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Principal

Employer
WOODSTOCK SCHOOL
Location
Uttarakhand (IN)

View more

Job Category
Administrator, Principal
Grade Level
High School
Job Type
Full-Time

Job Details

Woodstock School announces the search for a new Principal.

Contents

About Woodstock. 

Woodstock’s guiding statements and educational philosophy. 

Board Objectives for Woodstock School's Principal 

How to Express your Interest. 

Woodstock is seeking a new Principal, starting July 2019, to lead the school through the next, exciting stage in its future. 

About Woodstock Mission

Woodstock School strives for excellence in teaching and learning, offering an exceptional education in a diverse international community. Inspired by its Indian Himalayan environment and inclusive Christian tradition, it develops visionary, articulate and ethical individuals equipped to achieve their full potential in leadership and in life.

The School

Established in 1854, Woodstock is Asia’s oldest and India’s leading international residential school*. A co-educational, Christian school, Woodstock provides a world-class education to a diverse group of 500 students from more than 30 countries. It aims to develop global citizens who demonstrate a commitment to serving others and to life-long learning. Students are encouraged to discover their academic and leadership strengths and to gain the experiences and tools necessary to study, work, and flourish in today’s global environment.

More than 4,000 Woodstock alumni worldwide, many of whom are prominent in their professions, maintain contact with the school. In total, Woodstock has more than 160 faculty members, residential and support staff.

While Woodstock is founded upon, and stresses the importance of, strong service-oriented Christian values, staff members are drawn from and committed to promoting respect for all faiths.

The Location

Based in Mussoorie, North India, and situated between 2000 and 2300 metres (6500-7500 feet) above sea level, Woodstock’s campus covers more than 250 acres of protected forest on the foothills of the Himalayas. This location offers students plentiful opportunities to appreciate India’s history and culture, to study complex human and environmental issues first-hand. Its Himalayan surroundings provide an exceptional environment for outdoor education and learning.

Accreditation

Woodstock provides a college preparatory education leading to a U.S. high school diploma. In India, the Woodstock diploma is recognised as equivalent to the 10+2 system by the Association of Indian Universities. In 1959, Woodstock was the first school in Asia to receive U.S. accreditation through the Middle States Association (MSA) of Colleges and Secondary Schools. In November 2018, the school completed its latest self-study and accreditation visit through MSA and the Council of International Schools (CIS). The joint CIS/MSA accreditation report is expected in January 2019. 

Woodstock School is a Candidate School** for the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Diploma Programme (DP). This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy — a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Woodstock School believes is important for our students. Final acceptance as an IB school is expected in early 2019.

Campus Life and Learning

A Woodstock education combines the very best features of high academic challenge with a unique approach to the enrichment and personal development of young people. Students discover their passions and develop their strengths while undertaking a curriculum that is challenging, engaging, and experiential. Students flourish in Woodstock’s healthy, academically challenging environment, developing independent living and leadership skills. Opportunities abound for participation in arts, sports, cultural, religious, and social activities, as well as in professionally directed music, drama, and journalism programmes. Woodstock’s historic campus is equipped with modern technology, design, and science laboratories.

The school implements the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) Curriculum in Grades 6-10 and is presently transitioning from the Advanced Placement (AP) Curriculum to the IB Diploma Programme (DP) in Grades 11 and 12. Boarding begins in Grade 6. The school has an Early Years Programme for students from age 3 through Grade 5, primarily catering for staff children. For students who come to Woodstock as English language learners, an intensive English as an Additional Language programme augments the Grades 6-10 curriculum.

The Hanifl Centre for Outdoor Education and Environmental Study offers programmes in leadership, outdoor education, service learning, and environmental science. The Centre for Imagination serves to imagine new ways of learning, inspiring young people to discover their grand passion in life and to explore what it means to live from a strong sense of vocation. Woodstock’s Community Engagement Programme enables students to work collaboratively with neighbouring communities in a way that benefits both them and local people.

One week per year is devoted to off-campus experiences, service, and learning, often in adventurous and challenging situations, from mountaineering to white-water rafting. Our Global Alliance for Innovative Learning (GAIL) school partnership provides opportunities to travel through student exchanges and study abroad.

Residential Programme

Residential life takes place within a friendly, caring and diverse multi-cultural community with a strong family atmosphere. Resident dorm parents coordinate their students’ extracurricular and weekend activities to complement and enhance the academic programme. Students learn about their own cultures as well as the values and perspectives of others through interaction with peers and staff from around the world. They discover shared values and create powerful bonds, with the understanding that transcending boundaries does not require denying the distinctions among individuals and their diverse backgrounds.

The Faculty

Half the faculty members are from India, and half are from the rest of the world – United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, South America and other countries in Asia. The teacher to student ratio is one to seven, to ensure adequate individual attention and to allow teachers to assess each student’s learning needs. Woodstock also invests in high-quality professional development for staff, by enabling them to attend professional courses during breaks and by bringing expert practitioners onto campus for training programmes.

  Woodstock’s guiding statements and educational philosophy   Woodstock’s Guiding Principles

Drawn from the foundational documents which articulate our school’s identity, ethos, and direction, these statements summarize the values that guide us, shaping the policies and practices for all members of our community:

  • We pursue wholeness
  • We seek well-being
  • We elicit greatness
  • We value compassion
  • We tread lightly on the earth

  Woodstock’s Vision of Eliciting Greatness

We hold that young people learn greatness through seeing adults strive after the same goal and through seeing the principles of greatness woven through the fabric of a learning community. To Elicit Greatness, education should:

  • Emerge from clear philosophical and spiritual underpinnings
  • Take place within a compassionate and caring community
  • Require the balanced development of the whole person
  • Be challenging, engaging, and experiential
  • Offer opportunities for young people to show initiative and develop self-discipline
  • Maximize the potential for learning held by a diverse school community
  • Develop a clear understanding of leadership and service
  • Embrace the outdoors as a significant resource for learning and personal development
  • Cultivate a meaningful relationship with the natural environment
  • Encourage a healthy lifestyle to support the development of the whole person

Key Documents

Guiding Principles

Religious Life Policy

Educational Philosophy

Desired Learning Outcomes

  Our Programmes Centre for Imagination Community Engagement Hanifl Centre Summer at Woodstock Board Objectives for Woodstock School's Principal Ethos

  • It is a requirement that the Principal should uphold and protect the Christian character of the School. The Principal should be a Christian, both in personal faith and in practice

Students

It is expected that the Principal will: 

  • Be passionate about the advancement of students and pupils of all ages (Woodstock is a K – 12 school)
  • Like students and enjoy teaching
  • Be comfortable with the close-knit community of a residential school
  • Expect and get the best from students
  • Be effective in preparing students to be successful at colleges and universities of their choice
  • Be effective in providing sound advice to students in seeking admission to colleges and universities
  • Be able to carry out a needs-blind student admission policy while not compromising on other values and standards
  • Support leadership skills among students

Institutional Advancement

It is expected that the Principal will: 

  • Have the necessary experience and knowledge of the ways in which fundraising fits into the larger school framework
  • Work closely and as a team player with Friends of Woodstock School (FWS), Woodstock Old Students Association (WOSA), and other alumni organizations in their fundraising and alumni programmes
  • Have sufficient knowledge and experience in financial and programme analyses to understand the short and long-term implications of the various elements of the strategic plan and fundraising objectives and programmes
  • Be an excellent communicator, both as a speaker and as a writer, and an effective listener to voices from the broad Woodstock community located both on-site and off-site
  • Be effective in persuading individual board and staff members to take ownership of the fundraising objectives and programmes
  • Interact effectively and successfully with major donors and be able to sell major components of the strategic plan to them for funding
  • Be able to express the value of Woodstock to a wider audience of donors to increase participation, to promote Woodstock and to increase contributions
  • Articulate the vision produced by generations of Woodstock leadership
  • Interact effectively in articulating Woodstock’s vision with the wider Woodstock community: Staff members, Parents, Alumni, Local and National Governments, Corporations, Foundations, and Friends
  • Turn down projects which do not align with the School's strategic objectives and redirect interest toward projects that do

Staff Excellence

It is expected that the Principal will: 

  • Recruit, motivate and retain high achieving teachers and administrators
  • Build a critical mass of staff members who can deliver strong students results in all academic subjects offered by the school
  • Develop national and cultural diversity among long-serving staff members
  • Achieve a level of academic performance that is comparable with that of the world’s best schools
  • Develop and execute staff evaluation and development strategies and programmes to ensure continuity and sustainability
  • Be effective in projecting the value of a Woodstock education to Indian students who are planning to attend Indian Universities

Diverse Student Body to Compete with Schools Worldwide

The Principal will be expected to: 

  • Demonstrate a positive record of accomplishment in schools of similar nature to Woodstock
  • Articulate the value that a Woodstock education brings to students of all nationalities
  • Be passionate about the positive value and impact of a boarding school education on students
  • Be effective at raising the standard of admissions
  • Be effective in promoting Woodstock as the school of choice for expatriate and local families in the region and South Asian families residing abroad
  • Be effective in promoting gap year programmes to recruit academically qualified students from North and South America, Europe and other regions in order to support the broadening of cultural awareness by Woodstock students
  • Be effective in promoting Woodstock as an education leader
  • Be effective in making the best use of Woodstock’s Himalayan location
  • Be effective in demonstrating the value of the Woodstock legacy of cultural, religious and national diversity, broad academic and co-curriculum offerings, emphasis on respect for nature and enjoyment of outdoor activities.

Excellence in Achieving Results

It is expected that the Principal will: 

  • Possess effective skills in interacting with the Woodstock Board
  • Create shared values among a disparate team to ensure the vision is pursued and that goals are met
  • Have strong administration skills to ensure that the financial, management, and physical infrastructure of the school can support the goals
  • Understand the value of sound financial and fiscal management to yield sustainability and achievement of the school's vision and goals
  • Be effective at promoting consensus in setting priorities among the options available to strive for excellence in important defined by the strategic plan
  • Strive to achieve the academic excellence expected in a school of this reputation
  • Respect the laws and regulations demanded by the government and society in India

Leadership

It is expected that the Principal will: 

  • Have an advanced degree and successful experience at a senior administrative level in a comparable school
  • Ideally have experience of leading Christian activities in a similar or external setting
  • Be a proven leader of a school on an upward trajectory in achieving academic excellence, administrative competence, and financial sustainability
  • Possess exceptional ability to manage complex political and cultural relationships and work well with a diverse set of communities, management approaches and individual personalities
  • Have a proven record in successfully motivating people and in collaborative team building
  • Have a proven record in being able to promote active engagement by stakeholders
  • Have proven ability and interest in carrying out bi-directional communication with a multi-national, multi-cultural, and geographically distributed set of stakeholders
  • Possess strategic vision as well as practical skills
  • Be an effective administrator and manager, including being able to carry out effective leadership development, organisational structuring, internal communication, prioritisation and pacing

Academic

It is expected that the Principal will: 

  • Have the competence to support, enhance and carry out a successful IB curriculum, as evidenced by student outcomes and college admission records
  • Be able to recruit, retain and develop outstanding staff members, as well as being able to articulate the resources needed to support them
  • Be knowledgeable and at ease with strategies commonly adopted in the best schools in the world 
  • Improve the school's teaching programme in the area of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) so that this becomes one of the areas for which Woodstock is renowned.

Administration

It is expected that the Principal will: 

  • Have proven knowledge and competence in budgeting, fiscal management, basic accounting and financial planning
  • Be familiar with the importance of cash flow management
  • Motivate and build the administrative team toward excellence
  • Create an effective mutually supportive partnership between the academic, pastoral and administrative teams of the School
  • Be knowledgeable about Facilities administration, information technology and operational services
  • Institutionalize effective, and efficient processes and controls

Personal

It is expected that the Principal will: 

  • Set an example for the students and community in this Christian international school located in India
  • Be above reproach in his or her personal life

The position reports to the Woodstock Board of Directors and the Principal officiates as the Executive Secretary to the Board.

How to Express your Interest

Interested candidates should express their interest by email to principalsearch@woodstock.ac.in. Please include your curriculum vitae and a covering letter, and indicate how you found out about the opportunity. The closing date for applications is 25 January 2019.

*Woodstock School has been ranked number one international residential school in India by Education World for the last four years running. https://www.educationworld.in/school-ranking/?school=International%20Residential

**Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme, or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit http://www.ibo.org

Company

Established in 1854, Woodstock is Asia’s oldest and India’s leading international residential school*. A co-educational, Christian school, Woodstock provides a world-class education to a diverse group of 500 students from more than 30 countries. It aims to develop global citizens who demonstrate a commitment to serving others and to life-long learning. Students are encouraged to discover their academic and leadership strengths and to gain the experiences and tools necessary to study, work, and flourish in today’s global environment. More than 4,000 Woodstock alumni worldwide, many of whom are prominent in their professions, maintain contact with the school. In total, Woodstock has more than 160 faculty members, residential and support staff. While Woodstock is founded upon, and stresses the importance of, strong service-oriented Christian values, staff members are drawn from and committed to promoting respect for all faiths.

Company info
Website
Telephone
911352639140
Location
WOODSTOCK SCHOOL, LANDOUR
Mussoorie
OTHER Province/Region
248179
IN

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