Trust Lead for Catholic Life & Mission

 Leadership Scale + benefits 

 Northamptonshire/Bedford

 September 2026

Our Lady Immaculate Catholic Academies Trust (OLICAT) is a growing Catholic Multi Academy Trust situated in the northern half of the Catholic Diocese of Northampton. The Trust currently includes ten Catholic primary schools located across the geographical area of Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire, as well as two Catholic secondary schools, St Thomas Becket in Northampton and St Thomas More in Bedford. The Bishop’s vision is for the other 8 Catholic schools in our Diocese to join our Trust in the coming years.

 The Trust Lead for Catholic Life and Mission is a very special role within our Trust and will certainly look slightly different depending on the experience and skills of the person taking on the role.  The successful candidate will be able to use their unique God-given gifts to shape their role, while working within the team to support and enable everyone across the Trust to fulfil our mission to deliver an excellent Catholic education for all of our pupils.

The current Trust Lead is retiring after many years in the service of Catholic education, and she leaves a group of schools united in their purpose to bring young people closer to God and to His plan for their lives.  The role currently includes formation for school leaders; support for a Trust Chaplaincy Network and Trust RE Leads Network, as well as developing Catholic Social Teaching and advising schools on driving forward all aspects of Catholic education including support for inspection.  Liaison with the Diocese of Northampton will be an important part of this role.

The Trust Lead role is currently fulfilled by one person working two days a week.  There is capacity for this role to be a secondment from a school leadership or diocesan role; it could be possible to split the different aspects of the role with two people each working one day.  A more full-time role within the Trust may be possible by combining secondary RE teaching with the Trust leadership role. 

We are certainly open to discussing the possibilities of different ways of fulfilling this role and interested candidates are encouraged to contact the CEO, Catherine Burnham, for an informal chat cburnham@olicatschools.org. 

Interviews will be held on Wednesday 20^th May at the Trust Offices in Northampton.

All appointments will be subject to an enhanced DBS clearance in line with our Safer Recruitment Policy.