Summary

Seaford College seeks an inspiring and experienced leader to lead its thriving Prep School, educating around 280 children from Reception to Year 8. Set within the College’s beautiful West Sussex estate, this is an exciting opportunity to combine academic ambition with exceptional pastoral care, ensuring every child is known, supported and challenged to fulfil their potential. The successful candidate will provide strategic, academic, pastoral and operational leadership, inspiring staff and building strong relationships with families. As a member of the College’s Senior Management Team, they will help shape Seaford’s future, champion the Prep’s continued growth and ensure a seamless journey into the Senior School. We welcome applications from ambitious primary or prep school leaders who bring warmth, vision and a wholehearted commitment to school life. Deadline for application Monday 30 November 2026 First round interview via Teams w/c 30 November 2026 Final round of interviews in person w/c 7 December 2026

Detail

Head of Seaford Prep School

Starting September 2027

The Opportunity

Seaford Prep School holds a unique place in the life of Seaford College. Its youngest students arrive in Reception and its oldest leave at the end of Year 8 for the Senior School, meaning that whoever leads Seaford Prep sees children grow from their first weeks of school to the threshold of adolescence, within one community and on one outstanding school estate.

We are seeking a Head of Prep to lead this community from September 2027. The Prep School educates around 280 students from Reception to Year 8 and is a member of IAPS. Its Head carries responsibility for the strategic, academic, pastoral and operational leadership of the Prep School, and sits on the College Senior Management Team, where they contribute to shaping the direction of the College as a whole, as well as that of the Prep School.

The role is ideally suited to an experienced leader who is as visible and influential in classrooms and on the touchline, as they are in the strategic planning that underpins school life. We are looking for someone who understands that a thriving prep school is built on the confidence and trust of parents at every stage of their journey, from initial enquiry through to transition into the Senior School.

It offers the chance to lead a prep school with the continuity, resources, and ambition of a 4 to 18 school behind it, while playing a full part in the next chapter of Seaford College. The College has seen considerable growth over recent years and is in a very healthy position with over 930 students in total across Prep, Senior, and Sixth Form. We are currently in discussions about opening a nursery provision and the successful candidate will play an important part in this development.

A Welcome from the Headmaster

Dear Candidate,

Anyone who has spent time in a good prep school learns to read it at the edges of the day: in the noise of the youngest children arriving with book bags larger than themselves, and in the quieter assurance of the oldest, who by the afternoon are holding a door or finding a lost coat for someone half their size. Those small moments tell you more about a school than any prospectus, because they show what its students have come to believe about how people should treat one another.

Seaford Prep is a school in which those moments matter. It rests on a conviction that runs through the whole College, which is that every child has strengths worth discovering, and that no child should be underestimated on the strength of one result or one label. Our students are known as individuals, stretched where they are ready to be stretched and supported where they need support, and they grow up within a 4 to 18 school that gives them continuity and a wide range of opportunity in the classroom, on the sports field, on stage and out of doors.

The Head of Prep we appoint will champion academic ambition and pastoral care with equal importance and will lead with the visibility and warmth that parents of young children rightly expect. They will also bring a clear understanding of the market in which independent schools now operate. Families choose with great care and with their eyes open, and they want to know what a school will mean for their child at four and again at thirteen. The Head of Prep will provide a confident answer, build the relationships that bring families to Seaford, and ensure that the journey from Reception into the Senior School feels like one seamless education.

You would join a Senior Management Team that works closely and candidly together, and a staff who care deeply about the children in front of them. I would expect our new Head of Prep to contribute to the strategy of the whole College, as fully as they lead the Prep School itself.

The poet William Wordsworth understood that the child we are shapes the adult we become. Those who lead prep schools see the truth of that line more plainly than most, because the habits of mind and the quiet courage that will carry a young person through the rest of their life are formed, year by year, in front of them. That is the opportunity we are inviting you to lead, and I hope you will consider it.

Yours sincerely,

Matt Williams

Headmaster, Seaford College

About Seaford Prep

Seaford College was founded in 1884 and is today a very popular co-educational day and boarding school for students aged 4 to 18, set in Lavington Park near Petworth in West Sussex. The College is owned by The Johnson Trust Limited and governed by a Board of Governors.

Seaford Prep educates around 280 students from Reception to Year 8 and is a member of IAPS. Its students benefit from belonging to a single 4 to 18 community, sharing in the facilities and specialist staff of the wider College while enjoying an education designed around the needs of younger children. Almost without exception, students move into the Senior School at Year 9, and the relationship between the Prep and the Senior School is one of the strengths the new Head will be expected to build upon.

The Head of Prep reports to the Headmaster and, through him, to the Governing Body, and is a member of the Senior Management Team. They line manage the Prep School’s two Deputy Heads, one responsible for academic matters and the other for pastoral care, and through them lead the teaching and support staff of the Prep School, working closely with the College’s admissions, marketing, learning support, safeguarding, boarding, and operational teams.

Terms and Conditions

1. Full-time, permanent leadership position, starting September 2027.
2. Competitive salary commensurate with experience.
3. Membership of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.
4. Family accommodation may be available for the right candidate, as well as generous fee remission for children educated at Seaford College.
5. Participation in the wider life of the College, including attendance at evening and weekend events.
6. Disclosure and Barring Service & Enhanced Checks: NB: This post is classed as having a high degree of contact with children and is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. An enhanced disclosure will be sought through the DBS as part of Seaford College’s pre-employment checks. All offers of employment are subject to satisfactory enhanced DBS checks, prohibition, social media and other checks and references to our satisfaction.

How to Apply

Applications should be made directly to Angela Thornley, PA to the Headmaster, athornley@seaford.org by Monday, 30 November 2026. First round interview via Teams w/c 30 November 2026 followed by final round of interviews in person w/c 7 December 2026. Candidates who would welcome an informal conversation about the role are invited to contact Headmaster of Seaford College, Matt Williams, on head@seaford.org.

Seaford College is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Documents

• Application for Employment Seaford College - TEACHING STAFF 141123 PDF Document
• Recruitment Pack - Head of Seaford Prep 2027 (2) PDF Document