Dean of Students, Tatu Girls

Nova Pioneer is looking for a superstar Dean of Students to lead our Tatu Girls Campus. We are seeking a dynamic individual who wants to champion pastoral care and culture in our school.

As a Dean of Students, you will develop and lead our parent partnership model alongside the Principal and our teaching teams. In addition, you will build relationships with staff and parents to facilitate academic and discipline strategies in the schools. This is an exciting opportunity to create a transformative brand with the future of Africa’s youth at stake.

ABOUT NOVA PIONEER

Imagine a world in which every young person across Africa attends a school that truly sets them up for success in the 21st century. A school that cares about individual students and allows them to explore the world around them. A school that focuses more on developing skills than on memorizing content. At Nova Pioneer, we have done more than just imagine this future, we are bringing it to life. Nova Pioneer is a pan-African, independent network of schools offering high quality, accessible education from pre-primary through secondary school. Nova Pioneer uses a unique, enquiry-based learning approach that encourages students to ask “why” instead of telling them the “what”. It allows them to form their own thinking through exploration, investigation and collaboration. Nova Pioneer currently has 16 schools in South Africa and Kenya with a vision to launch 100 schools and reach tens of thousands of students across the African continent in the next decade. To learn more visit www.novapioneer.com.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Specific key responsibilities for the role include:

Leading School Culture

• Working with the Principal to articulate a compelling short- and long-term vision for the development of the school’s culture and program
• Setting and modelling a consistent tone of highest expectations, joy, and growth mindset
• Leading key school rituals as needed to model and ingrain culture through setting up culture committees and mentorship programs
• Quickly identifying and responding to classroom/school culture or behavior issues
• Engaging with the many stakeholders who make up Nova Pioneer community- parents, students and teachers by:

1. Coordinating and planning parent events, fora and seminars
2. Writing parent communication and serving as first point of contact on parent queries and concerns
3. Coordinating 1:1 parent meetings
4. Managing student behavior by  voicing and popularizing school rules and regulations with the intention to build an harmonious school community 
5. Coaching teachers on managing student behavior
6. Coordinating student-related programs within and outside Nova Pioneer networks.

Student Support and Empowering Student Voice 

• Creating a vision and plan for student leadership development on the campus and systems and structures to support the vision.  
• Creating and managing the systems and structures to support students' leadership development.
• Listening to student concerns and raising those challenges to the administration
• Reviewing information from student suggestion box 
• Collecting monthly anonymous feedback from students 
• Supporting in the running of Town Halls 
• Supporting the running of student leadership programmes 
• Running skill development programmes 
• Meeting with student leaders 
• Identifying challenges in student leadership at the school and implementing solutions  to those challenges in a timely and effective manner.
• Identifying and bringing in internal/external speakers to support student leadership 
• Supporting the running of mentorship and advisory sessions on campus 
• Managing and supporting the student council
• Starting the student council on campus, including the student culture committee 
• Managing the implementation of all clubs, societies and extramural activities both during and after school
• Serving as liaison between institution administrators and the student body.
• Staying up to date on important student affairs.
• Preparing weekly school newsletters and sharing stories about student activities with relevant stakeholders e.g. parents.

Health and Safety

• Leading and supporting the health and safety committee, serving as the chair to foster a safe and healthy school environment.
• Organizing monthly fire drills, prioritizing students' overall safety, and maintaining accurate records of each drill.

Behaviour Management

• Developing and managing the behavior management system throughout the school
  • Reviewing all student infraction and behavior data, including both yellow and green cards.
  • Meeting with teachers to identify areas of improvement, challenges, and coaching needs.
  • Identifying trends, observes individual and group behavior.
  • Meeting with students.
• Leading the Behaviour Committee 
  • Convening meetings 
  • Ensuring all data is present for meetings 
  • Chair behavior committee meetings
• Coaches behavior issues with teachers 
  • Reviewing issues that teachers are having with behavior and coaches teachers through  observations, meetings, etc. 
  • Developing and coaching teachers diversified strategies of behavior management basing on Positive Behavioural Interventions and Support (PBIS)
• Leads academic behavior investigations 
  • Ensuring strong documentation  
• Referral to the counselor 
  • Knowledge of background of behavior and what behavior has to be referred to the counselor.
  • Follow up with cases referred to the counselor for tracking of support and changes.

Functional Support

• Work with the parent fee support team to manage the process of gating.

ABOUT YOU

• You have a Bachelor’s Degree in Education and you are TSC certified
• A Masters degree in education/ social sciences is not compulsory, it would be an added advantage.
• You have excellent interpersonal and leadership skills that encompass trust and respect
• You have excellent communication and people management skills
• You have the ability to be flexible, adaptable, innovative and creative
• You understand the complexities of working in a multi-faceted organization
• You have strong project management skills
• You have a passion for students character development
• You have high energy levels and can work in a highly confidential setting
• You have the ability to be flexible, adaptable, innovative and creative
• You understand the complexities of working in a multi-faceted organization
• You have a passion for students character development

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, please complete the form on the right hand side of this page. We cannot process applications that are emailed to us.

Please note:  You are encouraged to attach your resume in PDF format to protect formatting.

Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis until the right candidate is identified. Only qualified candidates will be invited for interviews.  

There are a series of stages in the Nova Pioneer interview process and candidates will be moved forward in the process depending on their success in the previous stage. The process is as follows:

• Phone interview: a short conversation to understand your skills and experience a little better.
• Practical demonstration of what you can do: you will complete a written task or a demonstration related to the role you are applying for. Teachers sit an assessment and deliver a lesson to a class.
• Final interview: you’ll have a final conversation with the hiring manager before decisions are made.

WORKING AT NOVA PIONEER

Nova Pioneer is a place where our people experience tremendous growth, fast! We invest heavily in the growth of our people because it leads to greater mastery in both us and our students. “Novaneers” work harder and work longer hours than at most schools but as a result, the growth they experience is extraordinary. We offer consistent and ongoing professional development and provide clear career pathways that ensure that our people are always achieving their personal and professional best. Nova Pioneer has a highly energetic, entrepreneurial environment where our people get to bring their creative and innovative ideas to life. We look for people who are flexible and who are able to adapt and respond quickly to adversity with a positive, can-do attitude (there are no problems, only solutions!). We welcome challenges and roll with the punches because it makes us, and our students, better. There is no problem too big for us! We work hard but we also have a lot of fun together. We bring infectious energy and enthusiasm to everything we do because joy fuels the hardest work and learning. Read more about our culture principles here.

Nova Pioneer will never request an application fee from candidates. If you are contacted with a request to pay a fee from someone claiming to be a Nova Pioneer Talent or Recruitment representative, please do not pay them and report it to us immediately on talent.ke@novapioneer.com or talent.sa@novapioneer.com.