Assistant Headteacher (Pastoral)

Are you ready to make a lasting difference in the lives of young people? At The Bridge Short Stay School, we provide second chances and transform futures – we are now seeking an exceptional and inspirational leader to help shape this journey.

L3 – L7 (£54,393 - £60,145)

The Bridge Short Stay School are looking to appoint an exceptional individual to fulfil the role of Assistant Headteacher. As the senior pastoral leader within school, the successful candidate will lead our approach to safeguarding, attendance and wellbeing, ensuring every child feels safe, supported and ready to succeed.

The Bridge works with students who have been permanently excluded from schools across Cheshire West and Chester. Rated as ‘Good’ by OFSTED in May 2018 and 2024 we are passionate about providing a second opportunity to students who have struggled in education previously. Many of our students have gone from complete disengagement with their previous schools to re-engaging with learning, achieving strong GCSE or successfully reintegrating into mainstream education. This is the difference you will be part of.

The successful candidate must believe in the potential of all young people whatever their background and be able to demonstrate a commitment to supporting the growth and development of students who demonstrate challenging behaviours. They will be joining a school where this is an ethos shared by all, ensuring a positive and supportive culture amongst our experienced staff team.

Pastoral care of our students is of equal importance to our school community as the curriculum and teaching & learning. Getting this right for our students is often an essential precursor to them being able to access education. Alongside responsibility for safeguarding there will be a particular focus on leading both strategic and operational approaches to improving attendance; ensuring good mental health and wellbeing of students & staff; trauma informed practice and working in partnership with families

This role is vital to our school being successful in changing young people’s lives and therefore needs someone special to fulfil it. In a fast-paced environment you’ll need the organisational skills and resilience that allows you to ensure you maintain a keen eye for detail while prioritising a complex workload and ensuring our students feel known, heard and understood. As a senior leader you’ll play a key role in influencing others and creating culture within school whilst maintaining the ability to ‘walk the talk’ and lead by example, working directly with students and their families.

The knowledge and skills of the successful candidate are important, but we place equal value on someone having the right motivation, resilience, empathy and aspirations to work with our students and continue to drive forward standards in our school. If you have these qualities, we’ll look forward to receiving your application, the successful candidate will join an experienced, happy and hardworking staff team who care passionately about improving the life chances of young people.

This appointment comes at an exciting time in our journey as we work with the local Council to develop significantly improved facilities ahead of converting to Academy status as a founding school within The People’s Learning Trust. You will develop as a senior leader with significant impact on our individual school, whilst being able to make the most of the opportunities which will come through this future growth.

If you are a compassionate and resilient leader with the drive to transform lives, we’d love to hear from you. Come and see our work in action, visits prior to application are encouraged; please contact the school on 0151 3376873 or email enquiries@thebridge.cheshire.sch.uk to arrange a visit or to request application details.

Closing date for applications is Monday 6^th October 2025 at 9am. Interviews are expected to take place over Tuesday 14^th and Wednesday 15^th October 2025.

The Bridge Short Stay School is committed to safeguarding the welfare of all young people and expect staff to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be expected to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service Check. An online search will be conducted for all shortlisted candidates. A copy of our Safeguarding Policy is available on the school website.