Dear prospective applicant,

Thank you for expressing an interest in this key vacancy at our college.

Over the last six years we have been on a journey to try and make this school not only one of the best schools for children to attend but also one of the best schools to work in as a member of staff. That is extremely rare and we urge you to come and see us in action, speak to the staff and speak to the students. We carefully consider every decision made with well-being at the centre to enable teachers to teach and students to learn.

We are seeking to appoint a Finance Administrator to support the Finance team. The successful candidate will work closely with the Business Lead and Finance Officer L2 to ensure that all day-to-day transactions are processed within agreed timescales and according to guidance in Crown Hills Standards for Financial Administration.

There is always a tension between well-being and accountability but I do believe that we are getting closer to finding the sweet spot between the two. Although it is not the end of our journey, we have been recognised for the work we do in this area; we won the TES Award for ‘Staff well-being school of the year’ and we were also shortlisted for the prestigious Pearsons Award for secondary school of the year 2023. I was also fortunate enough to win gold! These are indeed exciting times to join us and make a difference to the lives of others.

We have a very different approach and we are trying to create a very different culture at CHCC, a culture whereby those in leadership do not hold authority and deserve to be followed; leaders at CHCC have to earn the right to lead and we welcome and appreciate challenge if we do not live up to the standards that are expected of us.

The THIRST values permeate all that we do and are a framework that staff can hold leaders to account for the way that they lead. We have high expectations but we will provide the support, training and resources for you to deliver the best possible education for our students.

We are very clear that the gender, background, colour, poverty, wealth or social status of a child should have no bearing on how well they perform and staff here work extremely hard in trying to close that gap between the different groups of pupils.

We have removed lesson observations from the appraisal process and linked it to professional development. Currently staff are entitled to ‘visits’ and entitled to a professional dialogue to improve their practice. That is a risk we have taken but it is aimed at creating a learning community where teachers can teach and learners can learn, without fear.

As a result, we have improved our headline figures year on year and initial analysis places us in the top 20% of schools nationally for progress, although we know that we can still do better.

Our behaviour policy is clear and simple, “First Time Every Time,” no quibbles, no arguments just do as we expect. Teachers

no longer have to do detentions, chase up absence, attendance or punctuality. These are all done centrally with a highly skilled team that has taken the workload away from teachers.

Please read the attached job description and person specification. If you are interested in applying, please fill in the application form available on our eteach portal, please include e-mail addresses of all referees, together with a letter of application (no more than 2 sides of A4, font 12) outlining your skills, qualifications and experience relevant to this post by 9am on Friday 5th December 2025. Please include your cover letter in the supporting statement section.

Closing Date- 9am Friday 5th December

Interviews likely to be- W/C 8th December

I look forward very much to receiving your application in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Mr F Adam

(Principal)