Deputy Head; Pastoral and Designated Safeguarding Lead

Dover College and the role

Thank you for your interest in this role.

Dover College is an independent co‑educational day and boarding school in the heart of Dover, Kent, on a remarkable site with buildings dating back to a 12th‑century Benedictine priory. We are a school of around 250 pupils, known for a strong sense of community, high expectations, and pastoral care that is personal, visible, and lived day‑to‑day.

We are seeking an outstanding senior leader to join the College as Deputy Head (Pastoral), with whole‑school responsibility for pastoral strategy, culture and pupil wellbeing. The postholder will also serve as the school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), a pivotal responsibility requiring authority, judgement, calm leadership, and a relentless commitment to safeguarding practice and culture.

This is a role for someone who sets tone as much as direction: highly visible, unshowy, deeply professional, and able to hold firm lines with warmth.

At Dover College, there is nothing more important to us than the physical and emotional health and well‑being of our pupils and staff. We have created a safe culture in which pupils, staff, parents and governors feel able to articulate concerns comfortably; safe in the knowledge that appropriate and effective action will be taken.

Job title: Deputy Head (Pastoral) and Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
Reporting to
:
Headmaster
Role type
:
Full time, permanent
Senior leadership
:
Member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT)

Purpose of the role
:
To provide strategic and operational leadership of pastoral care and pupil wellbeing across the school, ensuring that safeguarding, boarding/day pastoral systems, behaviour, and community culture are coherent, consistently enacted, and clearly understood by staff, pupils and parents.

As DSL, to lead and continuously improve safeguarding and child protection practice, ensuring robust systems, confident staff, effective partnership work with external agencies, and a culture in which concerns are raised early and acted upon appropriately.

If you would like to find out more and apply, we encourage you to read our candidate pack, and submit an application as soon as possible.