Case Studies: Academies

The challenge

After 14 years of exceptional leadership, the headteacher at de Ferrers’ academy in Burton-on-Trent retired. Having recently converted to an academy, the governing body placed their trust in TES Prime to find a suitable replacement at a time of significant change for de Ferrers.

Rated outstanding by Ofsted in 2008, part of the challenge was finding a new principal able to maintain and build on de Ferrers’ long established reputation for excellence. The new leader would need to manage the complexities of an academy spilt across two sites one kilometre apart, maintaining and strengthening a coherent single school community. With 2000 students, this was a large leadership challenge for a large academy.

How we helped

• A dedicated recruitment director developed a strong relationship with the governors, gaining a thorough understanding of what was required for the principal role.
• We devised a recruitment strategy that encompassed a highly targeted search supported by bespoke advertising campaign in the TES.
• Our campaign resulted in 29 expressions of interest and 11 applications.
• We not only ran an effective search campaign, but also supported the academy throughout the entire process, from nurturing candidates, advising on shortlisting, reference checking and all associated administration to make the recruitment process as smooth as possible.

The result

The governors were very specific about the skills needed to continue de Ferrers’ journey of improvement. After a first round of recruitment, the successful candidate had not emerged. The governors and TES Prime continued to work closely together to ensure that the right candidates were engaged. An experienced and successful academy leader was subsequently appointed, after a rigorous process against some stiff competition.