Chair of Governors

Ormiston Maritime Academy is a friendly, welcoming, and vibrant 11-16 academy with a ‘Good’ Ofsted rating (July 2022).

We are currently searching for a new chair of governors to lead the academy's Local Governing Body. As Chair, your experience and skills will help to support our students to give them the best opportunities to thrive and achieve.

• You will have governance experience and knowledge of the education sector
• You will lead the governing body in shaping strategy and holding the leadership team to account
• You will support the students and staff to be the best they can be

This position would suit someone with management experience and a keen interest in the development of young people and education.

The LGB meets 4 times per year (twice in the autumn term and once in both the spring and summer terms) and meetings are approximately 2-2.5 hours long.  The Chair of Governors may also attend termly Performance Board meetings, which focus closely on key priorities with regard to attainment. In addition to these meetings, the Chair will meet regularly with the principal.

About OAT

Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT) is one of the largest not-for-profit multi-academy trusts in England. Our aim as a charity, alongside our schools, is to help provide local children with a great education. We educate over 30,000 pupils across five OAT regions, in over 40 schools – currently 32 secondary schools, six primary schools, three alternative provision schools and one special school. We are one of the longest-established trusts and have been sponsoring academies since 2009. Our sole purpose is to provide OAT pupils with excellent learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom.

Role of the chair

The chair of governors plays a pivotal role in the leadership of an academy, taking on many roles such as leader, confidante and critical friend; ‘critical’ in the sense of their responsibility for monitoring and evaluating the school’s effectiveness, asking challenging questions and pressing for improvement; ‘friend’ to promote the interests of the academy and its students.

Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT) believes that good governance and an effective governing body is vital for the successful operation of an academy. The chair has an important part to play in this by ensuring the governing body works as a cohesive team, setting the vision and ethos of the academy whilst challenging and supporting the senior leadership team and contributing to the strategic leadership of the academy.

Key functions

Leading effective governance by ensuring that the governing body works as an effective team in a clearly defined direction while understanding their role plays a significant part of the strategic leadership of the academy. Part of their focus should always be about academy improvement.

Building the governance team by ensuring the right people are on the governing body is an essential duty of the chair. Undertaking the annual skills audit along with conducting exit interviews at the end of governors’ terms of office helps the chair and governing body focus on governor recruitment. The chair provides opportunity for the governing body to constantly reflect on their own effectiveness and readily make changes to improve.

Train and develop the LGB by ensuring that an effective training and development plan has been populated and that it includes regular stakeholder engagement and feedback from those sessions to the LGB. The chair will support the clerk in ensuring that all governors update their own training records in the GovernorHub profiles. It may be appropriate to add extra meetings for the LGB to consider training and development.

Being a ‘critical friend’ to the principal is one of the main parts of the chair’s role. The chair should offer support, challenge, and encouragement, as well as working with the OAT education director (ED) to ensure the principal’s appraisal is rigorous and robust. The chair should not get involved with the day to day running of the academy but be there to provide help and support to the principal.

Ensuring the focus is always on improving the academy This is achieved in many ways but should be at the heart of all academy policies and strategies. The chair should ensure that governor monitoring should also reflect academy improvement priorities identified in the academy development plan.

Leading the business The chair should ensure that statutory requirements and regulations are met, working in partnership with the principal to ensure the academy provides value for money in its use of resources and that governing body business is conducted efficiently and effectively.

To discuss the position or arrange a visit, please contact the Clerk to Governors, Heather Wells via email wellsh@omacademy.co.uk or telephone 01472 310015

To apply for the position, please provide a cover letter and CV by 9 a.m. on Monday 6 January 2025 to the Governance Team via email at governance@ormistonacademies.co.uk

Ormiston Maritime Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share in this commitment. Ormiston Academies Trust embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity.  

All successful appointments will be subject to suitability checks in accordance with KCSIE, including identity, online searches, two references and enhanced DBS check.

The post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974. Guidance on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Exceptions Order 1975, which provides information about which convictions must be declared during job applications and related exceptions, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-guidance-on-the-rehabilitation-of-offenders-act-1974