‘Inspire to Aspire’

Chief Executive Mercian Educational Trust

“We know what we are,

but know not what we may be.”

Hamlet Act 4 Scene 5

An exciting opportunity to join a successful multi academy trust, leading

us forward to an exciting future based on our mission and Values.

“Inspire to Aspire”

Contents

1. Welcome

2. About The Role

3. Our Heritage

4. Mission and Values

5. Job Description

6. Person Specification

7. How to Apply

“Inspire to Aspire”

Welcome Thank you for your interest in this exciting opportunity with Mercian Educational Trust (MET). I would like to welcome you personally, and I hope you will find here all the information you need to inspire you to join our team. We’ve come a long way together, and our current Chief Executive leaves us in an enviable position, poised to take our next step forward. We’ve built strong relationships with our academies, founded on professional trust and respect, and have sustained and inspired pupil learning standards to prove that we have made a difference in the lives of our children. MET currently comprises of two primary schools in Malvern, Somers Park Primary and Great Malvern Primary, educating over 800 children. We’re delighted to report that over the past year each of our academies has shown growth and improvement – standards have risen, progress has improved, adjustments to the curriculum have been made and governance has been strengthened – as has school leadership at every level. We are developing a new build school to open January 2018. These are exciting and rewarding times for the whole team. This role is an opportunity for a new leader to make their own impact on the future of MET, building on our Mission Statement, Aims and Objectives, plus values. Reporting directly to the Trust Board, our new Chief Executive will know that they will enjoy the support and professional challenge they need to succeed. Our commitment to partnership, ethical integrity and the highest quality is paramount, especially as we’ll be working together through challenging times. Just like all educational organisations across the country, our academies will face new pressures in the coming years. This position is one that has challenges, but the potential for rewards are unlimited. As a sponsor I am equally concerned that the right person finds the position fulfilling, as well as professionally and personally rewarding. So I look forward to getting to know candidates throughout the recruitment process. I wish you well with your application. Tim Swallow Founding Chairman of Directors

www.metacademies.co.uk

“Inspire to Aspire”

About the role

The role of Chief Executive at MET offers a fascinating blend of strategic and operational responsibility. The role combines vision and leadership, shared responsibility alongside accountability and communication, engaging with as wide a stakeholder group as you are likely to meet. As such, the role will suit a leader who likes to be hands on, shaping and setting the vision, but also getting into school to see things in practice. Most likely you’ll be bringing excellent leadership experience from a high quality school setting or equivalent, or as an executive or system leader from a trust or federation, which will support future expansion of MET. Whatever your background, you’ll find at MET a committed, professional central team and a talented group of academy headteachers, middle leaders, teachers and support staff. The Chief Executive balances their time between central activity and close working with the academies and academy leaders. You’ll work centrally to lead the MET team, managing risk, pushing for excellence across all our academies and growing the MET network. But you’ll also be out in the academies themselves: providing direct challenge and support to leaders, developing capacity through training and facilitation, and also supporting improvements in the classroom through observation and evaluation. We hope this is an exciting proposition for a passionate leader committed to making a difference for all students from a broad range of backgrounds. Other activities likely to feature in your diary in the first six months will also include:

Getting to know the central team, reviewing strategy and direction.

Meeting one to one with our Executive Leadership fortnightly to review their self-evaluation and to prioritise and target the support they need from the Trust.

Collecting and analysing the performance data to ensure that the Trust is on track to meet its targets.

Facilitating key meetings, including the Directors and Members meetings.

Delivering leadership training to emerging leaders, middle leaders and aspiring senior leaders.

Observing lessons with members of the academy leadership teams.

Ensuring that the board has the information that they need to make judgements about how best they can carry out their roles and responsibilities.

“Inspire to Aspire”

Mercian Educational Trust

Chief Executive Role Summary

Thinker and strategist

Leader

Quality assurer

Business developer

Investor in people

Communicator within the MET

Ambassador for MET

“Inspire to Aspire”

Mercian Educational Trust

Our Heritage

Our local area was settled by Angles in the latter part of the sixth century. Whilst some were Christian, many settlements were not faith based. Archaeology has revealed a mottled red shield with an old gold circumference. The white Wyvern is also a printed Angles image from the immediate area. It is a legendary creature, similar to dragon images, but two-legged.

“The sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination”

Fast forward to The Renaissance, and the red shield with gold band, plus white wyvern, can be found on family heraldry in the Italian cities of Florence and Bologna. Bologna was the home of the world’s first university, a place for independent free-thinkers and separate from the Church. This was a period of rapid development in open-minded, scientific philosophy. It was a time of enlightenment.

“I am no bird, no net ensnares me, I am free with independent will”

Mercian Educational Trust takes its philosophy from the enlightenment. The students we seek to educate will inherit a rapidly changing world and work environment. We aim to develop essential skills to enable them to navigate a pathway of life-long learning, as well as being able to make a contribution to the society they inhabit.

“We know what we are, not yet what we may be”

Essentially our schools ambitiously seek to develop open-minded, independent free-thinkers, skilled in critical appraisal, reasoning and constructive creativity that has value.

Somers Park and Great Malvern were originally founded from the non-conformist community. MET schools are not faith based.

“Inspire to Aspire”

Mercian Educational Trust

Great Malvern and Somers Park became academies in 2011 together with three other schools, operating informally as a chain. The two schools formed Mercian Educational Trust (MET) in November 2015. Academic learner standards have made rapid progress from that point, as well as sustaining outstanding practice in significant areas. MET is currently having conversations with three schools potentially joining the Trust.

“Inspire to Aspire”

Mission Statement ‘Educate highly achieving, independent free thinking individuals able to engage in civic society’

Aims

To ensure sustainable excellence of learning throughout the family of schools. To continually develop strong, coherent leadership that develops Thinking Schools, where pupils grounded in strong knowledge and understanding, are excellently taught to become creative and constructively reasoning individuals making positive contributions to their society. To create a culture that enables all children to succeed in order to attain the highest levels of achievement.

Objectives To: Promote and value excellence at all levels and in all forms so that all our children irrespective of

background, affluence or advantage reach beyond what is nationally expected to ensure equal opportunities for aspiring and successful lives.

Provide the right learning environment for children to enable a love of learning and creativity. Lead and coach a strong knowledge base and related understanding of concepts for all pupils. Promote creativity through imaginative thought and behaviour; purposeful activity; original

creation and valuable outcomes. Develop high quality personal qualities of the ‘5R’s’: Relationships, Risk taking, Resilience,

Resourcefulness and Reflectiveness. Develop excellent skills of enquiry, and the personal aspiration to improve their own academic

performance. Enable pupils to learn HOW to think. Fully develop the critical facilities of questioning, evaluating, hypothesising, fair-testing, and

problem-solving, and reasoning. Model progressive development of excellent spoken language, and open-ended, evaluative and

reasoning thinking skills. To work rigorously to develop outstanding practice of teaching and learning in all our schools.

Key Skills and Values

Confident and secure of personal well-being.

Reflective, open minded listening skills.

Possess evaluative, reasoned and creative thinking skills.

Able to communicate with empathy and clarity.

Able to challenge assumptions and seek the truth.

Tolerant and fair: in immediate society and globally.

Possess humility, discretion and fortitude.

MET Personnel

Chief Executive Officer: Stuart Sewell Business Manager: Trevor Jones Administrator: Educational Psychologist: Bronagh McCloskey Educational Welfare Officer: Donna Parker Professional integrity is at the heart of everything we do. We aspire to set high ethical standards that enable us to fully achieve our values. We are committed to sustain all nationally agreed pay and conditions for our staff at all levels. MET knows our academies thoroughly and there exists strong working partnerships between academy leaders that drives our ambitions. Our core professional leadership team consists of the CEO, two Executive Headteachers and a Business Manager. These are supported by a Personal Assistant, Educational Psychologist and Educational Welfare Officer.

Local

Governing

Body

“Inspire to Aspire”

Job Description: Chief Executive, Mercian Educational Trust (MET) Post type: Permanent Salary: £75,000 - £85,000 Pension: Appropriate Pension Scheme Generous Leave Allowance Office base: Unit 66, Malvern Hills Science Park, Geraldine Road, Malvern. WR14 3SZ. There is an absolute expectation that the successful candidate will be able to travel between the office and academies by car,

(driving licence – essential for duration of employment).

Purpose

To professionally advise MET Board in the efficient and effective delivery of the Trust’s commitment, strategic aims and corporate plan; to uphold MET’s values; and to provide the highest quality, visible leadership. Key Accountabilities

1. Strategic educational leadership and performance management

Provide strong and effective leadership, vision and strategic direction to MET staff to achieve the highest levels of performance ensuring a culture of continuous improvement. This includes leading the formation of the corporate plan.

Ensure that education and, in particular, the transformation of performance of MET academies, is central to what MET does and is delivered successfully.

Ensure that appropriate performance management and wider administrative and governance arrangements are in place to ensure the effective implementation of the organisation’s Corporate and Business Plans.

Provide motivational and inspirational leadership at all levels of the organisation.

Ensure the Trust’s management and organisational structures are fit for purpose and facilitate continuous improvement.

Ensure that there are clear quality assurance systems embedded across the Trust that drive consistency and improvement in performance.

Accountable for large scale asset management across the estate including the oversight of major capital projects.

Work closely with the Local Authority in school design and build.

Ensure the Trust effectively manages its talent through strategic and local CPD and succession planning.

Responsible for meeting the demands of changing legislation, new initiatives and changing practice.

In line with the agreed Trust models of delegation – to select, train, develop, empower and motivate the senior staff of the Trust; to appoint associate consultants as appropriate.

2. Teaching & Learning/School Improvement

Accountable for all aspects of Teaching and Learning and Standards across the Trust, set high professional standards and ensure that MET education vision is understood and embraced.

Responsible for developing and leading the process for improvement across the Trust, providing quality assurance and accountability. This will be achieved through a rigorous and robust system of target setting which will be reviewed regularly by the CEO who will report progress to the Trust Board.

Provide dynamic and strategic direction and leadership for Teaching and Learning across the academies.

Lead a Trust-wide improvement function that will ensure that the requirements in each academy’s performance are identified and analysed with appropriately costed and prioritised solutions. This includes the commissioning of internal resources through academy-to-academy support and/or external support from a range of providers or individuals who meet strict and agreed criteria for quality, including evidence of effectiveness and impact.

3. Partnerships

Develop and lead a partnership strategy that ensures MET and its academies participate in local, national and international education networks.

Identify key agencies that could enhance the delivery of the MET strategy at local, national and international level.

To share skills expertise and capacity across the Trust and its academies and embed system leadership practice.

Build and maintain strong relationships with parents/carers, students, staff, directors and governors across the Trust.

4. Operations

Ensure the long term financial sustainability, by confirming that proper financial systems are established and effectively monitored, that appropriate action is recommended to address problems identified and to ensure that the Trustees are presented with accurate and timely financial reports.

Develop and maintain a strong and effective relationship with the DfE, EFA and relevant funding bodies to ensure the funding streams are secured that support the forecast growth.

Review and approve annual budgets of each of the academies in the Trust. To ensure that all budgetary targets are met by individual academies and efficiencies are maximised.

Through the most appropriate agreed roles within the Trust structure negotiate and agree optimum prices with various service providers.

Develop and implement strategies for the generation of additional revenue and resources for the Trust.

5. Compliance

Ensure that Trust meets all legislative and statutory requirements, including Health and Safety, Safeguarding and those required by Companies House, and the Charity Commissioners, Data protection, the Master and Supplementary Funding agreements.

Provide leadership and management oversight to all MET operations, including overall line accountability for safeguards and security.

Take responsibility for the safety, health and environmental performance of all academies and offices under the direction of MET.

Manage MET strategic operations and the delivery of key objectives, with accountability to the Board.

Take responsibility for the institutional development of MET and the implementation of the annual work plans and long-term strategies.

6. Board management and stakeholder relations

Support the Board in the formulation and development of strategy ensuring all decisions made by the Board are recorded and implemented.

Work effectively across the full range of external stakeholder including government, funding and regulatory bodies, to deliver progressive enhancement of MET.

7. Communication

In partnership with the Chair, ensure that an effective internal and external communications strategy is in place.

Communicate effectively with academy headteachers, teachers, pupils, parents and governors.

Represent MET effectively to key external partners, the media and the public.

8. Confidentiality

Ensure that confidentiality is maintained in line with agreed policies and protocols.

9. Safeguarding

Comply with Trust policies and procedures on safeguarding and child protection.

Ensure all national legal requirements for pupil and staff safeguarding are robust and rigorous.

10. Equality and equity

Ensure that the Trust reflects a vibrant and inclusive ethos which actively values and promotes diversity, unity and community cohesion, and supports all pupils to become successful integrated learners.

Actively challenge and address all forms of discrimination.

Ensure a continual focus on equity as measured by pupil outcomes.

11. Beliefs, attitudes and personal attributes

Pursuit of the highest quality progress and achievement in learning for all pupils

Relentless focus on high quality.

Resilient and persistent in goals, but adaptable to context and people

Willing to develop a deep understanding of people and context.

Willing to take risks and challenge accepted beliefs and behaviours.

Self-aware and able to learn.

Optimistic and enthusiastic.

Values diversity and equality.

Flexible.

Champion, coach and mentor MET published values.

This job description will be reviewed annually to reflect the plans, growth and

development of the Trust

‘Inspire to Aspire”

Mercian Educational Trust (MET) Person Specification: Chief Executive Officer

Facet

Essential

Desirable

Qualifications: Education

Degree level qualification

QTS or equivalent.

Master’s Degree or above.

Accredited Ofsted Inspector and/or DfE Educational Advisor.

NPQH

LLE or NLE accreditation.

DSL Safeguarding Certificate.

Safer Recruitment accreditation.

Experience

Proven track record of successful educational improvement.

Oversight of CPD for a range of strategic roles with positive outcomes achieved.

Working closely with governance groups and experience of agenda setting alongside the Chair of the Board.

Sustains a strong grasp of contemporary educational issues including the inspection agenda.

Proven experience of strategic financial management, including budget formulation, medium-term financial planning, monitoring and control and strong business acumen.

Sound track record of performance managing professional staff; driving morale, raising standards and promoting a team ethos, particularly

Headship of “Outstanding”School.

Two headships

Experience of executive leadership within a MAT or across a partnership of schools.

with regard to a multi-site organisation.

Proven success in building effective partnerships and links including with central government, schools, local authorities, to maximise networks and opportunities.

Experience of identifying and managing a risk register to include diverse areas such as finance, reputation and safeguarding as well as managing change in a fast moving environment.

Knowledge and Understanding

Excellent understanding of Multi-academy Trust governance.

Understanding of equality and diversity.

A thorough knowledge of, and the commitment to, MET Principles and the ability to sustain and further the Mission Statement Aims and Objectives, plus value.

MAT leadership at a senior level.

Working knowledge of how the Regional Schools’ Commissioner’s office works and the wider political context.

Skills

Incisive questioning and challenge.

Highly data literate and numerate.

Intuitive decision making.

IT proficient.

Ability to deliver clear messages including “challenging” conversations.

Has the ability to think strategically, and operationally, effectively; with imagination, vision and originality.

Able to make decisive decisions for the benefit of the students in the Trust.

A strategic thinker who can work with the leaders Board and others to develop a compelling vision for the organisation, underpinned by a sustained strong ethical purpose.

Committed to the highest standards in all areas of school life, including behaviour, academic, and enrichment.

Committed to maintaining and furthering the unique ethos of MET with empathy and understanding of maintaining individual academy ethos.

Well-developed presentation skills and comfortable with public speaking; the analytical ability to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences, acting as an effective ambassador for the Trust.

Personal Qualities

To understand and champion the ethical purpose of education and leadership, and to have respect for the role.

Committed to primary education and to the relentless pursuit of the raising of academic standards among pupils.

To be a role model for others.

Personable.

Willingness to constructively challenge the work of themselves, and others, to continually improve their own, and the MET performance.

Ability to work well under pressure and to meet deadlines.

Resilience and flexibility to adapt and think creatively when under pressure.

Sympathetic, committed, to delivering the Trust’s vision and philosophy.

Emotionally intelligent.

Sense of humour.

Effective experience of dealing with Government officials and policy makers, to achieve MET desirable expansion.

Effective leader who can build a positive organisational culture, encourage reflection, delegate responsibility, build teams, strive for continuous improvement and inspire staff to achieve their full potential.

A leader who can analyse and process complex information and data quickly and rigorously in order to make the best of opportunities.

Able to communicate challenging professional matters to all stakeholders with clarity.

Commitment to lifelong learning.

Compassion.

“Inspire to Aspire”

How to Apply Thank you for your interest in this exciting opportunity to lead Mercian Educational Trust. In order to apply, please submit the following:

Application letter

Full Curriculum Vitae

Worcestershire Local Authority Form to enable full safeguarding procedures We ask that in your letter you submit supporting statements that set out reasons for your interest in the position and how you meet the required criteria, with evidence of potential impact from your career track record. Please include in your statement your thoughts on where you see the future of academy trusts. Visits: Are most welcome and positively encouraged. You will be able to view our Malvern Hills Science Park site, as well as our schools. Application Closing Date: Friday 19th May Completed applications should be e-mailed to: office@metacademies.co.uk All applications will be acknowledged within 1 working day. Should you fail to receive a confirmation, please call 01684 585348. For safeguarding purposes, please ensure your application accounts for any gaps in employment. Please include the names and addresses of two professional referees (one of which must be your current employer). Interview Dates: Week commencing Monday 19th June Contact Details: 01684 585348 - office 07733881821 - mobile office@metacademies.co.uk www.metacademies.co.uk