Competitive Tax Free Salary. Furnished accommodation. Flights. VISA. Medical Cover. Tuition fee concession for dependants.

Full Time, Permanent

20 December 2024

We are looking for an outstanding Assistant Principal (KS5) to join our team at GEMS Wellington Academy, Al Khail from January 2025.
Our vision at GEMS Wellington Academy Al Khail is to ‘Empower today, for a limitless tomorrow.’ We are seeking exceptional teachers to join our team who can help us achieve this goal through our belief in: Limitless Learning, Limitless Solutions, and Limitless Possibilities.
As a cognitive science driven school, evidence-informed practice is at the heart of what we do, and we seek educators who can passionately articulate what outstanding learning and teaching looks like and translate this into practice in the classroom. All successful candidates will also share the same core values of Ambition, Responsibility and Courage.
The role of Assistant Principal requires a skill set that includes exceptional leadership, outstanding communication, and the ability to positively influence both staff and students. The successful candidate will lead a high-performing Sixth Form team, ensuring that outcomes and opportunities are fully maximised for all students.


As a member of the Secondary Senior Leadership Team, the Assistant Principal is responsible for fostering a culture of success and innovation, inspiring students to be positive role models within the wider school community.


While the primary focus will be on Key Stage 5, all senior leaders are expected to contribute to the holistic development of the Academy as part of a high-performing leadership team.


Student Culture & Experience

• Implement the whole-school student culture experience strategy across Key Stage 5, ensuring alignment with broader school values, ethos and policy.
• Uphold a culture of positive student behaviour towards academic success, in line with the secondary behaviour policy.
• Ensure the well-being of Key Stage 5 students by overseeing behavioural expectations, maintaining high standards, and cultivating a culture of success and innovation.
• Lead communication with parents regarding Key Stage 5 events, supporting Heads of Sixth Form and reinforcing student expectations.
• Oversight of Parent Teacher Conferences for Key Stage 5.
• Leadership of student attendance and punctuality across Key Stage 5.

Curriculum & Assessment

• Oversee the centralisation of UMS and BTEC module grades to maintain accuracy in predicted grades and current assessment grades.
• Collaborate with Heads of Sixth Form and department leaders to support students in exceeding target grades through assessment data analysis.
• Lead assessment tracking and student attainment monitoring in Key Stage 5, ensuring data informs strategies to support academic progress.
• Drive curriculum design and innovation to meet Level 3 qualification needs, offering supplementary courses and qualifications that enrich the curriculum.
• Manage and guide course selection, ensuring alignment with students' university and career aspirations.
• In collaboration with the wider leadership team, design and implement Key Stage 5 mock examination windows and all communication surrounding this.
• Oversee the implementation and monitoring of Key Stage 5 study leave.

Teaching & Learning

• Monitor the quality of teaching and learning in Key Stage 5, supporting leaders to ensure curriculum delivery meets student needs.
• Lead observation and Internal Quality Assurance cycles to maintain high teaching and learning standards.
• Provide coaching and support to staff, fostering a culture of continuous professional growth.

Key Stage Leadership

• Manage the Key Stage 5 university application timeline, including deadlines, predicted grades, personal statements, and references.
• Ensure the Sixth Form experience reflects GEMS Wellington Academy’s commitment to a premium education.
• Oversee student admissions into Sixth Form, facilitating smooth transitions from Year 11 to Year 12.
• Lead on operational and logistical initiatives and ensure alignment with school strategic priorities.
• Lead the Year 13 graduation and develop the alumni programme, maintaining ties with graduates.
• Oversee parental engagement to ensure parents are involved in their child’s journey at Key Stage 5 and can fully support their children.

Student Wellbeing

• Oversee student well-being and leadership initiatives, using behaviour and rewards data to inform supportive actions for the student body.
• Ensure well-being data, such as PASS and Upstrive, is used to inform a reactive and supportive pastoral curriculum for Key Stage 5 students.
• Promote student-led initiatives, ensuring a comprehensive and engaging calendar of events communicated to the wider school community.
• Lead the student leadership programme with a particular focus on the Student Leadership Team.

A Term 2 start date is desirable, however, this can be extended for an exceptional candidate.
Candidates should have experience at Middle or Senior Leadership level and be able to demonstrate a clear impact on student outcomes and staff development.
A degree and PGCE (or equivalent) are required, together with a leadership qualification such as NPQSL being desirable.

GEMS Wellington Academy Al Khail is a premium National Curriculum for England School, located in the rapidly expanding Dubai Hills development. The Primary section opened in September 2013 and Secondary opened in September 2014 with current enrolment at 2500. This is an international world class school dedicated to fostering a passion for excellence in learning and in life.
Recently rated ‘Outstanding’ by BSO, children learn in a vibrant, inclusive and creative learning environment that encourages teamwork, critical thinking, independent inquiry and risk-taking. Our staff are recruited almost exclusively from the UK, although applications from other countries are encouraged, and are highly skilled and experienced in delivering the National Curriculum. Teaching is significantly enhanced through the use of technology, which is used predominantly by students to create and present new content. Innovation and creativity are actively encouraged and the learning programme is significantly enhanced by a rich and varied extra-curricular programme of over 100 activities, which emphasises our belief that students should be learning from the moment they arrive in school until they leave at the end of the day. We are an internationally minded school with students representing over 80 nationalities and are an accredited member of the Council of British International Schools and British School in the Middle East. We are proud of our high achieving culture: our expectation of all students is that they strive to excel and make significant progress well beyond expectations commensurate to their starting point.
The GEMS Wellington Cluster
WEK is part of the wider GEMS Wellington group of schools within the UAE, who bring with them a long and sustained history of delivering high quality education. The schools collaborate and work closely together to ensure the reach and impact of every initiative to improve student outcomes is maximized. Each school is unified by the core Wellington vision, fundamental to the ethos and fabric of what it means to be part of the GEMS Wellington family, whilst at the same time retaining their own unique characteristics. This partnership brings significant benefits for both our students and teachers including enhanced social, cultural and academic learning opportunities, sporting and performing arts events and access to a vast range of professional development pathways. The sharing of outstanding practice and dialogue amongst our highly talented leadership teams and teaching and learning community, constantly allows us to further raise standards in the pursuit of excellence. This is an exciting time to be part of the GEMS Wellington network.
Principal
Campbell Douglas
Values and Vision
Our Vision
Empowering students to aspire, create and excel in the world that is, so they can help create a world that will be.
Our Mission
Our aims are to provide a positive and exciting learning environment that encourages all children to take responsibility for their own learning and personal development. This is underpinned by consistent excellence in delivering the British curriculum in a way which is both creative and innovative
Our 3 pillars are:
The Science of Learning
o placing evidence informed practice at the heart of all we do
o understanding of how the brain learns best to maximise learning opportunities
o being future driven and developing the skills required to thrive in the future world

Global Citizenship
o embedding the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
o showing care and concern for others by respecting and celebrating our differences
o respecting and promoting the culture, language and heritage of the UAE and beyond

Student Innovation and Agency
o the value and importance of working collaboratively
o voice, choice and ownership of learning
o taking risks and persisting with challenges