Footprints School

Nursery & Preschool Site Director – Job Description

School Overview
Footprints School is a small, developing school aimed at providing affordable and quality education to Khmer and expat families in Phnom Penh. It has a small, friendly teaching staff, approximately 450 students among its three locations, and teaches an international standard curriculum in English. Footprints School teaches grades Nursery-Grade 5, with one grade being added on each year. The school year runs from September to July. Starting from September 2012, Footprints will be accepting accepts students from Nursery-Grade 6.

As a school, Footprints is quite compact, which means that teachers need to work together and interact with each other often throughout the day. This helps forms friendships and relationships among the teachers, and many choose to do combined sporting or reading activities with other classes to complement their classroom lessons.

Footprints is also an extremely cross-cultural environment. While the majority of students are Khmer, we do have students from other nationalities attending, and this creates opportunities for learning not only in the classroom, but also on a personal level.

Working at Footprints provides an amazing opportunity for teachers to learn more about themselves, to gain a greater understanding of the concept of “culture”, and to broaden their perspectives on almost everything.
Overall, Footprints is a fun, flexible teaching environment, where teachers are encouraged to bring themselves to their classroom, and to return back to the heart of the teaching profession. It is a school which cares about its students on an individual level, and its teachers on a personal level.

Position Overview

Footprints is expanding its main campus next year to include a separate nursery and preschool. This school is within walking distance from its current main campus. A site director is needed to help manage the new location and that individual will be expected to be experienced in nursery and/or preschool.

Working in a small school, the Site Director takes on a wide range of tasks, including being very hands on and supportive of teachers, office staff, and students. Training, behavioural management, planning, public relations, curriculum review, HR, and proof-reader are all part of this position. As such, the ideal person must be flexible, and open to working closely with a variety of people in a variety of roles. The Site Director is expected to teach part time, in the mornings, and to work in the office in the afternoon.

The duties of the Site Director include, but are not limited to -

• Work part time teaching preschool/nursery
• Work closely with the school board, the administration staff and with teachers to ensure smooth daily running of the school and effective long term planning
• Work closely with the Preschool Campus in Toul Kork and its Director to ensure consistency across different sites
• Build relationships with staff in all areas of the school
• Approve enrolments, manage timetables and other scheduling tasks
• Review and extend curriculum as necessary
• Manage website / parent handbook / other promotional material
• Provide support and supervision for all staff
• Develop policy and procedures as necessary
• Review of all staff
• Contract review/renewal
• Human Resources – finding both Khmer and Expat staff as necessary
• Planning and facilitating orientation and professional development days throughout the year
• Liaise with parents, school board, and others as necessary
• Generally being involved in every faucet of the school life

Requirements
Professional Requirements
• Excellent English language skills, both written and spoken
• International Degree or higher in a relevant field
• Extensive experience teaching in a preschool, nursery and/or kindergarten
• Experience training staff
• Valid teacher registration in home country
• Sound knowledge of preschool curriculum and experience in curriculum review and development
• Excellent interpersonal skills and proven experience working closely with others
• Proven problem solving skills using creative and practical approaches
• Appreciation of issues arising from working in a multi-lingual environment, where English is not the first language for most of the staff, students and parents
• Experience in field of leadership/management

Personal Characteristics
• A desire to learn from others and an understanding of what “a cross-cultural experience” is in practice
• Proven flexibility and patience as working cross-culturally can be an extremely challenging experience
• A positive attitude towards all students and a desire to see each student succeed
• An enjoyment of and passion for the teaching profession
• Excellent listening and communication skills
• Excellent personal presentation
Contract length: 2 years

Application Information
Send CV with cover letter and photo to Lisa Biasillo via email: Lisabiasillo [at] gmail [dot] com

Contact Details
Name : Footprints School
Lisa Biasillo

Email : lisabiasillo [at] gmail [dot] com
Website: www.footprintsschool.edu.kh