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Non-executive director X 2

Employer
Academy Ambassador
Location
Kent
Salary
unpaid/ voluntary
Closing date
6 Jul 2019

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Potential in Everyone Academy Trust

Potential in Everyone Academy Trust in Kent seeks a non-executive director with Health & Safety experience to join the board of this primary only mixed Church of England MAT with both Church and Community schools. Board meetings are held in Sittingbourne.

About the Trust

Potential in Everyone Academy Trust (PiEAT) was established on 1 August 2017 and currently has four primary schools within the Swale area.  There are 950 pupils on roll, 250 staff and a budget of £4.5m. The trust aims to promote excellence across all its school and, while it is a church-led multi academy trust (MAT), it has both church and non-church schools within its community. Two were church schools and two were Local Authority maintained community schools.

PiEAT encourages the sharing of best practice in teaching and learning between schools and promotes mutual accountability across all its schools. The trust provides immediate support and intervention where required to raise standards in schools and continuous improvements in performance across the trust.

There are pockets of deprivation within the community and the trust has an increased number of children with special education needs attending the schools and a growing number of children with English as a second language. There is also a Speech and Language Unit attached to two of the schools, which supports children from reception to transition at age eleven. Three schools are rated as Good and one rated as Outstanding by Ofsted. In 2017/2018 PiEAT schools continued to achieve good outcomes with Key Stage 2 results being above or in line with national and the local authority average for reading, writing and mathematics, also with more children achieving greater depth in these subjects. At Key Stage 1, the trust achieved a similar outcome being on a par or above national and the local authority. Both our church schools have within the last 18 months achieved ‘Outstanding’ following a SIAMS Inspection. We will shortly be implementing a Trust School Improvement Lead across our Trust, who will also be working with and across other Trusts within our community. Our Trust is actively developing the Kent MAT Association, formed in 2018, where a range of CEO’s have come together to further develop and support our MAT community in Kent. PiEAT plans for continued growth at a measured and sustainable rate and anticipates, as the trust grows, it will develop regional clusters or 'hubs', supported by regional board structures.

The trust’s current three-year business plan sets out the following strategic objectives to ensure that the public, parents and stakeholders have confidence in its approach. It aims to deliver the best in

  • Strategic Governance;
  • School improvement - teaching & learning;
  • Enhancement Activities;
  • School leadership development and continuous professional development of its staff;
  • Quality Assurance;
  • Integrated support & shared services; and
  • Developing & growing PiEAT central operations

Plans for the Future

The key challenges for the board are:

  1. Delivery of a plan for long-term growth to increase the number of academies, attracting non-faith schools, rural schools and Ofsted Good schools to join the trust. Our Trust Strategic Day in April 2019 seeks to develop the current plan into to a long-term strategy of 5 to 10 years.
  2. Organisational and governance change to create a structure that is fit for purpose to an organisation of this size. Currently the trust has a Board of Directors with the Chief Executive Officer having a seat on the Board. There is a Trust Leadership Team in place responsible for the operational management of the schools, and this is comprised of the CEO and the Head Teachers of the trust schools. The central team has been expanded to include HR and Finance functions with overall responsibility for trust-wide Finance, Human Resources, systems and policies.
  3. Financial stewardship: continuing to invest to support school improvement and ensure the resources and assets of the trust are effectively deployed and the trust maintains a balanced budget overall

Future plans are focused on:

  • Ensuring financial stability in the changing environment for all the schools within the trust. Current strategies are still focused on developing and implementing inter MAT trading for a range of services supported within the Kent MAT Association (CPD for all Staff, ICT services, Grounds Maintenance services, Finance systems and services).
  • A full staffing review to removing inconsistencies has been completed at 2 of the four schools, resulting in savings to improve the financial stability of those schools. The remaining schools are currently within a staffing review programme.
  • The Lead Primary School Improvement Practitioner for the Trust has just been recruited.  
  • Our CEO has completed a National Qualification for Executive Leadership (NPQEL) to support his leadership of our Trust.
  • We still have a focus of continuing professional development to ensure that staff have the right skills to raise standards further and deliver good teaching and learning. Our programme of developing our head teachers continues, with 3 having achieved the national Professional Qualification for headship and the fourth one currently in progress. We also have ongoing middle leadership development programmes in place, to develop leaders for the future.

Trust Ethos & Values

The ethos of the trust is collaborative and participative. Every school has a voice, through the trust’s open governance. The trust aims to value the diversity in its schools, and PiEAT encourages each school which decides to join the trust to maintain its own distinctive culture and identity.  

Please see https://www.pieat.org.uk/about-us/ for more information.

Role Summary Number of Positions Advertised:

2

Role 1 – Trustee/Non-Executive Director

Trustees – or non-executive directors - are both charity trustees and company directors of the academy trust; the role is to hold to account the executive and senior leadership team. The board of trustees manages the business of the academy trust and may exercise all the powers of the trust. The trustees ensure compliance with the trust’s charitable objects and with company and charity law.

Person Specification

The competencies required for this role include:

Essential

 

  • Health & Safety Knowledge Experience

Desirable

 

  • Change Management
  • Corporate Governance

 

 

 

The trust is looking for a trustee with a background as an experienced Health & Safety person with a wide knowledge of the Employers responsibilities in respect of Health & Safety.

Role 2 – Trustee/Non-Executive Director

Trustees – or non-executive directors - are both charity trustees and company directors of the academy trust; the role is to hold to account the executive and senior leadership team. The board of trustees manages the business of the academy trust and may exercise all the powers of the trust. The trustees ensure compliance with the trust’s charitable objects and with company and charity law.

Person Specification

The competencies required for this role include:

Essential

 

  • Human Resources Experience

 

 

Desirable

 

  • Change Management
  • Corporate Governance

 

 

 

The trust is looking for a trustee with a background as an experienced Human Resources person with knowledge of the Employers responsibilities in respect Employment Law.

All candidates are required to demonstrate a desire to create positive change for young people, a commitment to the aims and objectives of the trust, a willingness to devote time and effort and a commitment to safeguarding young people. They should have reliability and integrity. The trust is looking to appoint an individual who has a strategic vision and an ability to think creatively with good, independent judgement. Even though the trust does contain church schools, it is not a requirement that candidates are practicing Christians.

Time Commitment

6 hours /month minimum.

Location of Board Meetings and Trust Website

Trust website: https://www.pieat.org.uk/

Governance Structure

Please see https://www.pieat.org.uk/about-us/governance-structure/

Background on Academy Trusts

Academy schools, which are charities run independently of local authority control, now account for 73% of secondary schools and 29% 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 760 multi academy trusts of 3+ 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: Wednesday 31st July 2019

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