What we do

We don’t fill vacancies. We align needs. Collectively.

A premium search partner, education only. Permanent, ongoing, fixed term and leadership appointments for schools across Melbourne and Victoria.

Our approach

A better experience on both sides of the search.

Armitage Collective was built to make hiring better on both sides of it. For a school, that means a brief taken properly and a shortlist worth your time. For a teacher, it means knowing the school, the team and the role before anything is decided.

That takes thought at every step, and every search gets it. Here is what that looks like in practice.

We work in partnership, both directions.

One brief, listened to properly

Not a job spec by email. A conversation about the school, the team the person is joining, the students, where you’re headed, and what “great” looks like in your context. We don’t start a search until we understand what the role actually needs.
A shortlist from the alignment

Teachers whose needs genuinely meet yours: interviewed, screened against your brief, and asked about your school by name before you see them. If nobody fits, I tell you that instead.
One person, start to finish

I take the brief, I run the search, I manage the offer. You never get handed sideways to someone who wasn’t in the first conversation.
We stay past the start date

A replacement guarantee behind every appointment, and check-ins through the first year on both sides. Retention is the measure, not the placement.

The four things we place

Education only. No other sectors, no dilution.

Permanent & ongoing

Permanent and ongoing are the same appointment, and the search runs the same way in every sector. Classroom teachers through to heads of department, the ones you’ll live with for years, resourced accordingly. Primary and secondary, across all four sectors.

Replacement guarantee on every appointment

Fixed term

Twelve-month contracts, parental leave cover, term-length appointments. A defined chapter with a known end date, worked the same way as a permanent search. Priced simply, and the teacher goes on your books.

Defined chapters, handled properly

Leadership & executive search

Deputy principals, principals and heads of school. A separate, discreet process: research-led, approach-based, confidential on both sides until it shouldn’t be. The candidates worth having are almost never applying to ads.

Retained search, run to the timeline agreed at proposal

International & sponsorship

Teachers from the UK, Ireland, Canada, the USA and New Zealand, including sponsored appointments. Most are placed before they arrive, so they land ready to start rather than starting a job search. Where an appointment is sponsored the school is the sponsor, and anything visa-specific goes to a registered migration agent rather than me.

Vetted to exactly the same standard

Sectors

Independent. Catholic. Government. Special education.

I place across all four systems and have for years, including extensive government school experience. Every sector hires differently, budgets differently and moves at a different speed. The shortlists reflect that.

The roles I place

Classroom teachers, Prep to Year 12 Education Support VCE specialists Middle leadership Positions of Responsibility Heads of Department Learning Diversity Teacher Librarian Director of Sport Deputy principals Principals

The standard

Same vetting, every role, no exceptions.

A twelve-month contract gets the same checks as a principal search. Registration and Working with Children Check verified against the register, not sighted as a photocopy. Where references are taken, they are taken by phone. Nothing about the size of the role changes what happens before a name reaches a school.

Insurances, policies and how the checks are done

Education only, and only Victoria

Start with a conversation, not a brief.

One conversation, either side of the desk. I read every enquiry personally, and you will hear back from me.