Deputy Head of School (Business & Operations)

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. It creates friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. It does this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries it works with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust. The British Council works with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year, it reaches over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, the British Council is a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

The British Council School Madrid, a coeducational day school for almost 2,000 children aged 2 to 18 years of age, facilitates cultural relations engagement with key target audiences through a high-quality bilingual and bi-cultural curriculum.  The School enjoys a widely-perceived reputation as one of the very best schools in the country. It provides a showcase for excellence in the delivery of the English National Curriculum and enhances the profile and reputation of UK education as a whole. The School encourages and facilitates students to attend UK higher education. One of its main objectives is to enable students to demonstrate that they live and breathe the school’s values, as well as the qualities required by universities and companies around the world, such as leadership, teamwork, negotiation skill and entrepreneurship.

The Early Years Section of the School has approximately 400 pupils from Pre-Nursery to Year 1 (age 2 to 6), who follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and Year 1 English National Curriculum.

The Primary Section has approximately 700 pupils. Academic results are outstanding throughout Primary. The English National Curriculum is delivered in English for approximately 80% of the week and the Spanish National Curriculum is taught for the other 20%. The Primary Section uses the UK Standardised Assessment Tests (SATs) and NFER tests for internal analysis and as tools for measuring progress.

There are over 900 students in the Secondary Section of the School. Students follow the English National Curriculum until 16 and then do the IGCSE and International GCSE examinations. The majority of students achieve 9 IGCSEs with top grades. Students also do Spanish Language and Literature and Spanish Culture following the Spanish Ministry of Education guidelines.  In the Sixth form, students follow the Spanish National Baccalaureate curriculum (BiBac®) either in Spanish or in English. Students can choose from 3 types of Baccalaureate: Social Sciences, Technological Sciences and Health Sciences and there are a wide range of subjects on offer.

The school was inspected by BSO in 2015 and 2018 and in its British Schools Overseas Inspection Report it achieved Outstanding in all areas.

The Head of School is currently seeking to appoint a Deputy Head of School (Business & Operations), who will work as a member of the School Senior Leadership Team (SSLT) lead by the Head of School, to develop and implement the School strategic plan and business plan. The post holder has direct responsibility for school business plan development and BAU income, expenditure and surplus targets as well as business development focused on new product development and admissions. Responsibilities also include: Finance, Operations, Admissions and Information departments, British Council/Spain statutory/BSO/sector compliance and support for Marketing and HR functions. The Deputy Head
supports SSLT colleagues to ensure the School continues to achieve Outstanding level in all categories in external inspection (currently British Schools Overseas (BSO). With the Head of School, the Deputy Head (Business & Operations) represents the School at the School Board. The post holder will deputise for the Head of School when required and, on these occasions, take responsibility for school activity, representing the school at official or sector events or on internal global/regional projects in Spain, the UK or elsewhere.

For an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Edward Clark on +44(0)1256 862840 or +44 (0)7718 588616, or email at edward@lsceducation.com. To apply for the post, please click the Apply Now button and submit your up-to-date CV and a letter of application quoting code BCSM. The letter should incorporate how you meet the person specification, why you are applying for the position and what particular attributes and qualities you would bring to the role.