Assessment, Progress, and Evidence of Impact

• Lead the development of meaningful assessment systems that capture academic, communication, social, emotional, sensory, functional, and independence progress.
• Ensure progress measures are proportionate and credible for pupils working significantly below age-related expectations, including small-step and non-linear progress.
• Analyse assessment information to identify patterns, gaps, barriers, and priorities for curriculum improvement.
• Provide clear reports to the Principal, Proprietor, governance, or senior leaders on curriculum impact, pupil progress, risks, and improvement actions.
• Ensure assessment evidence contributes to EHCP reviews, annual reviews, placement reviews, and multi-agency planning.

SEN, EHCP, and Multi-Agency Practice

• Ensure the curriculum is responsive to pupils’ EHCP outcomes, special educational provision, communication profiles, sensory needs, and individual risk assessments.
• Work closely with SENCO / SEND leads, therapists, educational psychologists, social care colleagues, families, and placing authorities to align provision and outcomes.
• Support staff to understand pupils’ barriers to learning and to use evidence-informed adaptations that enable access to the curriculum.
• Contribute senior curriculum evidence to consultations, placement planning, annual reviews, transition reviews, and review meetings where required.

Staff Leadership, Development, and Accountability

• Lead curriculum-related professional development across the school, ensuring staff understand curriculum pathways, assessment expectations, and adaptive teaching strategies.
• Induct new teaching and support staff into curriculum expectations, planning systems, assessment practice, and autism-informed approaches.
• Support performance management objectives linked to teaching, learning, curriculum delivery, and pupil outcomes, where delegated.
• Line manage or provide professional supervision to curriculum-related staff or delegated colleagues as required by the school structure.
• Build staff confidence and consistency as the school grows, ensuring systems do not rely on individual knowledge or informal practice.

Safeguarding, Behaviour, and Personal Development

• Promote and safeguard the welfare of all pupils, ensuring curriculum leadership actively supports safer practice, pupil voice, personal development, and preparation for adulthood.
• Ensure curriculum planning supports pupils to develop communication, self-advocacy, independence, emotional regulation, online safety, healthy relationships, and community safety.
• Work with the PBS Lead to ensure behaviour support approaches are embedded in curriculum delivery and do not restrict access to learning unnecessarily.
• Ensure curriculum activities, off-site learning, community access, and vocational opportunities are appropriately risk assessed and supported.

Compliance, Inspection, and School Improvement

• Maintain curriculum documentation and evidence so that the school can demonstrate compliance with Independent School Standards and inspection expectations.
• Contribute to the school self-evaluation, improvement plan, curriculum action plans, and evidence folders.
• Prepare concise evidence for inspections, proprietor oversight, external quality assurance, and placing authority scrutiny.
• Ensure curriculum decisions are inclusive, non-discriminatory, age-appropriate, and aligned with statutory and regulatory expectations.
• Identify curriculum risks during the growth phase and make practical recommendations to the Principal on staffing, training, timetabling, resources, and quality assurance.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Professional Development

Essential -

• Qualified Teacher Status - Evidence of substantial recent professional development relevant to senior school leadership, SEND, curriculum, assessment, or school improvement.
• Senior leadership experience - Successful experience in senior or significant middle leadership with whole-school responsibility for curriculum, teaching and learning, assessment, SEND provision, or school improvement.
• Senior leadership experience - Evidence of leading change beyond own classroom or subject area, including improving staff practice, implementing systems, and evaluating impact.
• SEND and autism expertise - Strong understanding of autism and an ability to translate EHCP outcomes and individual pupil profiles into meaningful curriculum planning and progress evidence.
• Curriculum knowledge - Strong knowledge of curriculum design and assessment.
• Regulatory and inspection awareness - Strong working knowledge of Independent School Standards, Ofsted / inspection framework in relation to curriculum/T&L and assessment expectations.
• People leadership - Ability to coach, develop, challenge, and support teachers, HLTAs, teaching assistants, and support staff with clarity, warmth, and professional rigour.
• People leadership - Ability to hold staff to account fairly and constructively, while supporting wellbeing, workload management, and consistent professional standards.
• Communication and partnership - Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce inspection-ready reports, policies, curriculum documentation, and professional correspondence.
• Communication and partnership - Ability to work effectively with families, therapists, social care, health professionals, placing authorities, senior leaders, and proprietor / governance representatives.
• Safeguarding and risk - High level of safeguarding awareness and ability to ensure curriculum activities, community access, and preparation for adulthood opportunities are safely planned and risk assessed.

Desirable

• Experience in an Independent SEN school, specialist school, alternative provision, SEND focused curriculum design, and T&L.
• Experience of functional skills, vocational learning, work-related learning, careers education, or preparation for adulthood curriculum design.