the progress and the continuation of the drive for excellent behaviour, safeguarding and pastoral care, as well as the quality of teaching and learning, to ensure that pupil happiness and safety, exam outcomes and life chances are amongst the best in the Local Authority. This role will lead the pastoral areas of the school, ensuring high standards of attendance, behaviour, safeguarding, SEND provision and pastoral development. We strive for all pupils to reach their full potential. This role offers a fantastic opportunity to work alongside our talented and highly committed staff team, supportive governors and amazing pupils. School Leaders are flexible and strategic, and we enable and empower leaders through coaching and professional development.
The successful candidate will:
- Continue, maintain and improve the high standards set in behaviour
- Be committed to inclusive practice and trauma informed behaviour management
- Be able to vision and design interventions for our pastoral team to prevent escalating behaviour and meet support pupil needs
- To lead alongside the SENDco, the SEND department which includes two primary teachers and a department for the deaf
- To have experience leading safeguarding and to line manage the DSL to improve personal development further
- To oversee attendance and ensure pupils feel a sense of belonging.
- To take delegated authority in the heads absence
- To support the head to take the school to achieve strong or better standards at the next Osted
The school puts well-being and development at the heart of its work, and we have very talented staff who are encouraged to grow and develop collaboratively, within school and with local schools, to be the best they can be. We are working to raise standards in a ‘high challenge, low threat’ way and enable robust systems which ensure consistency in all areas and encourage growth and development for all. The school has excellent resources and an impressive, spacious site on the edge of Epping Forest including a staff car park and surrounding roads that do not require a parking permit. We are also a 15-minute walk from Chingford Station which has great links into the City.
We aim to ensure our staff body reflects the diversity of our community and use anonymised-recruitment processes in our short-listing. We employ staff with diverse skills and backgrounds and this ensures that our policies and systems are always inclusive of all our stakeholders. We value and respect everyone’s identity and our Equality Information and Objectives Policy confirms our commitment to the 2010 Equalities Act.
If you are interested, please look at our school website https://heathcoteschool.com/ where you will find application forms and further information. You are warmly encouraged to visit the school and opportunities to do this will be available on the 6th at 8:30am and 8th May at 8.30am and 2:05pm. To book onto one of the tours available, in the first instance please email: Heather Fleetwood the HR Manager hfleetwood@heathcote.waltham.sch.uk.
Completed application forms should be emailed to recruitment@heathcote.waltham.sch.uk.
Closing date for receipt of applications: 13th May 2026 at 9am
Interview process to be held on Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th May 2026
Heathcote School is committed to safeguarding and protecting the welfare of children. The successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced DBS Disclosure.
Equal Opportunities
Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value. To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy
How to apply
Email address or postal address for return of applications : recruitment@heathcote.waltham.sch.uk