Non-Executive Director X 2

Every Child, Every Day Academy Trust

Every Child, Every Day Academy Trust, currently consists of two secondary schools in South West London and seeks two Non-Executive Directors to provide oversight and strategic direction as the trust grows to three schools. Board meetings are held in Surbiton.

About the trust

The trusts ethos is embodied in its name and signifies a commitment to enhancing the life chances of all students using the richness of their gender, religion, race, academic ability and social circumstances. The trust aims to create a wide range of opportunities to seek out the spark that will ignite an individual child’s passion; a passion that will inspire them to make a valuable contribution to their communities whilst engendering in them a fiercely independent “self-starter”, resilient and creative approach to life-long learning.

The trust was established in September 2016, comprising Grey Court School and The Hollyfield School. The trust is likely to take on a third secondary school in the next 12 months. When the trust consists of three schools, it will provide an education for a total of 2,850 pupils and will operate with a budget of £20.2m.
 

Grey Court is an over-subscribed secondary school with a 6^th form. 18% of the pupil cohort receive free school meals and 8.4% receive Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) support. The school also has a SEND unit providing provision for eight students with speech and language communication needs. Chris Rhodes, the headteacher, writes: “I am proud to say we were judged as an “Outstanding” school in all categories following our latest Ofsted inspection in January 2018. Ofsted concluded that Grey Court has “the highest ambition for all pupils. Only the best will do,” and that the school, “offers an exceptional quality of education”.

As its fourth Year 13 A-level cohort graduated in 2019, Grey Court surpassed the outstanding standards it had set since its inception in 2015. Most notably, the number of A* grades rose to 12% (4% in 2018) – much higher than national A-Level trends. In addition, 71% of all grades awarded were A*-B (62% in 2018) and 90% of all grades were A*-C.

Hollyfield School, also with a 6th form, has an equally diverse cohort. 11.4% of the pupils at the school receive free school meals and 29.5% of the pupils have English as and additional language. Hollyfield was judged to be ‘Good’ in 2016, having progressed rapidly with the support of the trust from a ‘requires improvement’ judgement two years previously.

In the short term, the trust needs to put in place a financial recovery plan to ensure long term financial sustainability and a reasonable reserves position. For the medium to long term, the trust intends to grow by adding primary feeder schools which will add hugely to the offer to students, parents, staff and the local community.

Plans for the future

Three key challenges for your trust over the next 12-24 months are:

1. Governance - Sustain leadership and drive following a recent change of CEO at the trust.
2. Financial stability - Implement budget recovery plans.
3. Growth – Ensure growth and expansion plans are accelerated (whilst remaining robust) as the trust takes on further schools.

In the short term, the trust is also driving forward the conversion of a maintained school associate member into a full member of the trust.

Trust ethos & values

The trusts name – Every Child, Every Day – sets an extremely high standard for all the adults and young people involved in the trust. They have a talented and dedicated team of teachers and associate staff who work tirelessly, flexibly and intelligently to support, guide and educate our young people to the highest possible academic standards.

The staff, wherever they are in their career, are provided exciting prospects for individual growth and development. The teaching school status and our outward facing approach means the trust can chart a course for everyone.

The team of distinctly skilled and committed trustees and members, supported by tenacious, dedicated and active local governing bodies, work together to challenge and support the ambitious plans for the sustainability and development of the trust.

The trust’s intent is to become a local, cross-phase, secular, mixed ability, inclusive multi-academy trust working in partnership with communities that want to create and enhance inclusive and sustainable learning environments.

Role summary Number of positions advertised:

2

Roles 1-2 – Trustee/Non-Executive Director

Trustees – or non-executive directors - are both charity trustees and company directors of the academy trust. The core functions of their role are: ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction; holding executive leaders to account for the educational and financial performance of a charitable company funded by the public purse.

The board of trustees manages the business of the academy trust and may exercise all the powers of the trust in compliance with its charitable objects, company and charity law.

Non-executive directors will be responsible for maintaining stability and the management of a dynamic structure. The role also includes contributing to financial planning for sustainability and potential growth, and holding the CEO/CFO to account.

In the interests of safeguarding, all trustee appointments would be subject to an enhanced disclosure and barring service check.

Person specification

Every trustee is expected to abide by the trust’s code of conduct and the seven principles of public life set out by Lord Nolan: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.

The Competency Framework for Governance (DfE) 2017 details the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for effective governance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/583733/Competency_framework_for_governance_.pdf

The strategic expertise required for this role includes:

Essential (due to multiple roles, candidates may be accepted who possess one or more of the skills below)

 

• Change and Growth Management OR;
• HR & restructuring
•  

Desirable

 

• Restructuring
• Corporate Governance
•  

Role 1:

Change and Growth Management: The focus of this role is the strategic direction and oversight of organisational growth and change. The trust is interested in hearing from candidates who have prior experience having served as a director of a comparable organisation or who hold a director/executive level position in a medium to large organisation.

Role 2:

The focus of this role is the HR aspects of organisational growth and change. Candidates are expected to have experience of a director/executive level position in a medium to large organisation. The trust employs c.300 members of staff and operates with a budget of c.£20m. Experience of working in a multi-site organisation of a similar size would be an advantage.

Time commitment

8 hours per month (minimum).

Location of board meetings and trust website

Board meetings are held at the Hollyfield School, Surbiton Hill Road, Surbiton, KT6 4TU.

Trust website: http://everychildeverydayacademytrust.org

 

Governance structure

The trust governance structure can be found viewed here: www.everychildeverydayacademytrust.org/staff/trust-leaders  

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 832 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.

“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 (2019)

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: Friday, 22^nd November 2019