The Robert Drake Primary School: Successful Headteacher Recruitment

The School

The Robert Drake Primary School provides education for children from 4 to 11 years of age in Thundersley, Essex. The school aims to create a caring, secure and happy learning environment where each child will be encouraged to work hard and be self-disciplined to obtain positive learning outcomes.

The Challenge

When the current Headteacher at The Robert Drake Primary School handed in her resignation for retirement, John Jackson, Chair of Governors and Clare Barrett, Vice Chair of Governors at the school took on the time critical job of finding an exemplary replacement Headteacher, something which they described as a somewhat daunting task.

With limited experience when it comes to senior leadership recruitment in education, John admitted that they were “going into the task blind”. The Robert Drake Primary School, who already use Juniper’s HR services, decided to reach out to Lily Brown, HR Service Manager, for support.

John Jackson had also successfully worked with Lily Brown in the past on other HR projects, so knew that the team would be in expert hands and get the sound guidance and advice they needed.

A flexible approach to the project was a key driver when choosing to partner with Juniper Education. The nature of John and Clare’s roles within the school meant that they would often need support outside of normal working hours.

The Solution

Leadership appointments are among the most important decisions a school or trust board will make, therefore Juniper Education know that it is essential to follow effective and safe recruitment practices to attract the right candidates and test applicants to ensure the chosen candidate is the right one for the school.

Juniper Education helped the school put together a detailed recruitment plan, working back from April which is when the current Headteacher will enter retirement, and implement a coordinated timeline of recruitment stages.

The team gave advice on the best job boards to use for advertising and how the interviews could be structured. Lily and her colleague Debbie Penny, who also worked alongside John and Clare, also gave guidance around complex candidate referencing and helped put together appropriate wording to be included in letters for unsuccessful candidates. 

The Outcome

Our HR experts  provided hands-on guidance and support for The Robert Drake Primary School which suited John and Clare’s busy schedules throughout the Headteacher recruitment process. From planning the job specification, to shortlisting candidates, recommending interview questions, and giving guidance around candidate referencing; Juniper took the stress out of the recruitment process and was able to help The Robert Drake Primary School successfully recruit a replacement Headteacher.

What our Customers Said

John Jackson commented on his latest partnership with Juniper Education: “I have had a good working relationship with Juniper in the past, (in particular our Account Manager Lily), who took the stress out of the whole recruitment process. We were able to pick-up the phone when we needed and always got prompt responses to our questions, some of which at times were not straightforward. The Juniper team were easy to work with and I found their impartial advice invaluable. I am very happy to have partnered with them once again.”

Clare Barrett also said: “Availability and expert knowledge was key for me during this process. I would often email the team after normal working hours and would get a quick and professional response to what were sometimes time-critical questions. The team would always communicate clearly and their expertise in this field became apparent when the team suggested different ways to approach various stages of the recruitment process.”