Organisational Context

This position is responsible for the academic strategy and implementation for all Niche Schools division, which comprises 13 schools across Abbotts High Schools, Evolve Online and The Bridge Schools, and forms part of the Advtech Group.

The Brand Academic Head works within the Niche Schools division support team (alongside support partners for Finance, People & Culture, and Marketing), so this is an exciting opportunity to work within the division's senior leadership team and influence the strategy and plans of this growing and dynamic group of brands.

The role works in alignment with the academic strategy for the Group that is under the custodianship of Advtech's Academic Centre of Excellence (ACE). 

Reporting to

• The incumbent will report to the MD of the Niche Brand Division with a dotted reporting line to the Executive: ADvTECH Schools, Academic Centre of Excellence (ACE).

Key Areas of Responsibility

1. Alignment of brand academic strategy with Group strategy and focus on brand differentiation

• Leading review and development of the brand academic strategy in consultation with the Academic Centre of Excellence and brand management.
• Working with schools’ leadership (the Principal, Deputies, School Management team) to align brand value propositions with the academic strategy.
• Communicating and monitoring performance goals against the strategy.
• Definition and development of the tactics, goals, and processes to achieve that strategy and academic goals set for each school phase and brand.
• Oversight of brand implementation of academic plan and initiatives at a school level relative to the strategy.
• Development and oversight of professional development and associated activities to improve brand academic performance.
• Budget and cost management - Develop and manage the academics function budget.

2. Academic performance benchmarking and improvement

• Driving data literacy in the schools by communication of findings and collaborative agreement with school management of improvement strategies.
• Monitoring implementation of the performance improvement strategies at brand level.
• Set measurable targets for each subject(s)/department/phase/teachers/mentor/Principal where applicable, monitor the target achievement and work with the principals in ensuring the required support is in place to achieve those targets.
• Develop and implement a strategic and tactical plan to drive academic excellence for all phases in the brand (for example, this would be driving the execution of the Academic Playbook/Niche Academic Success Plan).

3. Teaching and Learning

• Oversight of implementation of appropriate technologies, processes and tools to support learning and teaching in the brand.
• Oversight of implementation of appropriate alternative methods including hybrid, online etc at both subject and full school level for the brand.
• Oversight of the brand adoption of learning management systems.
• Ensure and assure development of teacher skills in brand schools.

4. Curriculum alignment and monitoring

• Ensure brand implementation of the appropriate differentiation and standardisation projects that will enable common assessments and benchmarking including but not limited to timetable efficiencies and models.
• Oversee implementation of scope and sequence project in brand schools.
• Identify and support projects to share best practise and learning material.
• Develop and implement subject-specific strategies to achieve or exceed subject performance targets.
• Support the running of brand differentiated curricula and pedagogy, where appropriate.

5. School effectiveness and efficiencies

• Collaborative work to ensure effective and efficient staffing and other resource models for schools in the brand aligned with impact assessments and group standards.
• Ensure school compliance with the requirements of national and provincial requirements in the academic space.
• Identify and promote implementation of common resources where suitable between the schools in the brand and with other brands – making use of both traditional and digital platforms.
• Ensure that brand represented on all matters related to the student information system insofar as related to academic matters.  Coordinate input and manage compliance.

6. Innovation

• Actively drives implementation, integration and usage of key Edtech systems and tools (e.g. but not limited to MAP, Sirius, Advlearn) with conviction to maximise on student academic achievement.
• Evaluate trends and products to identify those with the potential for impact on teaching and learning and work with ACE to implement and adopt where appropriate.
• Monitor and evaluate impact and adoption.

7. IT readiness and compliance

• Develop brand-level governance for the existing and new applications, software’s, equipment and learner management systems and academic services.
• Ensure that all IT solutions, software and apps are in line with the Niche and Advtech academic strategy.
• Ensure that the minimum IT requirements to deliver Niche academic strategy are documented and maintained.
• Develop the brand strategy for the academic applications and learner management systems (LMS) and establish targets of usage rate. Monitor against the targets and develop countermeasures.
• Streamline current portfolio of academic applications to ensure relevance and coherence across the campuses, and alignment with the Brand Academic strategy.
• Coordination and custody of LMS development and technical support 

8. Differentiation (brand and divisional)

• Ensure inclusion of brand differentiators as well as compliance in terms of global competencies and RDI.
• Develop and implement programmes/ competitions/ other differentiators in the academic space in collaboration with ACE.
• Drive implementation of technology enabled learning.
• Development of the brand academic strategy and policy to drive the delivery of our value proposition, i.e. Academic pillars aligned to Cambridge and IEB requirements.

9. Data-driven decision making

• Ensure brand compliance with common assessments as standardised assessments across schools.
• Develop robust and relevant measurement mechanism and process to ensure that the quality of the academic delivery is in line with the Academic excellence target of the Brand.
• Use benchmark testing data to compare and develop performance and align performance goals and strategies.
• Embed a goal-oriented approach to results including deliberate use of data from baseline and benchmarking tools such as, but not limited to MAP, IDC etc.
• Implement the timetabling and load management strategy of per Brand and contribute to its refinement.
• Contribute to central development of tools for data driven decision making.

10. Research and Analysis

• Contribute to divisional research by conducting analysis of key areas of academic performance through data collection and analysis in brand and central projects.
• Keeps abreast of educational trends and assesses for impact and implementation where appropriate.

11. Quality Assurance

• Implement the quality assurance frameworks including performance measurement.
• Establish a growth-oriented mindset in each school to support the aims of quality assurance.
• Ensure compliance with the evaluation and monitoring procedures and tools.
• Oversee authorisation and verification visits of newly introduced curricula/accreditations.
• Ensure that schools working towards their first matric cohort are implementing the required plans and monitor progress of the cohorts.
• Training and capacity development.

12. People Management

• Support Niche brand management in strategic decisions and/or projects.
• Assist with senior school appointments e.g. Principals and Deputies.
• Give regular, actionable feedback to the brands and schools.
• Support transformation objectives.

13. Stakeholder Relationship Management

• Partner with brand leadership to quality assure differentiation as well as divisional compliance
• Strategically manage relationships with principals, deputies and teachers.
• Represent brand in academic matters with ACE.
• Ensures and enables clear and open communication that includes regular feedback and information sharing.
• Drive adoption of centralised information systems and services (e.g. but not limited to Sirius, ADVNET etc).
• Report to Management Committees (MANCO) and provide Brand input to central reporting.
• Contributes to brand marketing & communication strategies.
• Ensure compliance with requirements for academic work across the division are known and understood and engage with the relevant bodies to ensure compliance.
• Be the Niche brand spokesperson when it comes to general academic matters (PR) where necessary.
• Manage and leverage relationships with the Academic partners of the Brand: IEB, suppliers of learner management system, academic applications and other specialist service providers.
• Develop strategic relationships and partnerships locally and internationally, which are in alignment with the Brand Academic Strategy.

Qualifications

• Preferably a master’s in education but an NQF Level 8 (Honours level) would be acceptable for a person with sufficient leadership experience in education.
• Qualifications and experience include teaching academic subjects at school level at a minimum and preferable fulfilling one of more school leadership roles, such as, but not limited to principal, deputy, executive head.

Experience

• A minimum of 5 years’ teaching experience (IEB is preferable, and Cambridge experience is also beneficial)
• 3+ years of school leadership or school group management experience
• Ideally experience across phases e.g. Foundation to FET
• 3+  years of people management experience
• Knowledge and understanding of Independent Examination Board (IEB) processes and policies

Competencies

• Ability to drive results through others – high levels of influence and conviction
• Project execution – able to plan, implement and track projects and initiatives
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work in a matrix structure
• Exceptional communication skills – both verbal and written
• Curriculum experience – IEB (and Cambridge is beneficial)
• Analytical skills
• Solution-orientation
• Good judgement, unquestioned integrity, and high energy levels
• Conflict handling and problem solving
• Persuasion and motivation
• Dependability