Are you passionate, driven, and committed to delivering exceptional support? This is your chance to be part of an enthusiastic team at Areté Learning Trust where we strive to provide the highest quality education for our students. We are looking for a visionary and dedicated School Improvement Director to oversee the quality of education across our Trust, ensuring accountability for the educational success of our schools.

The successful candidate will provide inspirational leadership, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and ensuring that our Trust delivers exceptional service to the communities we serve. With a strategic focus on enhancing educational standards in and around North Yorkshire, the post-holder will take ultimate responsibility for the performance of schools, driving the school improvement strategy to achieve the Trust’s strategic aims.

You will lead Headteachers in these areas, ensuring that every pupil reaches their full potential and that educational outcomes consistently improve. In addition, you will provide strategic leadership to increase capacity and contribute to shaping the direction of the Trust and the wider school-led education system. Monitoring the quality of education across all schools, you will offer professional leadership and support as part of the Executive Team, ensuring that our educational vision is realised.

Begin your journey with a team dedicated to empowering every student to achieve their full potential. If you share our values and have the vision and ambition to drive excellence, we want to hear from you.

The successful candidate will present the best possible example of professional standards to colleagues.

About the Trust

Areté Learning Trust currently has 11 schools and educates over 7,000 young people in and around North Yorkshire from ages 2-18.  Our learners are at the heart of everything we do.

At Areté Learning Trust we work together and collaborate to ensure that all of our learners and our staff team have the chance to reach their potential.

Our Trust is committed to promoting:

• Health, happiness and wellbeing

• A safe, disciplined and supportive environment

• A love of learning through a passionate and committed approach

• High standards and expectations

• Integrity, kindness and good manners

• Respect for individuality and difference

• Collaborative working to secure excellence

 To realise our aspiration for every child to be the best they can be, we need to ensure that as a Trust we are ‘Striving for Excellence’.

Why work for us?

We want everyone who works within ALT to feel valued and see how their work fits into the bigger picture.

We seek employees who are prepared to take personal responsibility and constantly challenge the norm to improve performance.

In return, we are committed to providing an empowering and supportive learning environment for all staff.

Areté Learning Trust is committed to being the ‘Employer of Choice’.

Essentially this means that we want our schools and our central team to be great places to work. We want our staff development opportunities to be first class and we want to enable staff who are ambitious to grow their careers with us. To give our learners the best education and opportunities we are committed to recruiting and retaining the very best people in all areas of our organisation.

Regardless of role, we seek staff who:

• Have high expectations of themselves and the people they work with.

• Are committed to our Trust values.

• Show initiative and are responsive to change.

• Have strong interpersonal skills with the ability to inspire and motivate others.

• Are creative in their approach to problem solving.

• Are able to influence effectively, whatever their role.

• Are team players.

We welcome applications from all backgrounds; for more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy statement (https://www.arete.uk/careers). If you would like to find out more and have a conversation with the CEO, please contact our HR Lead, Faye Peart (hradmin@arete.uk). If you are ready for the next step in your career and you feel that your skill set makes you a good fit for this very exciting opportunity, then we look forward to receiving your application.

Application Process

Please complete the online application form to apply for this role. All candidates are advised to refer to the job description and person specification before making an application.  You should use the information supplied within the Job Description & Person Specification to make the best of your application by identifying some specific pieces of work you may have undertaken in any of these areas. Your application may be viewed in regard to some or all of the skill specific areas over the course of the selection process.  Applications via agencies will not be considered.

Interviews will take place on 23rd and 24th January 2025.

The Areté Learning Trust is committed to safeguarding and protecting our children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.  All posts are subject to a safer recruitment process which includes enhanced criminal records and barring checks, scrutiny of employment history, robust referencing and other vetting checks.  Online searches may be done as part of due diligence checks.

Our safeguarding system is underpinned by a range of policies and procedures which encourage and promote safe working practice across the Trust. On joining you will be required to undergo continuous professional development to maintain safe working practice and to safeguard our children and young people.