Chief Education Director

We are looking for an exceptional leader to become our new Chief Education Director to drive our education strategy and delivery across our primary and secondary schools.

This is an exciting new role within our organisation at a pivotal moment for our Trust Partnership. We have recently grown to fifteen schools, doubling in size, serving vibrant and diverse communities across North and West Yorkshire.

Join us and you’ll find a collaborative culture of inclusion, growth, and purpose, supported by aspirational and values-led headteachers, trust leaders and an ambitious board of trustees.

Alongside our commitment to continuous school improvement, as a Trust Partnership we have been trailblazers in environmental sustainability and climate change education. We are looking for someone who shares this passion.

About the role

The purpose of the role is to ensure that children in NSAT schools get the best opportunities to thrive and be successful. The new Director will combine strategy development and the practical delivery of school improvement to achieve this.

As a key member of the Trust’s Executive Leadership Team, you will set the strategy for education across our Trust Partnership and share in the responsibility for the performance of the Trust across a range of indicators.

You will lead a highly skilled and committed team of colleagues who support our academies with a combination of school improvement and strategic leadership.

The Director will have oversight of all our schools, prioritising those facing greatest challenge. In the first year, this is likely to involve working closely with a small number of our academies requiring the most support to progress, providing hands-on support, expertise and guidance for the further development of curriculum, assessment, professional development and standards. You will be able to identify priorities for improvement and be confident providing professional challenge and support to leaders to enable change.

You will also be an effective champion for development across the whole Trust, building capacity for innovative approaches to education. You will bring the latest research and thinking from the sector to our Trust, supporting leaders to shape imaginative practice in their schools.

About you

We are looking for someone with current knowledge of primary and secondary education which has been acquired through successful headship experience. It is likely that your headship experience has been in primary schools, ideally with some school improvement experience in both phases across a range of school contexts, including those serving the most disadvantaged communities.

You will be:

• an inspirational and a strategic leader with a successful record of educational improvement
• an effective communicator, able to build relationships quickly and effectively with colleagues and academy leaders.
• able to accurately identify areas for academy development and ensure improvement plans are robust and will lead to excellence and/or bring about improvement rapidly.
• able to effectively monitor standards and use quality assurance processes to accurately inform academy and trust leaders about the quality of educational performance in academies.
• able to effectively prepare academies for successful Ofsted inspections.
• able to work directly and intensively with targeted academies to bring about improvements in specific areas; for example, curriculum design, pupil absence, disadvantaged outcomes, progress of SEND pupils, quality of teaching, behaviour etc.
• interested and up to date with latest education policy developments, debate and practice.
• credible and knowledgeable in a wide range of education issues and leadership scenarios
• resilient, dynamic, and keen to lead by example.
• organised, hardworking and able to cope with demanding workloads.
• emotionally intelligent.