Senior Leadership Role Resources

Looking to recruit a new special educational needs and/or disabilities co-ordinator (SENDCo)? If you’re thinking about the interview process and what tasks and questions to ask at interview to recruit the right candidate for your school, this SENDCo Interview Pack will support your thinking and save you time in the recruitment process. 

Looking to explore your role-specific strengths and weaknesses as part of your ongoing development as a headteacher or principal? Or perhaps your governing body, trust leaders or trustees are looking to help the school develop by identifying the skills and development points of the setting's headteacher or principal? No matter the situation, this handy pack contains exactly what you need to uncover strengths and plan for professional development & growth.

Is your setting looking to recruit a new headteacher, principal, head of school or executive head? If you’re a chair of governors, a trustee or MAT leader looking for the right interview questions to ask a prospective headteacher, as well as interview tasks that will test their strengths and skills, this Headteacher Interview Pack is here to support you through the process.

🗂️ A complete, step-by-step framework for running a fair, well-organised recruitment process

Recruiting well takes more than a good job advert. This pack takes the guesswork out of the whole process, with fully editable templates and clear guidance for every stage, from planning your timeline and writing the job description, through to shortlisting, interviewing, scoring and welcoming your new starter.

Choose the version that fits your school's needs:

☑️ Full Pack – full PDF guidance and every template covering the whole process, from planning through to induction.

☑️ Recruitment Timeline Planning Template – just the timeline, if you're at the start of the process and need to map out your schedule.

☑️ Shortlisting Templates – the Application Form Shortlisting Template and Shortlisting and Interview Letters, ready when you're moving from applications to a shortlist.

☑️ Reference Request Template – a structured and standardised reference request on its own.

☑️ Interview Decision & Feedback Templates – the Interview Scoring Sheet, Recruitment Decision Record and Candidate Feedback Notes, for scoring, deciding and giving feedback consistently.

Ideal for headteachers, senior leaders, school business managers and those in charge of school recruitment.

👇 Choose your version below.

🔒 Aligned to KCSIE 2026 

Ensure your school's safer recruitment processes are rigorous and compliant with clear guidance and ready-to-use checklists that keep every pre-employment check and single central record entry complete and audit-ready.

You'll get:

☑️ Safer Recruitment Compliance Guidance (6 pages) – covers the SCR, pre-appointment checks, conditional offers and what to do if a check raises a concern

☑️ Safer Recruitment Checklist Template – a to-do list for the whole recruitment process, from advertising through to appointment

☑️ Pre-Employment Checklist – record-keeping for the specific checks to complete once you have a preferred candidate

☑️ SCR Record-Keeping Checklist – audit your SCR itself for completeness against KCSIE requirements

Please note this pack does not replace safer recruitment training, which one panel member on every interview should have. Instead, this pack supports those who are already safer recruitment trained and those responsible for school recruitment record-keeping to stay organised and ensure every check for new staff members has been completed. These three checklists are also included within our full School Recruitment and Employment Compliance Pack, for schools building their whole recruitment process from scratch.

Ideal for headteachers, SBMs, office managers, DSLs and safeguarding link governors who want their safer recruitment process, pre-employment checks and SCR entries to be watertight.