Case Studies: Primary

Alborough Free School

The challenge

Alborough E-ACT Free School was among the first tranche of Free Schools opening nationally in September 2011.  The post of Principal was advertised as an exciting opportunity for an exceptional primary practitioner to lead in a radical and innovative setting.  The new school opened with a standard admission number of 60, therefore, two forms of entry starting in the first year with two Foundation Stage 2 classes and two Year 1 classes.  Their ambitions are to increase the number year on year by two forms of entry until 2016, when the school will have 420 children on roll. An additional element to the role included leading on the refurbishment of the school building to ensure an outstanding learning environment.  The new school will have access to and be part of E-ACT, a leading multi academy sponsor and social enterprise, specialising in the development of world-class academies which set high standards and give young people access to opportunities through excellent teaching and inspirational leadership.  E-ACT academies are very much part of their communities and work with local authorities, employers and high performing educational institutions.

How we helped

  • We advertised the role as a genuinely unique opportunity to establish a different school structure and way of teaching primary school children.
  • Positioned our conversations with candidates so that they understood that this was unlike any other free school proposal.
  • Stress the potential for the role to evolve into an Executive Headship of a chain of E-ACT primary schools to make it more attractive.
  • Set out the strengths of working with a well established academy sponsor.
  • Conducted an executive search to engage candidate interest for a role with real opportunity to make an enormous impact on the community in Redbridge.

The result

We approached a strong field of candidates via search and an email was sent to candidates that had pre-registered on our database.  There were 11 applications received in total with 8 being from search.  E-ACT appointed first time and stated that they had two very strong candidates at the final interview.