We are looking for a superstar with outstanding instructional leadership to serve as the School Principal at our Eldoret Girls Campus. This is an opportunity to help create a transformative school model with the future of Africa’s youth at stake.

About Your Role

Nova Pioneer already has 16 schools on the continent – 7 in Kenya and 9 in South Africa. You will be responsible for leading the Nova Pioneer culture as the instructional leader and building manager in the school campus. You are responsible for setting and implementing the school vision for success and strategic plan. You are responsible for leading cohesively in a team, maintaining positive, constructive and professional relationships with teachers, students, their families, and colleagues and contributing 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.
Key responsibilities of the role include:

Living the Nova Culture

• Fully embrace Nova Pioneer’s values and promote them to students, staff, other faculty, parents and members of the outside community
• Live the culture principles inside and outside of the classroom and school.
• Lead cohesively in a team, being respectful of each person’s contribution and style.
• Maintain positive, constructive and professional relationships with teachers, students, their families and colleagues.
• Attend daily team, weekly staff and other meetings that arise throughout the school year
• Contribute as a part of the regional leadership team to support the growth and health of the collective Nova Pioneer brand.

The School Principal, with the support of the Senior Director of Schools, East Africa and the Chief of Schools Officer, shall have responsibility for the following key areas:

Vision and Leadership

• Crafting, articulating and executing on a compelling short- and long-term vision for the development of the school’s culture, academics and programs.
• 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
• Using data driven decision making to create and implement and a yearly strategic plan
• Establishing and maintaining an extremely strong and vibrant school culture consistent with Nova’s core culture principles.
• Manage teaching and learning, and the academic outcomes of all learners
• Building a thriving school community that has high satisfaction ratings from all stakeholders.
• Building strong relationships with teammates with a focus on team culture and individual coaching and development
• Building strong relationships with students that push them to live our the culture principles, achieve academic excellence and grow into innovators and leaders
• Building strong relationships with the parents of all students in the school and managing all issues and concerns they may raise
• Leading the team mate hiring and onboarding processes for the school.
• Coaching, Developing and Managing the school leadership team, all teachers and support teammates using the Managing the Nova Pioneer Way framework
• Creating and supporting marketing opportunities to grow enrollment and lessen attrition.
• Planning and supporting the implementation of Open Days, Academic events, community events, student events and parent-centered events.
• Liaise and work collaboratively with other functions that support the school (Talent, Operations, Admissions and Marketing, Property, Collections and Finance)
• Manage and support central teams in meeting regional or school specific outcomes.

Organisation and Administration skills

• Providing overall management of the school, including the planning and overseeing of the daily time tabling of classes.
• Manage the execution of school activities aligned to the teacher duty schedules as well as morning, break time, and lunch supervision.
• Support, maintain and action effective data management systems such as student records, teacher records, attendance, etc.
• Collect, analyze, share and interpret internal and external school assessment data and ensure that data is used strategically to improve student academic performance.
• Oversee planning, execution and analysis of intervention programs targeted at needs of diverse academic subgroups, whether remedial or enrichment.
• Implement systems for report cards, national assessments, MAP results and reporting other grades to parents.
• With the support of the Finance team, manage the school and operational and staffing budget to 0% variance – ensuring school-based procurement 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.
• Ensuring Deans are managing clubs, competitions and other campus events.
• 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.

Teacher Development

• Lead the coaching and development of other leaders in the school, including Deans and Grade Level leads to be exemplars in all aspects of the Nova Pioneer Model.
• Leading Dean and teacher development to ensure a campus that displays exceptional inquiry instruction.
• Leading Dean and teacher development to ensure a campus that excels in implementing data driven instruction.
• Ensure Deans oversee the attendance roster and roster of absent teachers and ensure effective teacher substitute plans as necessary, using on campus teachers 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 across the school and contribute to school self-evaluation and the development of improvement plans.
• Facilitate collaboration among teachers within/across grade levels and subject areas
• Create and manage appropriate and high impact staff professional development

Communication

• Develop and roll out effective communication systems with students, team, parents and the wider community, in collaboration with the external relations team.
• Communicate with students, staff and parents in a positive, friendly and professional manner.
• Responsible for managing communication systems -Zen Desk, Newsletters, Class Dojo, Kid Connect, EdAdmin, etc.

About You

• You have 5+ 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 have a TSC number and certificate.
• You have a minimum qualification of a Bachelor’s Degree in Education; a Masters degree in Education Management/Administration is desirable.
• 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.
• You have an exceptional ability to think strategically—and are unusually detail-oriented and conscientious.
• 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.