Trustee Vacancy
We have an exciting opportunity to become a Trustee and join our Board. We are looking for someone who can make time to use their professional skills to help shape the strategic vision of the Trust and support and challenge performance across our five academies.
Our Trust Vision and Values
Learning without Limits Academy Trust is guided by the vision of winning hearts and inspiring minds, to learn without limits. Our mission is to give all learners the opportunity to make choices to be happy, healthy and successful. We want every pupil to be heard, visible, valued and supported to achieve more than they ever thought possible. We embrace challenge and actively seek partnerships where our support can make a meaningful difference.
Our values are Inclusion, Ambition, Integrity and Accountability. Inclusion ensures that every learner and every colleague belongs. Ambition keeps expectations high and aspirations strong. Integrity anchors our decisions in honesty and fairness. Accountability reminds us that we are responsible for the outcomes we achieve and the standards we uphold.
We are looking for a trustee who will champion this vision and embody these values . The individual will bring both strategic insight and moral purpose, helping to drive a culture where high expectations, fairness and responsibility shape every decision.
The Role
As a Trustee, you will help scrutinise performance and ensure that the decisions made at Board level translate into real benefits for the young people in our schools.
The Board meets five times a year and holds overall responsibility for the Trust's educational and financial performance. It works closely with the Executive Team, offering both challenge and support in equal measure.
As a Member of the Board, Trustees contribute to a range of collective duties, including:
- Developing and promoting a shared vision for the Trust's purpose, values and culture, and ensuring that obligations to members and wider stakeholders are understood and honoured
- Setting the Trust's strategic aims and ensuring that the financial and human resources needed to achieve them are in place
- Providing leadership within a framework of sound, proportionate controls that allows risk to be identified and managed effectively
- Upholding transparent and accountable governance, including appropriate decision-making structures
- Maintaining oversight of standards and outcomes across all five academies, and ensuring the Trust plays an active part in the communities it serves
Person Specification
We welcome applications from people with a range of professional backgrounds. Experience in accountancy or finance, audit and risk, education, or board-level governance would all be relevant, though we are open to candidates whose skills and perspective might complement the Board in other ways. For this recruitment round we are particularly interested in hearing from
- Those within the education sector who have senior leadership experience, having worked in school improvement or a leadership role.
- Those with substantial experience in finance and risk, whether gained within the education sector or in other industries. While chartered accountant status would be particularly valuable, it is not a requirement; we welcome interest from anyone with strong financial expertise and sound strategic judgement.
Commitment
The role asks for consistent, prepared engagement rather than large amounts of time. The main Board meets five times a year, on Thursday evenings between 5.00pm and 7.30pm. Trustees are also expected to join one of the Board's committees, which meets three/four times a year, generally on evenings. The majority of meetings are currently hybrid, with both in-person and online attendance available.
Preparation matters. Trustees are expected to read all papers in advance and come ready to ask questions and contribute to discussion. Appointments run for a four-year term.
Throughout the year, Trustees are offered access to professional training and invited to attend Trust events in an ambassadorial capacity, representing the Board within the wider school community.
If you are interested in applying, or would simply like to find out more before making a decision, we would be glad to hear from you. Governance at this level is rewarding work, and the right candidate will find it a worthwhile use of their professional experience. Please contact Matthew Hand at Learning without Limits to request further information or to submit an expression of interest.
The Learning without Limits Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All offers of employment are subject to an Enhanced DBS with barred list check, and a prohibition from teaching check will be completed for all applicants.
This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (2013, 2020 and 2023). This means that certain convictions and cautions are considered ‘protected’ and do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account. Guidance about whether a conviction or caution should be disclosed can be found on the Ministry of Justice website:
Social Media Checks
As part of the shortlisting process, in line with measures identified in statutory guidance relating to safeguarding practice, the Trust will conduct searches on candidates selected for interview, through a third party, on social media in order to identify anything that could give rise to a safeguarding concern in what has been said or done online. Only information relevant to safeguarding concerns obtained from the search will be passed over for consideration during the recruitment process.
Diversity Statement
As an equal opportunities employer, the Learning without Limits Academy Trust is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and does not condone discrimination on the basis of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership.
We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join us.