Associate Assistant Principal

Ark Charter Academy

Associate Assistant Principal

Location: Southsea, Portsmouth
Salary: L11 – L15 (£64,758 - £71,330)

Contract: FTC (1 year)

Working pattern: Full-time

Start date: 1^st September 2025

Closing date: 04/07/2025

Interview date: As soon as suitable candidates apply

Are you an aspiring senior leader ready to take the next step in your career? Do you want to gain whole-school leadership experience while making a meaningful impact?

We are looking for a motivated and ambitious Associate Assistant Principal to join our leadership team. This role offers hands-on leadership opportunities, supporting the academy on its journey to high performance and excellence. You will develop key leadership skills, work closely with senior leaders, and drive improvement in either teaching and learning or attendance strategies.

About the role:

As Associate Assistant Principal, you will be given a unique opportunity to develop as a senior leader. You will play a key role in driving improvement in teaching and learning or attendance, supporting strategic initiatives that enhance student outcomes and school performance. Working closely with the principal and senior leadership team, you will contribute to fostering a positive and high-performance academy culture, ensuring consistency in behaviour policies, staff development, and student engagement. Through, duties, climate walks, coaching, and strategic planning, you will gain invaluable experience while making a real impact on the academy’s journey to excellence.

This role is NOT suitable for Early Career Teachers.

Our ideal candidate will be:

• A strong leader with experience driving school-wide improvement in teaching and learning or attendance
• Strategic and proactive, able to set clear action plans and lead improvements
• Experienced in staff management, including coaching, monitoring, and target setting
• Committed to fostering a high-performance academic culture, ensuring strong student outcomes
• Confident in whole-school leadership, with experience in duties, climate walks, and on-call responsibilities
• Resilient, adaptable, and solution-focused
• A strong communicator and collaborator, engaging effectively with students, staff, and stakeholders
• Passionate about professional development, eager to learn, grow, and refine leadership skills

• Salaries 2.5% higher than main pay scale.
• 10 inset days (of which at least one is dedicated to staff wellbeing)
• A behaviour policy that ensures disruption-free learning
• Development opportunities for future leaders
• Generous pension scheme.
• Up to £3,000 relocation costs to move to the south coast (dependent on the role)
• Access to Ark rewards – a scheme offering savings from over 3,000 major retailers
• Interest-free loans – up to £5,000 available for season ticket or to buy a bicycle.
• Gym discounts – offering up to 40%.
• Access to Employee Assistance Programme – providing free, confidential counselling, legal advice and a range of different support.

Ark Charter Academy is a happy and vibrant school located in the heart of Portsmouth. We believe that every young person should feel a sense of belonging to our school community and enjoy their learning.

We inspire and support our students so they can become the very best they can in every single way. With love and care, we develop motivation both inside and outside the classroom, encouraging an appetite for learning in a safe and stimulating Christian environment. We want our students to become the leaders and game-changers of the future.To achieve this we offer an academic curriculum that strives to expose all pupils to the richness of education, allowing them to experience a diversity of subjects during their time with us.

Our teachers and support staff work hard every day to inspire each and every student to develop skills which will help them to achieve their full potential. We pride ourselves in recognising hard work and rewarding it accordingly, providing opportunities for professional and personal growth in school and across the wider Ark network.