Founder School Leader – Akanksha Foundation

The Akanksha Foundation is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide children from low-income communities with a high-quality education, enabling them to maximize their potential and transform their lives. Akanksha works primarily in the field of education, addressing formal education by initiating school reform through its School Project. Currently, Akanksha reaches out to the 9800 children through its 21 schools in Mumbai and Pune.

Position Summary: It is a great entrepreneurial opportunity to learn and experience building a school from scratch. Each leader is responsible for setting up and managing two new Akanksha schools in Nagpur. This will involve various responsibilities ranging from setting the school vision, setting up systems and processes for management, recruitment of school teams, recruitment of students, building community partnerships, and investing key stakeholders in the government. The opportunity offers the thrill of a start-up with a fast paced dynamic environment and the joy to see an initiative grow and take shape. You will ensure a positive, achievement-oriented school culture to facilitate holistic education that is inclusive of building 21st century skills with a focus on integrating technology in learning

You will be reporting to the Director of Schools- Nagpur.

What your role will entail

• Setting a strong culture conducive to high quality work and well-being of all Stakeholders.
• Setting ambitious skill based goals, along with teachers, for students’ academic achievement in all grades and subjects.
• Setting ambitious goals to develop soft skills in children that address their social and emotional development
• Structuring, planning and executing cohesive professional development opportunities for teachers which is inclusive of all three areas of school development – academic achievement, youth development and community engagement
• Modelling effective lessons and instructional strategies in a blended learning format
• Overseeing collection and analysis of student data to drive school initiatives
• Ensuring documentation and collection of effective plans/other resources from teachers
• Overseeing the design of the parent engagement plan for the year. Working with the social worker to ensure opportunities for parent engagement within the school community and SMC meetings
• Ensuring that the social worker is able to develop the team of helpers in each school
• Managing the operations and logistics of the school, including but not limited to the execution of all systems, processes and data requirements/analysis related to HR, Finance, Data,Government-related and Administration
• Maintaining positive relationships with school-based government officials
• Overseeing the school budget throughout the year
• Leading the recruitment of appropriate number of students each year from target communities
• Creating a safe environment for students, teachers and parents

What do you need for this position:

• Bachelor’s/Post Graduate Degree and/or a Bachelor’s Degree in Education will be preferred
• 5-7 years of teaching experience(preferred).
• Experience in training teachers (theory, classroom application and feedback)
• Experience in developing and documenting curriculum.
• Strong understanding of pedagogical practice
• Highly motivated, persevering, problem-solving and achievement-oriented attitude
• Experience in school leadership (preferred)
• Knowledge of Hindi and Marathi language (preferred