The Coventry Virtual School sits within an integrated education and children’s service. Our strong and well-established team has built a culture of partnership with schools, social care, health and education support services. Together we strive to raise educational achievement for all children in our care, through high aspirations and extended opportunities to enable children to be the best they can be.
We value diverse perspectives and experiences and are striving to create a workplace culture that is inclusive, is accepting of all and is free from discrimination and bias.
Our ValuesIn line with our One Coventry Values we strive to have a workforce that reflects our local communities and welcome applicants from all sections of the community. We particularly welcome applicants from minority ethnic backgrounds, applicants who have a disability and applicants who are from the LGBTQ+ community to apply for our senior leadership roles.
Our Values are:
- Open and fair: We are fair, open, and transparent.
- Nurture and develop: We help and encourage everyone to be their best and do their best.
- Engage and empower: We talk and listen to others, working together as one.
- Create and innovate: We embrace new ways of working to continuously improve.
- Own and be accountable: We work together to deliver the best services for our residents.
- Value and respect: We put diversity and inclusion at the heart of all we do.
What is the job role?As the statutory Headteacher of Coventry Virtual School, you will have a relentless focus on raising the educational achievement of children in care or known to a social worker.
Working together with your service, education settings, children, families and key partners; you will set clear expectations and advocate strongly for the rights and entitlement of children.
The children we work with come from a variety of backgrounds and in order to deliver the best possible care it is vital that we have a workforce that represents and understands their unique experiences and perspectives.
The systems and processes you put into place will provide a strong evidence base to measure children's outcomes, enabling you to strengthen challenge, provide support and offer training where needed.
As you champion for children you will influence everyone across the system to have high aspirations and inspire them to do all that they can to ensure our children flourish and aspire to be the very best that they can be as they progress through a positive pathway to adulthood.
This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
Who are we looking for?In order to shape and deliver our services in an effective way, we want to ensure that we have employees from a range of different backgrounds, identities and different lived experiences so that we are able to meet the needs of all the communities that we serve.
We are looking for an inclusive leader who values diversity and promotes a culture of respect, collaboration and continuous improvement.
You will be a qualified teacher who can lead collaboratively with passion, tenacity and kindness.
You will have an excellent understanding of the current social care, SEND and educational legislation relevant to children in care, children known to a social worker and care leavers; and have a passion for promoting their inclusion and educational achievement.
Our workforce data shows that men and people from minority ethnic backgrounds are under-represented at senior management level and encourage applicants from these backgrounds to apply. This does not prevent individuals with or without other protected characteristics as set out within the Equalities Act 2010 from applying for this post.
Following recommendations from Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) for an additional pre employment check with effect 1 Sept 22, please note, an online search may form part of this recruitment process.
If you need help or support to complete your application, please visit our accessibility page to see how we can assist you.
For full details on the application process please read the attached document on our jobs page labelled 'Coventry City Council Application Process'
Interview date(s): Friday 24th May 2024
About CoventryCoventry has a proud, innovative and creative spirit that throughout its history has seen communities come together to tackle problems and bring about real social change.
We are cutting-edge, challenging, youthful, vibrant and diverse.
At Coventry we are committed to excellence in everything we do. With around 5100 staff from a range of different backgrounds, our aim is to recruit and develop talented people who will focus on our customers, take responsibility, work together and find better ways of doing things.
To deliver the best services to our residents, we need the best people working for us to make a difference to our communities.
If you join us, we will provide a fantastic rewards and benefits package - to find out more please visit https://www.coventry.gov.uk/council-vacancies
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to
Disability Confident.