Deputy Superintendent

Job description / Role

About the Role
The Deputy Superintendent leads the supervision, discipline, safeguarding, and monitoring of students as well as assisting the Superintendent in the day-to-day operations of the school(s). Takes lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection in the school, the overall responsibility of which cannot be delegated. Assists in shaping and implementing the Educational strategy of the school.

Key Responsibilities
- To provide visionary leadership and the demonstration of exemplary management skills in the recruitment and development of faculty, the implementation of a superior, enriched American school curriculum, the assurance of long-term school financial stability, and the provision of effective communication with all the school's constituents.
- To supervise and evaluate to ensure the leaders continue to operate and function efficiently and effectively and serve the needs of the school and the GSIS community.
- To lead the implementation of an annual collaborative process for identifying and implementing data-driven school-wide student learning targets and school improvement initiatives leading to specific improvements in student learning.
- To provide oversight and supervision for the GSIS Curriculum and Staff Development Department for ongoing curriculum revision and improvement.
- To oversee the development, implementation, and analysis of a comprehensive student assessment program including the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) and the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT4) standardized testing programs.
- To assist in the recruitment and retention of the highest qualified teachers.
- To implement the overall educational policies and objectives of the School.
- Ensure that all Health & Safety policies, procedures, rules and regulations are adhered to and are regularly reviewed, updated and communicated.

School Culture, Discipline, and Pastoral Care
- Leads by example and embraces and encourages the ethos and standards of excellence as defined in the GEMS Core Values.
- Assists in the development and administration of policies dealing with discipline, conduct, and attendance.
- Keeps detailed records of all safeguarding concerns using the Guard platform, ensuring that such records are stored securely.
- Adheres to and enforces school policies, school guidelines, and administrative directives.
- Attends and/or contributes to any external child protection meetings and chairs regular school Safeguarding Committee meetings.
- Monitors all policies relating directly to pastoral care-for example positive management, punctuality, and attendance, uniform, discipline, etc.
- Communicates relevant policies and procedures with regard to student discipline, conduct, and attendance to students, staff, and parents.
- Works with and assists faculty in the development of effective classroom discipline/management and organization.
- Ensures that effective systems are in place for tracking all aspects of pastoral care in line with GEMS policies.
- Enforces guidelines to maintain good attendance, punctuality and proper discipline/conduct.
- Promotes and maintains a positive climate that is conducive to learning and depicts that every member of the school community is responsible, respectful, cooperative, and supportive of each other.
- Actively promotes the sharing of good practice and seeks continuous improvement.
- Ensures that the school safeguarding and child protection procedures are regularly reviewed, in collaboration with the whole school community of children, parents, staff, and volunteers.
- Monitors the SEN students including special Arabic and special Islamic, in addition to the other special subjects in terms of the schedules and provisions to meet their needs.

Environment and Health and Safety
- Maintains an effective and safe school environment that is colorful, relevant, interesting and conducive to learning.
- Organizes the duty schedule that ensures the safety of the students in the morning, during the breaks, and after school (students' departure).
- Assists Phase Principal with fire/earthquake drills on a regular basis and is able to implement emergency evacuations and lock-downs effectively.
- Serves as a member of the Child Protection/Health and Safety Committee.
- Encourages and facilitates students to take part in schemes that contribute effectively to sustainability and conversion in the local and wider world.
- Initiates and provides opportunities for students to participate in community service projects.
- Ensures that designated corridor notice boards have recent examples of high-quality
- Ensures that the work of the students is celebrated through regular contributions to newsletters, the website (ensuring that all sections of this are up to date), and other appropriate media including display.

Parents
- Plays an important role in establishing a home-school partnership and maximizes opportunities for Parental Engagement.
- Promotes, facilitates, and maintains a positive and effective relationship with parents.
- Ensures that parents are kept up-to-date on the progress of their children in all aspects of school life.
- Ensures parents are aware of the school's role in safeguarding and that referrals about suspected abuse and neglect may be made. In addition, the GEMS Safeguarding and Child Protection policy commitment statement signed by the GEMS Education CEO, should be freely available as a link or PDF document on the school website for easy access for parents. This is updated by the Central safeguarding team annually.
- Attends and contributes to Parents Information/Orientation Evenings/Parents-Teacher Conferences (PTC)/Parents Need-based meetings and maintains records.

Students
- Promotes high standards of pastoral care and academic standards amongst all students.
- Monitors the students' attendance, punctuality, and discipline.
- Works with the Phase Principals and other Phase APs to ensure a smooth transition between phases.
- Supports, as appropriate, the extra-curricular opportunities linked to the curriculum.
- Provides guidance to students, as appropriate, including liaising with the careers counselor.
- Refer the students, when needed, to the school/ elementary counselor.

Requirements

Expected Qualifications:
- Bachelors and/or Masters Degree in Education
- Qualified teacher with in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of outstanding pastoral care.

Expected Experience:
- Highly experienced and impactful teaching experience
- Demonstrable leadership experience with at least 5 years of experience in a senior leadership role
- Experience as a DSL or a deep understanding of safeguarding

Job-Specific Knowledge & Skills:
- Experience in managing and using pupil data and tracking databases to raise standards.
- Excellent interpersonal skills, team and resource management and the ability to motivate and manage time and people.
- Have good analytical skills, being able to synthesise information, summarise and draw appropriate conclusions and make decisions.
- Have the ability to maintain emotional equilibrium in light of professional pressures and deadlines.

About the Company

GEMS Education is a pioneering education company with an international network of award winning K-12 schools. Over the past 55 years GEMS has grown from one school to being a truly global company with one incredible mission – to make quality education available to every student. Over 20,000 education professionals unlock the potential of over 250,000 students across 14 countries each and every day, preparing children of all ages for real world success.