Key Role Information

Salary
£76,772 - £84,699
Job type
Full Time
Contract type
Permanent
Closing
30/01/2026 09:00
Interview
5th & 6th February 2026
Contract term
TTO - Term time only
Pay grade
L17-21
Department
Leadership
Key stage
Key Stage 4
Hours per week
32.50
Weeks per year
52.143
Visa sponsorship
No

Your Role

We have an exciting opportunity for a well-qualified, enthusiastic and ambitious leader to become our next Vice-Principal. The successful candidate will be an outstanding teacher, with a proven track record of high-quality leadership.

The successful candidate will be joining a very experienced team, the majority of whom have led the school on its journey with Ofsted, which saw the school secure its ‘Good’ judgement in September 2023. We are now the school of choice in the local area, with nearly all year groups full and holding a waiting list. Year on year, we now receive well over 400 applications for our 175 places in Year 7. We are honoured to be in this position, and it further galvanises our commitment to ensuring the highest-quality education for our children.

Hillside High School is a vibrant and exciting place to work and to learn. We all share the same commitment to our mission statement of ‘Excellence in the Heart of the Community’. This reflects our role serving the community of Bootle and North Liverpool, and our unrelenting ambition for excellence in all that we do.

This excellence includes academic outcomes, our extremely high standards and expectations, and the exceptional pastoral care our students benefit from.

We are unrelenting in our ambition that students should leave us with the GCSEs they need to pursue their dreams and progress to suitably ambitious Post-16 opportunities.

We work tirelessly to ensure our provision is of the highest quality, and all lessons include the ‘I Do, We Do, You Do’ phases and a ‘Blue Zone’. We believe this is fundamental to our students achieving their best academically.

We are proud to be a diverse and inclusive school, situated in the heart of the community. Our new Vice-Principal must share our unrelenting drive to make a difference to the community we serve. Working at Hillside, you are truly making a difference to our children and their future life chances.

As a Vice-Principal at Hillside High School, working within the Wade Deacon Trust, you will benefit from numerous opportunities within the Trust, for example the training and opportunity to be a Challenge Partners Reviewer, Trust Reviews and Quality Assurance activities. You will also benefit from the joint working across the schools, which is well embedded across the Trust at all levels, including many leadership development opportunities.

Key areas of responsibility will be aligned to the strengths of the successful candidate. The new Vice-Principal will be given full support in their career development.

If you have the ambition and drive to be part of achieving ‘Excellence in the Heart of the Community’, we would love to hear from you. We welcome visits to the school prior to application. Please come and see what makes Hillside High School such a special and rewarding place to work. To arrange a visit, please contact Miss V Convey, PA to the Executive Principal v.convey@hillsidehigh.co.uk

Qualifications

Degree or equivalent qualificationessential

Skills

CPD / Training

Willingness to complete professional development linked to roleessential
Comprehensive knowledge of performance management requirements in an educational contextessential
Up to date knowledge in subject, national policy, pedagogy, classroom management strategies, research/inspection findings and statutory requirementsessential

Experience/Knowledge

Have experience of strategic planningessential
Proven experience in the analysis of performance data for the purposes of target setting and evaluationessential
Proven experience of developing excellent working relationships with all stakeholdersessential
Have a thorough working knowledge of the curriculum as it relates to this subjectessential
An excellent classroom practitioner with the highest expectations for the welfare and progress of all studentsessential
Experience of whole school leadership through subject leadership or phase leadershipessential
Have a proven commitment to excellent and respectful behaviour from the whole academy communityessential

Organisational Fit

Committed to safeguarding the welfare of young peopleessential
Ability to prioritise work to achieve deadlinesessential

Personal Attributes

Commitment to uphold the seven principles of public life (Nolan Principles)essential
A commitment to abide by and promote the school and Trust’s Equal Opportunities, Health and Safety and Child Protection Policiesessential
Work in ways that promote equality of opportunity participation, diversity and responsibilityessential
Ability to work on own initiative and be proactiveessential
Commitment to raising standards and achieving the highest standards of achievement for young peopleessential

Qualifications

Graduate with Qualified Teacher Statusessential

Relevant Skills

Ability to monitor and evaluate the work of others; to offer support and intervention where necessaryessential
Lead, manage and co-ordinate staff through an effective team-based approachessential
Excellent management, motivational and communication skillsessential
Proven ability to lead and manage whole school initiativesessential
Demonstrable ability to work effectively in a wide range of partnerships to achieve academy improvementsessential

Hillside High School

Vicky Convey

v.convey@hillsidehigh.co.uk

Hillside High School
Breeze Hill
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 9NU

Safeguarding Information

The Wade Deacon Trust and its schools are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share this commitment. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore subject to pre-employment checks including an enhanced DBS disclosure. All applicants should read the school’s Safeguarding/Child Protection policy and Safer Recruitment Policy, which are available on our websites.