Director of Education Opportunity with
Forward Education Trust
Welcome
Simon Dilkes
CEO, Forward Education Trust
Welcome from Simon Dilkes, CEO Forward Education Trust
It’s my pleasure to welcome you to Forward Education Trust (FET) and thank you for your interest in joining us as Director of Education.
Our aim is to create a cohesive team of Trust Central staff, school leaders and school staff, working together as a single organisation, fiercely loyal to each other. We are committed to developing local school identity and ethos, within the context of our overarching Trust Strategic Plan. We will adopt strategies for school improvement that build on and enhance local skill, knowledge and reputation, raise standards in all our schools and respond to the needs and aspirations of those we serve. We care about our staff, their learning, development and well-being and we respond to feedback from our employee surveys on a wide range of matters relating to communication, workload, personal & professional development and wider support to our staff.
The Director of Education is a critical role in our organisation, you will have empowerment, and the flexibility make decisions and be creative, aligning the ambitions we have for all our schools within our Trust. You will be supported by me, my Executive Leaders, our Trust Central Team and by our Trustee Board.
Our schools clearly articulate our Trust values and give unequivocal evidence that people can see them in the decisions we make and the things that we do. Mutual respect must pervade all our relationships and together our staff will learn, practice and collaborate – a sense of team will identify how we nurture our talent, for the benefit of our young people. At all times, our schools are a safe place for our children, because our staff will know that this is their top priority. The Director of Education has a key role to play in ensuring this.
Anyone joining the Trust must share our values and live them in their daily lives. They are not just words - this is what we do. You will be supported to ensure that the well-being and education of our students is at the centre of everything we do. We will also value you, your professional and personal development, and your well-being.
I would welcome the opportunity to talk to you about being our Director of Education, to take us forward together.
About Forward Education Trust
The Trust is an established and developing MAT of 7 special schools in Birmingham, Solihull and Sandwell. The schools cover the widest spectrum of Special Educational Needs students and work across all age ranges. It has a talented and committed staff group who strive to provide a safe and supportive environment to care for and educate the children. The Trust is at an exciting inflection point, with all the ingredients to be an exceptional Trust.
The Trust believes that its staff and leaders are its most important asset and that valuing them and utilising their many talents will deliver the best experiences for pupils. You will join supportive and well-established collaborative networks, where colleagues support each other and we learn from each other. The Trust will have a real interest in your future and will be keen to explore ways that you can develop personally and professionally.
Our schools
Hallmoor School
Age range: 4-19
Number on roll: 273
Specialism: SLD, MLD, ASC
Location: Birmingham
Brays School
Age range: 2-11
Number on roll: 106
Specialism: PD, PMLD, SLD and complex medical needs
Location: Birmingham
Leycroft Academy
Age range: 5-11
Number on roll: 172
Specialism: ASC
Location: Birmingham
Bridge School
Age range: 2-11
Number on roll: 90
Specialism: PD, PMLD, SLD, MLD, ASC
Location: Birmingham
Lea Hall Academy
Age range: 5-14
Number on roll: 70
Specialism: SEMH
Location: Birmingham
High Point Academy
Age range: 11-16
Number on roll: 96
Specialism: ASC, SLCN, MLD
Location: Sandwell
The Heights Academy
Age range: 7-16
Number on roll: 48
Specialism: ASC and SEMH
Location: Solihull
Job Opportunity
Director of Education
The Director of Education will have the expertise to be a force for improvement, the personal attributes to secure buy-in from others and a deep-rooted belief that collaboration is the cornerstone of a strong trust.
We are looking for a highly credible trust leader, with knowledge and experience of SEND, who wants the challenge of helping to take our Trust forward, by ensuring that our children and young people receive the very best education & care, so that they achieve everything they possibly can as they move through their education into independent adult lives. We believe our Trust is at an exciting inflection point. We have all the ingredients to be an exceptional Trust.
The Trust believes that its staff and leaders are its most important asset and that valuing them and utilising their many talents will deliver the best experiences for pupils. The strategic role of Director of Education involves drawing out and developing all that is best within our very different schools, as we build a shared culture of excellence, managing the Trust’s school improvement offer, overseeing curriculum development and developing an increasingly coherent staff training programme. Our Trust’s educational priorities are rooted in commitment to inclusive, accessible education.
The Director of Education will collaborate with Headteachers and leaders in our schools and across our Trust, with external educators, and other stakeholders to drive excellence and align educational practices with our mission and strategic aims.
As a member of the Trust Executive team, the Director of Education has executive responsibility for the school improvement aspect of the Trust. The postholder will also be the Trust’s Deputy CEO and the Trust DSL.
You will be empowered to make decisions and to be creative. You will lead supportive and well-established collaborative networks in our Trust, where colleagues work together, and we learn from each other. The Trust will have a real interest in your future and will be keen to explore ways that you can develop personally and professionally. Our Trust Board is very supportive, it has many passionate and committed trustees, from a variety of backgrounds, who support Executive and school leaders to achieve their very best.
The successful candidate will be an exemplary school leader, teacher and role model with broad leadership experience, which may include working in special education. We are looking for a candidate with a proven track record of implementing sustained school improvement. A knowledge of teaching pupils with complex learning difficulties and of having worked with different age groups would be useful, but above all, you must be ambitious for all learners, whatever their additional needs. You must have the ability to initiate and lead change in a positive way which makes a real difference to learning and, share each of our school’s commitment to ensuring the students are safe and happy and achieve their full potential. Working in a supportive Trust environment must be central to your thinking, helping school leaders to receive and give capacity to the wider network of schools.
L31-L37. Starting salary negotiable dependent on experience
Closing date: 23.59 on Tuesday 10th December
Interviews: Tuesday & Wednesday 17th/18th December 2024
Start date: Easter 2025 or in discussion with the appointed candidate
Contact Martin Blair at Hays Leadership for a confidential discussion, to arrange a visit to some of our schools, to discuss making an application or to arrange an informal conversation with the Trust’s CEO, Simon Dilkes, the Trust’s Chair, Kate Canty or the Chair or other representatives of our Trust Board. Martin will provide candidates with a link to the Forward Education Trust Applicant’s website to complete a formal application.
Martin Blair
Hays Leadership Appointments
Tel: 07736791138
Email: martin.blair@hays.com
FET value equality and diversity and are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Applicants will be subject to safer recruitment practises including satisfactory references and the successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced DBS check.
Martin Blair
Hays Leadership Appointments
Tel: 07736791138
Email: martin.blair@hays.com
