Non-executive director X 1

Bourne Education Trust (BET)

Bourne Education Trust (BET), a multi-academy trust with over 4,000 pupils, seeks to recruit a non-executive director with HR director-level business experience to its trust board. Board meetings rotate around the trust’s academies in Surrey and Hampshire.

About the trust

The Bourne Education Trust (BET) is a multi-academy trust made up of 12 primary and secondary schools in Surrey and Hampshire. The Trust was established in 2013 with the academy sponsorship of Jubilee High School by Epsom and Ewell High School. Over the past five years the Trust has grown to seven primary and five secondary schools, serving over 4000 pupils across Surrey and Hampshire. In the Trust's expansion pipeline there are a further six schools across primary, secondary and alternative provision hoping to join over the next 12-18 months. The Board of the BET is determined to see a high performing multi academy trust that delivers the very best educational experience for pupils at both primary and secondary level.

Plans for the Future and board priorities

The key challenges for the board over the next 12-24 months are:

1. Maintaining standards across schools and ensuring that Ofsted inspections are graded at Good or above, which includes taking Everest Community Academy, which joined the trust in September 2017 from another multi-academy trust, out of Required Improvement (Ofsted) status.
2. Supporting the continued growth of the Trust by completing the conversion and integration of further schools to the trust and providing support to schools under trust ‘Associate’ status. A key priority is building a Hampshire cluster and agreeing an optimum size and nature of the trust in the long-term.
3. Building a strong, sustainable executive team, embedding the Executive lead roles and strengthening leadership capacity across the trust.

As the Trust expands, it aims to have the schools grouped together in clusters of around five academies, each with an Executive Head. These clusters are arranged according to both strategic and geographical areas. Clusters provide strategic partnerships to facilitate and deliver the core purpose of ensuring outstanding outcomes for pupils and students.

Trust ethos & values

The trust aims to create a community of outstanding schools, dedicated to achieving the best outcomes for all learners. BET believes that it is vital to build an exciting and creative climate for learning, within a safe and supportive environment.

The ethos of the Trust is collaborative and participative. Every individual school has a voice, though the trust’s open and transparent governance, in the key decisions which affect each school. Moreover, the trust aims to value the healthy diversity which exists in our schools, and actively encourage each school which decides to join the trust to maintain and further develop its own distinctive culture and identity.

Role Summary Number of Positions Advertised:

1

Role 1 – Trustee/Non-Executive Director

As directors of a charitable trust, BET board members ensure that they comply with charity and company law. The Board of the BET has two core functions: they are to set the strategic direction of the organisation and to ensure financial probity. The Board is supported by the Executive Group (comprised of the CEO, all the headteachers in the trust and Director of Finance & Operations (DFO)). As a multi academy trust, the Board is responsible for all of the academies in the trust. They exercise this responsibility by delegating functions to the Local Governing Body of each academy through Scheme of Delegation.

The competencies required for this role include:

Essential

• Corporate Governance
• HR
• Non-executive/ Trustee

Desirable

• IT/Technology AND/OR
• Legal/Compliance AND/OR
• Risk AND/OR
• Succession Planning

Person specification

The trust is interested in hearing from candidates who come from a HR background and have prior experience serving as a director of an executive board with a good understanding of corporate governance. The trust welcomes applicants who have been a school governor in the past and those who have a strong interest and desire to ‘give back’ to education.

The right candidate is likely to be an HR Director with board-level strategic experience of change and organisational design/restructure. They will understand what it takes to lead a ‘people’ organisation where the success of the schools is dependent upon recruiting, retaining and engaged talented staff.

Time commitment

The Trustee will sit on the main Board and a committee, attending six daytime meetings (8-10.30am), three committee meetings, two networking sessions and circa three school visits tied to other meetings. Up to 12 to 15 days per annum including preparation.

Location of Board Meetings and Trust Website

Board meetings are held at multiple locations across the trust. The website is: www.bourneeducationtrust.co.uk

Governance Structure

Please see http://www.bourneeducationtrust.co.uk/124/trust-leaders for more information.

Background on academy trusts

Academy schools, which are charities run independently of local authority control, now account for 74% of secondary schools and 31% of primaries – and their number is growing all the time.

Many of these schools are grouped together as multi-academy trusts (MATs). There are currently 980 multi academy trusts of 2+ schools.  If the schools are to fulfil their potential, the trusts need non-executives (known in charity law as trustees) to bring a wide range of skills and experience to help guide strategy, ensure their ambitions can be soundly financed and keep their schools up to the mark delivering for their pupils.

“Academy boards must be ambitious for all children and young people and infused with a passion for education and a commitment to continuous school improvement that enables the best possible outcomes. Governance must be grounded in reality as defined by both high-quality objective data and a full understanding of the views and needs of pupils/students, staff, parents, carers and local communities. It should be driven by inquisitive, independent minds and through conversations focused on the key strategic issues which are conducted with humility, good judgement, resilience and determination.”  Source: Governance Handbook, Department for Education (2017)

Trusteeship is a voluntary, unpaid role for people who have the energy and skills to make a real contribution to shaping the future of our schools.  You do not need to have any specialist knowledge of education. 

Applications

Academy Ambassadors is a non-profit programme which recruits senior business leaders and professionals as volunteer non-executive directors onto the boards of multi-academy trusts. If you are interested in applying for the role please send your CV and a short expression of interest detailing which role you are applying for to academyambassadors@newschoolsnetwork.org. Please note candidates should live within reasonable travelling distance of the trust and/or have a link with the region. For more information, please call 0207 952 8556 or visit www.academyambassadors.org.

Key dates

We strongly recommend applying as early as you can to have the best possible chance of being considered as we may change the closing date if we have received sufficient applications. Applicants should be aware of the following key dates in the recruitment process –

Deadline for applications: 1^st March 2018