Deputy School Leader (Athi River School)

We are looking for an outstanding educator to serve as a Deputy School Leader at our Athi River campus who will be ready to start in August 2025.  Nova Pioneer Athi River School is a campus that offers both the CBE and Cambridge curricula and serves Pre-Primary, Primary, Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary students.  As such, the needs of a Deputy will change and evolve as the school also evolves. 

As a Deputy School Leader, you will be required to have the expertise and competency across academics, teaching and learning, curriculum and assessment, students affairs and health, safety and operations.  

You will be responsible for deputising the School Leader in leading the Nova culture in the school campus, lead cohesively in a team, maintain positive, constructive and professional relationships with teachers, students, their families, and colleagues and contribute as a part of the regional leadership team to support the growth and health of the collective Nova Pioneer brand.

This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of an innovative network of schools that is developing generations of innovators and leaders who will shape the African Century.

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

Key responsibilities of the role are:

The Deputy School Principal, in partnership with and in the absence of the School Principal shall have responsibility for the following key areas:

Vision and Leadership

• Managing the execution of the daily operations of the school, and supporting all members of the community in meeting the mission, vision, and instructional model of Nova Pioneer.
• Crafting, articulating and executing on a compelling short- and long-term vision for the development of the school’s culture and program.
• Leading strategy, goal setting and tracking implementation and performance to meet and exceed set goals
• Generate Growth Maps for the team, assign weighting and assign and check the alignment between the 3Cs. 
• Establish and maintain an extremely strong and vibrant school culture consistent with Nova’s core culture principles.
• Build and consistently grow an exceptional culture throughout the school so that students and staff love arriving in the morning and feel constantly challenged and engaged.
• Build strong relationships with the parents of all students in the school and managing all issues and concerns they may arise.
• Manage teaching and learning, and the  academic outcomes of all learners.
• Manage student affairs, behavior and culture of all learners.
• Manage the school leadership team, all teachers and support teammates using the Managing the Nova Pioneer Way framework.
• In the spirit of High Expectations and Greater Together, plan and support the engaging, thoughtful and compelling implementation of Open Days, Academic events, community events, and parent-centered events.
• Create and support marketing opportunities to grow enrollment and lessen attrition.
• Through the partnership of the management team creates and executes strong strategic plans to ensure strong student and family retention. 
• Ensures the school environment is responsive to the needs of all stakeholders and consistently uses feedback as a gift and data to support the growth and development of the school. 
• Liaise and work collaboratively with other functions that support the school (Talent, Operations, Admissions and Marketing, Property, Collections and Finance).
• Lead the teammate hiring processes for the school. 

Organisation and Administration skills

• Provide overall management of the school, including the planning and overseeing of the daily timetabling and scheduling of school activities. 
• Manage the execution of school activities and culture in alignment with teacher duty rotas for supervision of break, lunch, dismissal etc..
• Support, maintain and action effective data management systems such as student records, teacher records, homework and tardiness, student daily logs records, attendance, behaviour tracker attendance, etc.  
• Collect, analyze, share and interpret internal and external school assessment data as well as data in relation to extra-mural participation, house activities, behaviour etc and ensure that data is used strategically to improve student behaviour and performance.
• Oversee planning, execution and analysis of intervention programs targeted at needs of diverse academic subgroups, whether remedial, enrichment, welfare support or behaviour intervention.
• Implement systems for report cards, MAP results, club report cards, behaviour data to parents and relevant teammates. 
• With the support of the Finance and Operations Team, manage the school operational and staffing budget to 0% variance - ensuring school-based procurement of resources for instruction and learning, student and parent activities is managed within the budget and at a high standard.
• Preside over the health and safety committee and ensure all health and safety procedures and protocols are  implemented in all learning and recreational spaces, during activities and journeys. 
• Ensure other members of the leadership are managing clubs, competitions, trips and and other campus events to the expected Nova Pioneer standards. 
• With the support of the property and operations team, oversee the school facilities management - ensure campus health, safety and security, campus facilities and cleaning are up to the required standard.
• Ensure that campus-required hiring, people development and HR-related matters are closely managed and communicated to relevant teams. 
• With the support of the Marketing team, take active leadership and ownership in the school's admissions process and enrollment efforts as well as student retention.
• Works with the Admissions team to track enrolment and student class allocation.
• Supports PFS and Finance in physically gating students from class/school until their balances are settled or a payment plan is completed. 

Teammate Development 

• Lead the instructional, pastoral & behaviour management/support coaching and development and of other leaders in the school, including Deans, Senior Residents and Grade Level leads to be exemplars in all aspects of the Nova Pioneer Model. 
• Lead Dean and teacher development to ensure a campus that displays exceptional inquiry instruction and displays exceptional student support practices. 
• Leading Associate Dean and teacher development to ensure a campus that displays exceptional inquiry instruction that’s data driven, academic monitoring and project based learning. 
• Leading Associate Dean and teacher development to ensure a campus that displays exceptional social emotional learning, positive behavior systems, restorative justice and overall student wellbeing. 
• Ensure the Deans oversee the attendance register and roster of absent teammates and ensure effective substitute plans as necessary, using on campus human resources and calling on talent to support for long term absences. 
• Develop a school environment which is supportive of learning and high achievement among the students. 
• Lead and support the monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning and innovation as well as of behaviour, character building and leadership across the school and contribute to school self-evaluation and the development of improvement plans.
• Facilitate collaboration among teachers within/across grade levels, subject areas and various functions.
• Create and manage appropriate and high impact instructional, student affairs’ and operations/admin staff professional development.

Parent Engagement

• Creating and implementing an inspiring vision for parent partnership that ensures parents are pulled in as active partners and advocates of the school who are involved in their childrens’ learning, character and holistic growth.
• Creating systems and implementing an inspiring vision for parent partnership that ensures parents are engaged as active partners and advocates of the school with regular parent feedback cycles on their childrens’ learning progress, welfare and behaviour as well as school environment at every major occurrence or data release. 
• Leading in systems and structures to provide weekly updates to parents regarding student instruction and academic programmes, student well-being, affairs and co-curricular programmes, and relevant teammate news.. 
• Conduct orientation at the start of the new year and for new joiners. 
• Coordinates the planning and management of parent events, fora, seminars, orientations and open days.
• Coordinates 1:1  and group parent meetings aimed at improving student behaviour and community culture.
• Leads parent communication and serves as the first point of contact on parent queries and concerns.
• Manages the family and student satisfaction survey process (scheduling, administration, data analysis and leveraging data to improve students’ experience).
• Onboards new families and offboards families exiting the school.  
• Works with Administrative staff and Admissions to coordinate and track new enrollments/ joiners. 
• Manages termly gating for school fees.    

Student Affairs, Behavior and Culture 

• Creating, refining, executing and monitoring behaviour systems and incentives (PBIS) and structures ensuring strong implementation of both student culture and behaviour policies. 
• Ensuring that the School’s behaviour policy is implemented consistently and effectively. Working in collaboration with the leadership team and behaviour committee to ensure fair proceedings. 
• Creating, refining, executing, analyzing and monitoring systems and structures for positive behavior systems for students that are used with fidelity by students, teammates and parents. 
• Creating, refining, executing, analyzing and monitoring systems and structures for a thriving house and mentorship system that serves as the cornerstone for the positive behaviour system that informs the needs of support and intervention.
• Creating, refining, executing, analyzing and monitoring systems and structures for culture and behavior trend data.
• Creating, refining, executing, analyzing and monitoring systems and structures for end to end addressing and documenting all infractions.
• Proactively addressing culture and behavior trends. 
• Overseeing all discipline cases and chairing the school based discipline committee.
• Ensuring that the highest standards of discipline are maintained. You will work closely with the Principal to ensure that incidents are dealt with in the most appropriate way in order that the School’s behaviour policy is implemented consistently and effectively.

Communication 

• Develop, refine, execute and monitor vision for and roll out effective communication systems with students, team, parents and the wider community, in collaboration with the external relations team.
• Responsible for guiding the management of all communication channels.
• Communicate with students, staff and parents in a positive, friendly and professional manner.
• Responsible for managing communication systems -Newsletters, What’s App, Class Dojo, EdAdmin, etc.  

Operations, Health and Safety 

• Creating a plan for student health and safety emergency preparedness.
• In partnership with the leadership team daily conducting operational walkthroughs of campus to ensure high standards of functionality.
• Partnering with the Operations Associate to ensure the campus is well maintained including repair needed.
• Leading the health and safety committee conducting monthly safety drills, health and safety and risk committee meetings.
• Providing oversight on Health and safety issues within the school, including those relating to risk assessments, fire regulations and works and maintenance issues.
• Liaising with security staff to ensure students’ personal safety and security.

Clubs, Sports and After School Programming 

• Creating a vision and implementing a data driven, well structured and highly engaging after school programming that allows students to explore their unique gifts and passions. 
• Responsible for overseeing the implementation of an excellent clubs and sports program that is nationally and globally competitive working closely with teachers on the implementation. 
• Conducting clubs and sports walkthroughs and providing feedback.
• Trains, manages and oversees Student Leaders.

Events and Trips

• Creating, refining, overseeing and monitoring an engaging vision for school wide events, including off campus, evening and weekend activities that promote student social and personal development.

ABOUT YOU

• You have a Bachelor's Degree and a Masters degree in Education Management/Administration is desirable. 
• You have a TSC number and certificate.

• You have 2+ years of experience in a rigorous, high-expectations school setting including instructional leadership roles (e.g., Dean of Instruction, Dean of Students, Deputy Head, teacher coach, etc.). More years of experience or experience as a Head of School is highly valued but not a prerequisite.
• You are widely recognised as a highly effective teacher and can model what great, inquiry-based teaching looks like.
• You consistently seek out opportunities to grow, whether by asking others for feedback, forming communities of learning with other school leaders, or seeking out training
• You have a track record of improving other people’s performance through coaching, building uncommonly strong relationships, developing creative training sessions and sharing feedback
• A strong community leader, with the ‘head and heart’ to foster a caring community that includes parents and students
• You have an exceptional ability to think strategically—and are  unusually detail-oriented and conscientious

• You have excellent interpersonal and leadership skills that encompass trust and respect.
• You have excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• You have experience using tech. 
• You are a critical thinker, flexible, adaptable, innovative and creative. 
• You understand the complexities of working in a multi-faceted, fast-paced organisation.. 
• You have high energy levels and can work in a highly confidential setting. 
• You are excited about our organisational culture - and in particular, you are fired up to challenge yourself by embracing mutual vulnerability and a firehose of feedback.
• You have a desire to further develop your leadership skills and apply them to transform the lives of African youth.

HOW TO APPLY

Does working at Nova Pioneer excite you? If so, then apply now!

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.

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.