SUCCESSFULLY APPOINTED: Headteacher - St Swithun's Catholic Primary School

SUCCESSFULLY APPOINTED: Headteacher - St Swithun's Catholic Primary School - Hampshire

£Competitive to attract the right applicant + Relocation support - Catholic - Head/Principal
Ref: 126 Date Posted: Wednesday 04 Feb 2026

Headteacher

Salary: £Competitive to attract the right applicant + Relocation support
Location: Southsea, City of Portsmouth
Contract Type: Full Time

Contract Term: Permanent
Start Date: Negotiable

St. Swithun’s is a well-established and nurturing Catholic primary school and nursery of (NOR) 346 pupils, serving the Southsea area of the City of Portsmouth – with easy access to the coast, beautiful rural settings and excellent A3(M)/M27 road links.

Southsea is a popular area of the city with young families with a rich multi-cultural diversity – 46% of the pupils have English as an additional language. The school sits within a thriving parish community and a committed Parish Priest, with St Swithun’s Church only a few minutes’ walk away.

The school is popular with parents and is blessed with a significant number of staff with deep and long connections to the school. Governors are also deeply committed - and together with a recently appointed Chair with a strong educational background - they are available as necessary to offer their loyal support.

We are interested in having preliminary, confidential conversations with Catholic school leaders who have the gift for leadership and believe profoundly in the transformative role of Catholic education to improve the lives of others and how to make that a reality.

For a Head/Deputy Head within a small or similar school environment, this could be your next challenge… equally, for a capable and experienced Assistant Head with still yet untapped potential, this might be the right opportunity for you.

A requirement of the post is that applicants must be practising Catholics.

If you believe you can offer the leadership qualities which inspires and motivates others towards excellence and which will ensure the very best education for our children, then we would love to hear from you.

For further details or to have an informal discussion, please contact Liam Dowds, our Emmaus Leadership Advising Consultant who is assisting us with this assignment, in complete confidence, on 01737 652 043 or ldowds@emmausleadership.me BEFORE applying.

We would encourage you to come and visit us and see us at work.

Our school is an equal opportunities employer and committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. DBS check required.

 

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Bishop Alan Williams sm - Diocese of Brentwood

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Canon Carolyn Lewis, Director of Education - Diocese of Leicester and Diocese of Derby

"Emmaus brings a level of professionalism, seen in other industry sectors, to church schools’ recruitment."

The Rt Rev Nick Baines - Anglican Bishop of Leeds

"Thank you for everything you did to successfully support our recruitment of an outstanding Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher. Using Emmaus Leadership to manage the recruitment to the post was much debated and was the subject of intense scrutiny by our Governing Body who were somewhat reluctant to use a leadership recruitment specialist. However, their confidence was reinstated as a result of your professional approach, your insightful knowledge and the resulting candidate pool produced for both appointments. I have no hesitation in recommending Emmaus to other schools."

Annie Sutton - Executive Principal, St Joseph's RC Specialist School and College

"Could we afford it? My belief, as Chair was that we couldn’t afford not to. We needed strong school leaders to be drawn to apply. Our success was down to using Emmaus and definitely money well spent."

Carry Lynott - Chair of Governors, Our Lady and St Brendan's Catholic Primary School, Bradford

"We had been cold called by a few other companies but chose Emmaus as it specialised in Church schools. We were impressed by Liam and his team coming to the school and burrowing in to what the school wanted and needed. He asked searching questions and we were satisfied this was the way forward. I had not been a fan of head hunters before, but I have to say this process and its result was a hugely better experience than going out on our own and was totally professional throughout."

Bridget Prentice, Chair of Governors - Trinity School, Lewisham

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Mark Cole, Chief Executive Officer - Tenax Schools Trust

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Rosemary Johnson, Chair of Governors - Lowton CE High School

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Clive Purser, Chair of Governors, St Andrew's CE High School for Boys, Worthing

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Marjorie Bannister, Chair - St Michael's Catholic College, London

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