Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Acorn Education Trust is seeking to appoint an inspirational and driven Chief Executive Officer from September 2025 to lead our Trust through the next stage of its evolution.

Salary: £133,782 - £162,743 (starting point to be negotiated). Contract: Permanent, full time. Required: September 2025.

Our mission: “Preparing young people for their world in their time”

Acorn Education Trust was established in 2014 and now serves 21 settings: 16 primary schools, 3 secondary schools and 2 nurseries. We strive for excellent leadership, excellent teaching and excellent learning. Our vision is to transform lives through education.

As a CEO, you will lead, mentor and empower other Executive Leaders, Headteachers and business staff within the Trust, ensuring we provide the best educational outcomes and opportunities for all our pupils and the best working environment for all our staff.

The ideal candidate will have:

• Successful experience and a proven track record in a senior leadership role within a MAT, for example as an Executive Headteacher, Regional Director, Director of Education; 
• A proven track record of successful business planning and financial management;
• In depth knowledge of child safeguarding issues and successful use of measures that promote and ensure the safeguarding of children;
• Experience in building effective teams of senior staff through people management skills, including leadership, vision, communication, motivation, constructive challenge and delegation;
• Detailed and up-to-date knowledge in inspection procedures and statutory requirements;
• A clear understanding and experience of what constitutes a thriving and successful school;
• The ability to demonstrate personal and professional integrity, including modelling the Trust’s values and vision;
• The ability to delegate, collaborate and distribute leadership.

For more information, including a full job description and person specification, please read our Applicant Information Pack.

We encourage prospective candidates to attend an informal meeting to learn more about this role. In order to attend one of these sessions, please contact Zoe Stockley, Governance Advisor, via email (zas@acorneducationtrust.com) by 12pm on Monday 30th September 2024.

To apply, please visit our Acorn Careers Page and complete an application form by the closing date.

Closing date: Thursday 17th October 2024 at 12pm

Interviews: TBC

Acorn Education Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. If successful in obtaining this post you will be subject to a Disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service and health screening.  We are an equal opportunities employer. As part of our safer recruitment processes, if you are shortlisted for the post, we will carry out a social media account search.