Head of Senior School

The Governors and Principal of our highly successful and thriving school are seeking to appoint an exceptional leader as Head of Senior School from August 2025.

The school is sector leading in ‘wellbeing, equality and inclusion’, and ‘attainment and achievement’ and is renowned for its academic excellence, outstanding pastoral care and providing a wide range of co-curricular opportunities.

As Head of Senior School, you will lead the strategic and operational development of the Senior School, inspiring pupils and staff alike. Reporting to the Principal and as a key member of the Senior Management Team, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the educational experience for 1,000+ senior pupils, ensuring they are inspired and supported to achieve their full potential.

We are looking for a visionary educator with a proven track record of leadership and management in an educational setting. You will have a commitment to fostering a culture of academic excellence, inclusivity, and personal growth, with the ability to motivate and empower staff and pupils alike. Acting as a role model, you will uphold Heriot’s values and display the skills to drive innovation while respecting tradition.

Saxton Bampfylde Ltd is acting as an employment agency advisor to George Heriots on this appointment.

For further information about the role, including details about how to apply, please visit
www.saxbam.com/appointments using reference CAYTD. Alternatively, email Belinda.beck@saxbam.com

We aim to attract and retain a diverse group of talented people, who are committed to upholding the school’s ethos. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we welcome applications from all sections of the community.

George Heriot’s School

George Heriot’s School is Edinburgh’s leading independent school. Academically proven and recognised as sector-leading by Education Scotland in June 2024, the school’s best practice expertise in wellbeing, equality and inclusion, and in raising attainment and achievement, is acknowledged. The school has 1,670 pupils aged from 4-18, with a distinct family feel shaped by its 400-year motto: I distribute chearfullie. Working hard, being kind, and being yourself are the values which bind staff and pupils into a cohesive whole. Put simply, Heriot’s cares about its staff and pupils.

As Edinburgh’s oldest school, Heriot’s was founded through the generosity of George Heriot, jeweller and goldsmith to the court of King James VI/I and his wife Queen Anne. Goldsmiths at that time were the principal money lenders and Heriot was able to amass a small fortune which he left to found a school for the ‘poor bairns of Edinburgh’. Since it opened, the Foundation at Heriot’s has developed an unrivalled understanding of providing bereavement support and over the years has educated in excess of 5,700 Foundation pupils, each of whom received a fully funded education in keeping with the Founder’s wishes.

Separately, the school has continued to apply the transformative powers of education, opening 21 Out Schools in the 1800s which educated over 100,000 boys and girls in Edinburgh before the advent of the Children’s Act, and more recently supporting Serbian, Syrian and Ukrainian refugees to build a better life in Scotland. Each year the school spends approximately £1.3 million to support the education of bursary and Foundation pupils.

Today the school is an award-winning beacon: the only school in Scotland to receive the Gold Award from SAPERE for its teaching of philosophy in Junior School; awarded a third consecutive gold award for being a UNICEF Rights Respecting Schol and being voted the Sunday Times School of the Decade by readers in their Parent Power survey.