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Director of Secondary Education Wellspring Academy Trust

Wellspring Academy Trust is seeking a strategic and values-driven Director of Secondary Education to join an exceptional team, leading on the development of its secondary academies.

• Location: Flexible, with the expectation of regular travel around the Wellspring region: South, West and North Yorkshire, North and North East Lincolnshire, and Lincolnshire. The Trust’s Head Office is located in Barnsley, South Yorkshire
• Salary: : L43 + £12,500 (all year round, Teachers’ Terms and Conditions)

We are now seeking a Director of Secondary Education to join our executive team and lead the next phase of our development. This is a significant and strategic role, providing the opportunity to influence the shape of secondary education and help us to shape the future of the Trust as a whole. You will work in close partnership with a community of highly-motivated and expert senior leaders, supporting, enabling and empowering school leaders to deliver the highest quality of education possible thereby ensuring that every young person, whatever their starting point, has their rightful opportunity to thrive.

Who we are

Wellspring Academy Trust is a thriving family of schools with a strong sense of purpose. We are proud to serve 33 academies across primary, secondary, special, and alternative provision. Since welcoming our first school in 2013, we have developed into a dynamic community supporting children and families in eight local authority areas, including South, West and North Yorkshire, North and North East Lincolnshire, and Lincolnshire.

We are committed to our vision: to transform lives by raising aspirations and broadening opportunities for every young person and the communities around them. We believe that all children, whatever their starting point, are entitled to an excellent education and the chance to experience joy, success, and ambition in their lives.

At Wellspring, we do not impose a “one size fits all” model. We celebrate the distinctiveness of each of our schools, empowering leaders to shape provision around the unique needs of their communities. Our approach has proven its effectiveness over time, fostering strong, resilient schools that combine autonomy with the collective strength of the Trust.

We are driven by social purpose. We champion inclusive education, stronger communities, and improved life chances. Education is the most powerful vehicle for social justice, and through equity, we enable better outcomes for all.

Our strategic context

In 2020, we published Vision 2025, our strategic framework built on five key pillars:

• People– Investing in wellbeing, coaching, mentoring, and professional development, while building a pipeline of talent.
• Doing– Driving continuous improvement and delivering outstanding education, with collaboration at the heart.
• Innovating– Transforming children’s lives through innovative practice, digital strategy, and charitable projects.
• Assuring– Providing sector-leading assurance, governance, and support through sophisticated business planning.
• Sustaining– Planning for the long term with financial resilience, environmental sustainability, and estate strategies that look 100 years ahead.

We are proud of the progress we have made in pursuit of this vision. Looking ahead, we are now developing Vision 2030, which will define the next phase of our growth and ambition. The Director of Secondary Education will play a central role in this future, shaping provision across our secondary schools and contributing to the Trust’s leadership as a whole.

About the role

The Director of Secondary Education is a senior executive role, reporting directly to the Chief Executive and working as part of the Trust’s School Improvement Directorate and central leadership team.

You will hold strategic responsibility for leading our drive for excellence in our secondary academies, ensuring that they are equipped to provide an outstanding education for their students and meet needs in their communities.

At the strategic level, you will help shape the Trust’s secondary education strategy, working closely with headteachers and their teams to set high aspirations, demand excellence of one another and drive vision for an exceptional secondary education provision. At the operational level, you will work in partnership with school leaders to ensure that the curriculum offer, resourcing, support for day-to-day teaching, learning, and pastoral care are of the highest quality.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Providing strategic leadership and oversight of secondary education across the Trust.
• Supporting headteachers to secure strong, inclusive school cultures, raise ambitions and aspirations and improve outcomes.
• Leading on curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, ensuring alignment with the Trust’s values and ambitions.
• Developing networks of practice across secondary academies, enabling collaboration, sharing of expertise, and collective problem-solving.
• Monitoring and evaluating school performance, using data intelligently to inform improvement and secure the appropriate accountabilities.
• Building leadership pipeline capacity, supporting and developing future leaders.
• Working with the CEO and executive team to align secondary education with Trust-wide priorities, including equity, inclusion and community impact.
• Representing Wellspring externally, building partnerships with local authorities, regional bodies and national agencies.

The Director of Secondary Education will also play a full role in the Trust’s senior leadership tier, contributing to strategic decision-making across all phases and ensuring that Wellspring’s values and ambitions are realised in practice.

Who we are looking for

We are seeking an experienced, strategic, and values-driven educational leader who shares our belief in the transformative power of education and our unwavering commitment to inclusion and equity. This is an opportunity for a leader who not only understands the complexities of secondary education but who is also passionate about making a profound and lasting difference to the lives of children and young people. That might, at times, require a little bit of thinking outside of the box.

The successful candidate will be someone capable of inspiring confidence in colleagues. You will bring a proven ability to lead, support, guide, challenge and deliver. You will be a leader who can galvanise others around a shared purpose and ensure that high expectations are consistently translated into sustainable performance.

Your professional background will demonstrate provenance in secondary education school leadership. This credibility will allow you to lead with authority, while your capacity for empathy and your alignment with Wellspring’s values will ensure that you lead with integrity and purpose.

You will have a viewpoint on curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment in secondary education. You will bring strong analytical skills and the confidence to decision-make. You will be working at pace and at supporting leaders in making evidence, values and ambitions-informed decisions about the future direction of their schools.

We are seeking someone who understands how to build capacity across a system, equipping others with the skills, confidence, and resilience they need to succeed. You will be an accomplished role-model, as well as being a clear and decisive manager, able to nurture emerging leaders while also raising established colleagues to the highest standards of professional conduct and performance.

You will need to work effectively with colleagues across Wellspring and build productive relationships with external partners and stakeholders. So, this role requires excellent interpersonal and communication skills. Your influence will be rooted in integrity, your collaboration in mutual respect, and your leadership in a clear sense of shared purpose.

This role is for a leader who combines strategic foresight with practical insight; someone who can think long-term while remaining grounded in the everyday realities of school life. Above all, we are looking for a leader who shares our conviction that education has the power to transform lives and who is motivated by a deep sense of social purpose. This is an opportunity to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of secondary education at Wellspring, ensuring that our schools deliver excellence for every young person we serve.

Peridot Partners and Wellspring Academy Trust are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and our client expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced DBS check and satisfactory references before any final offer can be made.

For further information about the role or to arrange a confidential discussion, please contact our advising consultant at Peridot Partners:

If you would like to know more about this role please contact Eddie Caviezel Cox

Wellspring Academy Trust is an established and growing multi-academy trust with a difference. Today, we are a vibrant community of 33 academies spanning primary, secondary, special, and alternative provision across Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, the Humber, and surrounding regions. Since our story began in 2013 with The Forest Academy in Barnsley, we have grown steadily into a values-led organisation committed to social purpose, inclusion, and improving life chances.

Our vision is clear: to make a real difference by raising the expectations and ambitions of every young person in our care and the communities we serve. At the heart of our work lies a deep commitment to equity. We believe every child, regardless of their background, context or challenges, deserves access to a high-quality education and joyful life experiences. This conviction shapes everything we do, from our inclusive approach to education to our investment in building stronger communities.

We encourage distinctiveness and individuality in our schools, rejecting a rigid top-down model. Instead, we foster collaboration and innovation, allowing each school to thrive in its own context while benefitting from the collective strength of the Trust. This approach has consistently delivered excellent results and has extended beyond our own schools to influence and support wider communities and education networks nationally.

Our culture is one of passion, inclusion, and purpose. We believe education is the most powerful vehicle for social justice, and through equity, we can enable improved outcomes for all. We champion inclusive education, stronger communities, and improved life chances, and we are proud to be known as a trust with a strong social purpose.

In 2020, we launched Vision 2025, our ambitious strategy built around five pillars that remain at the centre of our growth and development:

• People– Focusing on wellbeing, professional development, coaching, mentoring, and ethical leadership, while building a pipeline of talent to take us into the future.
• Doing– Committing to continuous improvement and outstanding education, with exceptional professionals sharing best practice across the Trust.
• Innovating– Transforming lives through charitable projects, pioneering teaching methods, and digital strategies, while encouraging curiosity and fresh ideas.
• Assuring– Combining sophisticated business planning with deep sector knowledge to deliver sector-leading assurance, governance, and support.
• Sustaining– Taking the long view with financial resilience, environmental sustainability, and long-term planning, including 100-year estate strategies.

Looking to the future, we are proud of the progress made under Vision 2025 and are now developing Vision 2030, our next-generation strategy. This will build on our foundations while setting new ambitions for the decade ahead. Strategic foresight and long-term planning are central to the way we work, and it is an exciting time to join the Trust as we enter this next chapter.

Above all, Wellspring Academy Trust is united in one aim: to make a difference. We are a community of diverse, unique, and highly effective schools committed to delivering change, improving lives, and shaping brighter futures for children, young people, and communities across our region.

Learn more about Wellspring Academy Trust

We understand that different members of the community have different access needs and have made some modifications to the way we do business to accommodate people from diverse communities and abilities.

Our accessibility provisions include:

• Step-free access to the building, all key meeting rooms and bathrooms, and an accessible workstation.
• Accessibility dogs are welcome.
• Papers and materials can be presented in different formats.
• Working patterns and locations can be adjusted.

Applicants with a disability are invited to contact us in confidence at any point during the recruitment process to discuss steps that could be taken to overcome operational difficulties presented by the role, or if any adjustments or support are required regarding the recruitment process.

For further information or to organise a conversation, please contact our advising consultant at Peridot Partners:

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For further information about the role or to arrange a confidential discussion, please contact our advising consultant at Peridot Partners:

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Timetable

Closing date: 9 a.m. Monday 20th October 2025
Candidates informed of outcome: Friday 24th October 2025
First stage interviews: Friday 7th November 2025
Second stage interviews: Wednesday 12th November 2025

Peridot and Wellspring Academy Trust are committed to promoting equality and diversity. To help us raise awareness and support a culture that is diverse and recognises and develops the potential of all, we need to appreciate the profile of candidates who apply for positions.We will send you an equality monitoring survey at the point of receiving your application and at the time of placement. This ensures that our processes remain inclusive and equitable throughout, and provides us with important data to help us showcase our impact.

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