Academic Development Co-Ordinator - High School

To implement and support the execution of the Academic excellence strategy within the Schools division and to lead and co-ordinate the effective and impactful implementation of the academic programs. Responsible for assessing and subsequently addressing training and development needs of staff and monitoring and tracking the effectiveness of the programs implementation.

Key Areas of Responsibility Include:

Academic Strategy

• Researches and analyses global trends in education as they relate to the Schools key strategic imperatives. (E.g. Global Citizenship: Respect, Diversity & Inclusion and Global Competencies, IBL, Online assessments etc.)
• Defines the offering in the institutions context, by articulating the written, taught and assessed curricula across the schools
• Introduces key strategic imperatives and plans which have been agreed and implements them across the schools
• Keeps oversight of the integration of digital technology into the Teaching & Learning programmes offered at the schools
• Holds the schools accountable by making recommendations to the Brand Managers in terms of reporting the current status of the practice/offering to them.

Secondary Schools Programs

• Develops policy for achieving the learning culture at Secondary Schools
• Assists individuals or teams with development of Units of Inquiry for Grade 8 and 9
• Co-Ordinates year level outcomes to ensure both vertical and horizontal articulation
• Ensures all requirements and procedures, set by the institution, are adhered to by all relevant schools
• Supports the preparation and process for Teacher Evaluation
• Leads, supports and monitors the activities of the Deputy Heads - Secondary Schools across schools
• Acts as the liaison between the Head of Academics and Deputy Heads- Secondary Schools
• Monitors and tracks the Academic Action Plans, per school, ensuring that reporting formats reflect the Secondary Schools requirements
• Gathers both formal and informal feedback from staff and parents at information sessions and relays this to the relevant stakeholders
• Prepares reports for Board and MANCO on implementation, consolidating inputs received from schools
• Liaises with the Brand Marketing Manager to arrange for the marketing and promotion of Secondary Schools Programs
• Manages the resource budget for the Secondary Schools Academics
• Sets Targets for Grade 12 Results and ensures individual teacher support programmes are in place

Professional Development

• Stays abreast of current global trends in education, e.g. by affiliation with relevant professional bodies
• Creates platforms/forums where global trends are shared and disseminated across the schools with the appropriate staff
• Arranges for own professional development needs
• Presents at leadership conferences, creating an awareness of current global thinking in the academic arena and promoting the School brands
• Writes articles for internal and external publications
• Attends and presents at functions as required viz Award Ceremonies, School Productions, Parents evenings etc
• Ensures relevant staff meet minimum requirements for professional development
• Co-ordinates the professional development plans of staff with respect to teaching and learning, in collaboration with the Schools leadership teams

Training & Staff Development

• Identifies development needs of Deputy Heads- Secondary Schools and teachers, sources and recommends solutions
• Prepares, develops and delivers the training material that is being offered to the schools
• Supports the induction of staff new to Secondary Schools
• Keeps records of all workshops and school visits and uses this information to help identify future needs
• Reviews, reflects and evaluates the effectiveness of the training offered
• Arranges regular teacher planning and collaboration meetings
• Provides input to Deputy Head- Secondary Schools and teacher appraisals
• Building good relationships with relevant stakeholders

Knowledge Management

• Ensures that schools have communicated an academic programme
• Lead the process of developing and/or reviewing the schools implementation of the academic scope and sequence documents, according to  requirements