Assistant Head (Boarding, Pupil Leadership and Progress)

WHY CHOOSE WELLINGTON? Professional Growth

• Tailored professional development pathways for all staff.
• Comprehensive CPD programs covering teaching methodologies, cultural awareness, and non-academic skills such as public speaking and finance.
• Three specialized leadership programs for middle, senior, and high-potential leaders.
• An internal coaching program designed to help you thrive. Exceptional Benefits
• Highly competitive salary package.
• Comprehensive medical insurance for employees and dependents. Life in Hangzhou
• A modern, forward-thinking city surrounded by natural beauty and rich culture.
• Home to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, West Lake.
• A thriving tech hub, hosting giants like Alibaba, with widespread cashless convenience.
• Just 45 minutes by high-speed train to Shanghai. JOB TITLE Assistant Head (Boarding, Pupil Leadership and Progress) DEPARTMENT Academic LOCATION Hangzhou LINE MANAGEMENT The Principal and Vice Principal of Senior Schools OBJECTIVES This is a single, integrated senior leadership post. The postholder is responsible for ensuring that every pupil—day or boarding—experiences a coherent, consistent education that spans the full 24-hour day, and that boarding is not a parallel provision but an integral part of the school's academic and pastoral life. The role exists to develop pupil leadership across the day and boarding school, on the understanding that agency, responsibility, and belonging are among the strongest foundations for academic and personal progress. Pupil leadership is the route; pupil progress is the destination; boarding is the context in which both are most fully developed. The postholder is the primary bridge between the day school and the boarding provision, bringing the residential perspective into strategic decision-making and ensuring that day-school academic and co-curricular planning is intentionally designed to support boarders' experience and outcomes.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Leadership

• Serve as a full member of the Senior Management Team, contributing to whole-senior school strategy with particular responsibility for the integration of day and boarding provision.
• Ensure that pupil leadership and pupil progress are connected in policy and practice across both settings.
• Represent the boarding perspective in all relevant SLT/SMT discussions, ensuring that boarders are never an afterthought in day-school planning.
• Lead on the development of a coherent 24-hour curriculum that integrates care, education, leadership, and personal development.
• Report to the Principal, Vice Principal and governing body on boarding standards, pupil leadership outcomes, and the relationship between residential provision and academic progress. Pupil Leadership
• Design and lead a progressive pupil leadership programme across all Senior School that spans day and boarding contexts—including prefects, house captains, peer mentoring, service, and student voice.
• Ensure that leadership opportunities are genuinely accessible to boarders and that residential life is a laboratory for leadership, not merely a place of supervision.
• Develop structures that enable boarders to take responsibility for their own learning, their community, and their peers.
• Foster a culture across all Senior School in which leadership is understood as service and influence, not title or status. Pupil Progress
• Develop and maintain a holistic profile for every Senior School pupil, triangulating academic and wellbeing (PASS) data with participation and achievement in competitions, leadership roles, service/charity work and co-curricular activities.
• Work closely with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT/SMT) and Grade/Year Leaders (GLs) to ensure each pupil’s annual profile is accurately captured and updated, including competitions, projects (internal and external) and leadership opportunities, so it can inform personalised development plans and university pathway planning.
• Work in close partnership with academic leaders to ensure that boarders' learning is supported across homework, evening study, and co-curricular time.
• Use progress data to identify boarders who need additional support and to evaluate the impact of the residential provision on academic outcomes.
• Ensure that day and boarding staff share a single view of each pupil's progress, with unified systems for recording and communication.
• Contribute to academic planning with an eye on how timetabling, assessment, and curriculum decisions affect boarders.
• Ensure boarders have extra opportunities to develop projects which will support university applications. Boarding Leadership
• Provide strategic and operational leadership of the boarding house and residential team.
• Ensure full compliance with the National Minimum Standards for Boarding and all relevant safeguarding legislation.
• Lead the pastoral care and safeguarding of boarders, working closely with the DSL and day-school pastoral team.
• Be a visible, relational presence in the boarding house—known to pupils and staff, not an absent administrator.
• Recruit, develop, and line-manage the residential team, including Matrons, Bilingual Teachers and Tutors ensuring high standards of care and professional development. Integration of Day and Boarding
• Act as the single point of reference for boarders who need an adult who knows their whole life, not just their classroom or house version.
• Chair or attend regular liaison meetings with Heads of Year, the DSL, and day-school pastoral leads to align support for individual pupils.
• Ensure that behaviour, attendance, and safeguarding recording systems are unified across day and boarding, giving a single view of each pupil.
• Lead on communication with parents and guardians of boarders, ensuring consistency with day-school messaging. Safeguarding and Compliance
• Act as a senior safeguarding lead, ensuring that boarding-specific concerns are escalated and recorded consistently with day-school procedures.
• Ensure all boarding staff are trained, supervised, and confident in safeguarding practice.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of KCSIE, National Minimum Standards, and inspection frameworks.
• Ensure the boarding house is inspection-ready at all times. BASIC QUALIFICATION Education
• Bachelor’s degree or above. A postgraduate qualification in Education or Educational Leadership is highly preferred. Major
• Education, Psychology, or a related field. Working Experience
• Minimum 3 years of experience in a boarding leadership role (e.g., Housemaster/Housemistress, Deputy Boarding Master/Mistress) in an international school with a UK-style boarding program or a leading bilingual school in China. Language
• Fluency in English (written and spoken); proficiency in Mandarin is an advantage for communication with local parents. ESSENTIAL
• Proven senior leadership experience in a school setting, ideally with a boarding dimension.
• Deep understanding of the relationship between pastoral care, pupil leadership, and academic progress.
• Experience of leading and developing staff teams.
• Strong working knowledge of safeguarding legislation and boarding standards (KCSIE, NMS).
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to bridge day and boarding cultures.
• Residential presence on site [or willingness to live in designated accommodation].
• A genuine commitment to the whole-child development of pupils. EXPERTISE
• Experience of designing or leading a pupil leadership or character education programme.
• Experience of using progress data to inform pastoral and academic intervention.
• Experience of inspection preparation and compliance. PREFERRED ATITUDES
• This is a residential senior management post. The working pattern is flexible and will include evenings, Sundays, and overnight presence in line with boarding needs. The postholder will live on site in the boarding house and will be a visible presence in the boarding community.
• The postholder is expected to attend key day-school events, SLT meetings, and governance meetings, and to manage their time so that both the day-school and boarding responsibilities are fully served.