We are seeking an ambitious, compassionate and inspiring Head of Year to join our dedicated pastoral team at Orchard Mead Academy.
This is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of young people by providing strong pastoral leadership and ensuring every student feels supported, valued and encouraged to succeed. You will join a supportive and collaborative team committed to removing barriers to learning, raising aspirations and delivering an exceptional educational experience for every student.
Job Overview
As Head of Year, you will lead the pastoral care of an allocated year group, promoting high standards of behaviour, attendance, wellbeing and achievement. You will establish positive relationships with students and families, combining clear expectations with a thoughtful and consistent approach to support.
Working closely with tutors, teachers, the wider pastoral team and senior leaders, you will monitor students’ progress, identify concerns early and coordinate effective interventions. You will support students to overcome challenges, celebrate their achievements and help them develop the confidence, resilience and sense of responsibility they need to thrive.
You will lead your tutor team in creating a positive year-group culture, ensuring that routines, expectations and the academy’s values are consistently reinforced. Effective communication with parents and carers will be central to the role, alongside working with colleagues and external agencies to meet students’ individual needs.
We are looking for someone who combines high expectations with a strong commitment to inclusion and safeguarding, ensuring every student has the opportunity to succeed.
What We're Looking For
The successful candidate will have:
Experience of working with young people in a school setting, with a strong understanding of pastoral care.
The ability to lead, motivate and support a team, promoting a consistent approach across the year group.
A commitment to improving behaviour, attendance, wellbeing and achievement.
The ability to build positive relationships with students while maintaining clear boundaries and high expectations.
Excellent communication skills and the confidence to work constructively with parents, carers and external agencies.
A calm, fair and solution-focused approach to challenging situations.
Strong organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise competing demands and follow through on agreed actions.
The ability to use attendance, behaviour and progress information to identify concerns and evaluate the impact of support.
An understanding of safeguarding responsibilities and the needs of vulnerable students, including those with SEND.
A commitment to continuous professional development and contributing to the wider life of the academy.
Why Orchard Mead Academy?
We are a welcoming, inclusive, and ambitious school that is going from strength to strength. We recently celebrated our best-ever exam results, and we have been praised by Ofsted for our collaborative culture in which staff feel well-supported by leaders. Our large school site offers plenty of outdoor spaces and modern facilities, creating an ideal teaching and learning environment. Our professional development offer means that everyone is encouraged and supported to expand their expertise and develop their career. Above all else, you will join a team where people care about one another and value each other’s contributions.
As part of The Mead Educational Trust (TMET), you will benefit from a comprehensive package of family-friendly policies and benefits that go beyond sector norms. These include a menopause policy, critical illness and neonatal support, a free online GP service for you and your dependents, high-street savings, discounted bus travel and much more. We are continually investing in intelligent work design to reduce workload and give colleagues more time and energy to focus on what matters most.
Through the Mead Institute for Professional Learning, you will also have access to high-quality CPD, professional qualifications, apprenticeships, mentoring, secondments and clear pathways for career progression. We are proud that colleagues who joined us in support roles have gone on to become teachers and senior leaders. Wherever you start, we will support you to go further.
This post will involve contact with vulnerable groups (children, young people and/or adults) and is therefore, exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and subject to an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Disclosure check. This exemption means that shortlisted applicants for this post will be required to declare all criminal convictions, cautions, reprimands, and bind- overs both spent and unspent in their application, before interview and regardless of the passage of time.