Deputy Head and Head of Prep Appointments
I’ve known your Head of Search ever since I moved back to the UK after working overseas. I’ve always found her very warm and personable, and I also like the RSAcademics approach. There are many successful players in the senior leadership appointments space, but RSAcademics focuses on education.
Our most recent collaboration with RSAcademics involved the appointment of two key leadership positions: a Senior Deputy Head and a Head of Prep (Middle School). We have recently completed a full restructure of our school’s leadership. Instead of adopting the traditional model of separate Deputy Heads with Pastoral and Academic responsibilities, we created a Senior Deputy Head role with a whole-school remit. In addition, we introduced a Head of Prep to reflect the school’s structure, which comprises Pre-Prep, Prep Middle, and Prep Senior. RSAcademics supported us with the recruitment of both of these roles.
My experience of working with RSAcademics has been excellent. We received a highly personalised service, and having worked with RSAcademics before, you understood me as a leader and what I was looking for. The dialogue with the team was insightful, professional, and the process was well-organised.
The highlight was the visit to the school. Both your Head of Search and your Senior Advisor spent a full day with us, engaging with staff and children. This personal involvement inspired a great deal of confidence among key members of staff. You made it clear that this was not just my appointment, but the school’s appointment and staff left the experience feeling valued and heard. It’s something most companies don’t do.
Our conversations at the start of the process were very positive. I had prepared a comprehensive job specification outlining what I was looking for, but there were some particularly valuable moments where your team demonstrated real insight. You were able to identify the key aspects of the role and the type of candidates we were likely to attract.
Your team had a clear understanding of what I was truly looking for and where we had set the quality bar – recognising that not every candidate would meet it. Your ability to provide that level of quality assurance, while also taking the time to get to know our school and understand its ethos, was incredibly important.
We received a highly personalised service, with the team taking the time to understand me both as an individual and as a client. Their visit to the school allowed them to gain a clear understanding of our vision and mission, as well as the practical realities of the roles we were recruiting for. As we were appointing more than one post, it was particularly helpful to have in-depth conversations about how the roles would align and complement each other within the broader leadership structure.
Having spent part of my own career overseas, I’m particularly interested in both national and international candidates and you really understood that perspective. In fact, the successful appointees are both currently working abroad. RSAcademics were excellent in this regard. They recognised my interest in exploring talent beyond the UK and were very capable in identifying strong candidates both nationally and internationally. For schools who want to think more broadly and explore global candidates, RSAcademics are exceptionally well equipped to support that vision.
They invested the time to truly understand our school, what we were looking for in our senior leaders, and how the roles – and the individuals appointed – would complement one another within our leadership team.