Whole School Deputy Head-Pastoral 全校德育副校长

Role Description JOB TITLE Whole School Deputy Head-Pastoral DEPARTMENT Academy SUPERVISOR Master OBJECTIVE: The Whole School Deputy Head-Pastoral at Hiba Academy Nantong provides strategic leadership and operational oversight of pastoral provision from Nursery to Grade 12, ensuring a safe, caring and inclusive environment in which all pupils can thrive academically, socially and emotionally.

The post-holder leads and coordinates the school ’ s pastoral systems, including boarding, counselling and wellbeing, behaviour and rewards, attendance, safeguarding (aligned with British best practice and local compliance requirements), and family engagement, ensuring consistency and high standards across all phases.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Whole-School Pastoral Strategy, Ethos and Consistency

• Develop, implement and review the whole-school pastoral vision, policies and procedures aligned with the values and ethos of Hiba Academy Nantong and Wellington College Education (China).
• Ensure coherent pastoral practice across both Primary and Secondary, with age-appropriate approaches and smooth transitions between phases.
• Lead the annual pastoral improvement plan with clear priorities, KPIs and evaluation.
• Use evidence (pupil voice, parent feedback, attendance and behaviour data, wellbeing surveys, safeguarding and counselling trends, boarding indicators) to drive improvement.

1. Safeguarding and Child Protection (Strategic Oversight)

• Provide strategic oversight of safeguarding and child protection, ensuring robust systems for training, reporting, record-keeping and follow-up.
• Work closely with the Designated Safeguarding Lead(s) and the Master to ensure compliance with school policy, local regulations and recognised UK standards (e.g., Keeping Children Safe in Education as a benchmark).
• Ensure staff understand and consistently apply safeguarding procedures including safer working practice, online safety, peer-on-peer abuse, and managing allegations.
• Promote a strong safeguarding culture where pupils feel listened to and able to seek help.
• Ensure appropriate liaison with external agencies and services (medical, psychological, social services, police) where required.

1. Boarding Leadership and Quality Assurance

• Provide strategic leadership and oversight of boarding, ensuring a safe, nurturing and well-run boarding experience.
• Line manage the boarding leaders and ensure staffing levels, duty rotas, supervision, training and appraisal are robust.
• Ensure clear systems for: pupil welfare, behaviour, supervision, leave permissions, visitors, missing pupils, medical care, food and nutrition, sleep routines, privacy and dignity, and emergency procedures.
• Monitor boarding quality through audits, pupil voice, staff feedback and incident reviews; lead improvement planning.
• Strengthen communication between boarding and academic/pastoral teams, and with parents/guardians.

1. Counselling, Wellbeing and Mental Health Provision

• Provide oversight of school counselling and wellbeing services, ensuring ethical practice, confidentiality boundaries and appropriate referral pathways.
• Ensure effective triage and support for pupils experiencing anxiety, low mood, bereavement, friendship issues, trauma, self-harm risk, eating concerns, exam stress and other wellbeing needs.
• Coordinate staff training and guidance on wellbeing, mental health literacy and early identification of concerns.
• Establish partnerships with reputable external providers for specialist support where needed.

1. Behaviour, Rewards and Restorative Practice

• Lead whole-school behaviour and relationships policy implementation, promoting consistency, fairness and a positive culture.
• Promote restorative approaches, anti-bullying practice and strong routines that support learning and wellbeing.
• Oversee serious behavioural incidents, reintegration plans and risk assessments, working closely with phase leaders and the DSL as appropriate.
• Ensure clear systems of rewards, recognition and celebration across the school.

1. House System and Pupil Leadership Oversight

• Provide strategic oversight of the whole-school House system, ensuring it supports pastoral care, pupil belonging and community culture across Primary and Secondary
• Clarify and maintain consistent expectations, structures and routines for House operation, with age-appropriate implementation and smooth transition between phases
• Line manage and support House leaders, ensuring clear roles, effective communication, appropriate training and accountability for standards
• Ensure effective coordination between the House system and wider pastoral, safeguarding, boarding, behaviour and wellbeing provision, with clear referral pathways and follow-up
• Oversee House-based pupil leadership, events and competitions, ensuring they are inclusive, well-organised and aligned with school priorities
• Lead and develop whole-school pupil leadership structures, including boarding, ensuring clear selection processes, training, pupil voice mechanisms and meaningful opportunities for responsibility and service
• Monitor the impact of the House system through pupil voice, participation and pastoral indicators, and use findings to inform improvement planning

1. Attendance, Punctuality and Pupil Engagement

• Oversee systems to monitor and improve attendance and punctuality, identifying patterns and coordinating interventions.
• Work with tutors, Heads of Phase and parents to address persistent absence, anxiety-based school avoidance and boarding-related attendance issues.
• Work with Head of Schools to ensure smooth transition and induction processes (Nursery > Grade 1, Grade 5 > 6, Grade 8 > 9, Grade 10 > 11, new-to-school, and new boarders).

1. Inclusion and Pupil Support (Cross-School)

• Work collaboratively with the SENDCo and EAL teams to ensure pastoral and wellbeing needs are met alongside learning support.
• Champion inclusive practice for diverse cultural backgrounds, languages and family circumstances.
• Coordinate multi-disciplinary meetings (pastoral, boarding, counselling, academic, medical) to ensure joined-up support plans.

1. Parent Partnership and Community Engagement

• Develop strong, proactive communication with parents and guardians, including workshops and guidance on wellbeing, digital safety and adolescence.
• Support sensitive parent meetings and ensure effective follow-up and documentation.
• Strengthen community culture, pupil leadership opportunities and pupil voice structures.

1. Staff Leadership, Training and Professional Practice

• Line manage relevant pastoral, boarding and counselling staff, including recruitment, induction, appraisal and professional development.
• Deliver and coordinate staff training in safeguarding, behaviour, boarding practice, wellbeing and pastoral systems.
• Promote staff wellbeing and professional boundaries, ensuring a sustainable culture of care.

1. Compliance, Policies, Risk and Record-Keeping

• Maintain and review relevant policies (safeguarding, behaviour, anti-bullying, boarding handbook, counselling, attendance, online safety, staff code of conduct).
• Ensure accurate, timely and confidential record-keeping, with clear escalation and reporting routes.
• Contribute to risk assessments for trips, boarding, events and high-risk cases, and support crisis response planning. BASIC QUALIFICATION Essential
• Significant leadership experience in pastoral care in a school setting (ideally across multiple key stages/age ranges).
• Strong knowledge of safeguarding practice and culture, and experience implementing robust systems and training.
• Experience of leading or closely overseeing boarding and/or residential provision (or demonstrable ability to do so).
• Understanding of counselling/wellbeing provision in schools, including referral pathways and confidentiality boundaries.
• Excellent communication skills with pupils, parents and staff; confident handling sensitive matters.
• Strong organisational skills, data-informed decision making and ability to drive consistent practice across phases.
• Commitment to the ethos of a British-style boarding school and willingness to work within the cultural context of an internationalised school in China. Desirable
• Relevant postgraduate qualification (e.g., pastoral leadership, safeguarding, counselling/psychology, child protection, boarding leadership).
• Experience in international schools and/or with UK inspection frameworks (ISI/BSO).
• Mandarin language capability (helpful but not required).
• Experience of restorative practice and trauma-informed approaches. Working Pattern and Expectations
• The role is a senior leadership position and will include evening/weekend commitments, particularly in relation to boarding and events.
• The post-holder will be visible and active around the school and boarding houses and will contribute to duty systems as appropriate.
• The post-holder will be expected to live on-site.