Introduction
Are you passionate about improving primary education? Temple Grove Schools Trust (TGST) has a mission to inspire excellence in (state) primary education. We believe in sponsoring primary school head teachers and senior leaders in research, testing innovative approaches to primary education, and then in sharing successful new approaches with others to maximise the impact. We also believe in supporting schools through enrichment funding. The Trustees have now committed to expand our funding of primary schools through a new direct funding programme.
As part of our expansion, we are looking to recruit a three day a week Chief Executive. We are particularly keen to find someone with an entrepreneurial, ‘can do’ mindset who shares our passion for primary education. The role may suit someone who values real flexibility over working hours, and the ability to focus working hours on school term times.
Current Activities
TGST has a significant endowment fund, and the Trustees have to date pursued our objectives primarily through providing funding to primary schools through three partnerships:
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Provision of enrichment funding for primary academies and appointment of Governors to Haberdashers’ Academies Trust South, a state Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) with nine schools and approximately 6,000 students in South East London. TGST is co-sponsor of the schools with the principal sponsor being the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers.
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A partnership with the Farmington Institute to promote excellence in primary education, through the annual Temple Grove Farmington Teacher Scholarship programme for primary school teachers and through the Primary Headteacher Forums.
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Provision of enrichment funding for Skinners’ Temple Grove, a state primary school in Tunbridge Wells which was formerly sponsored by the TGST but is now part of a MAT sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Skinners.
More information on TGST’s current activities can be found on our website www.templegrove.org.uk and in our latest Report and Accounts. We are now looking to expand our activities as set out below.
Expansion
The Trustees have recently unanimously agreed a financial strategy to grow the Trust’s activities significantly over the next 5-10 years. The recruitment of the Chief Executive is a key part of this.
We are keen to sponsor and distribute research into what works in practice in primary education. The role of the Chief Executive will therefore be to manage and develop the current programmes but also to develop (in conjunction with the Trustees) direct programme(s) or additional partnerships which will inspire excellence in primary education, and then to distribute effectively to schools and teachers the research learnings from those programmes.
The Trustees have already agreed in principle to fund one new programme from the 2026/27 academic year. This project will provide direct funding to primary head teachers and senior leaders for curriculum-based and enrichment projects which they believe will have a real and demonstrable impact on their school. We are excited by the potential of this project, which has some innovative features to simplify the application and reporting process. Further information is available in the Appendix and details of our plans will be discussed with shortlisted candidates.
Principal Responsibilities of the Chief Executive
The principal role of the Chief Executive will be to develop a network of relationships with senior leaders of primary schools with the purpose of (i) engaging them in the Trust’s initiatives and (ii) raising the profile of the Trust as a promoter of initiatives in the primary education sector. Success will be measured by the reach of the network of senior leaders and by the level of engagement in the Trust’s activities. Other responsibilities include:
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Developing our new direct funding programme and other new initiatives, working closely with the Trustees.
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Promoting the work of the Trust as widely as possible through:
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Actively maintaining TSGT’s website and driving traffic to it
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Developing TGST’s social media presence
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Engaging with the educational press, academics, and educational leaders both in person and online
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Seeking out opportunities for the Trust to collaborate with other educational organisations.
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Management of the existing partnerships. This has been done to date by the Trustees. There are strong existing relationships, so maintaining the relationships is not anticipated to be a major time commitment.
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Administration of TGST (this is anticipated to take approximately 10% of the time allotted).
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Organising Trustee meetings (twice a year, primarily via Teams) and other ad hoc meetings as necessary
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Preparing agendas and co-ordinating minute-taking
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Maintaining appropriate and proportional policies (in agreement with the Trustees)
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Maintaining budgets and management accounts
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Paying invoices (currently fewer than 30 invoices a year)
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Person Specification
The right candidate will be motivated by and capable of making a material contribution to excellence in primary education. The Trustees would welcome applications from candidates with experience of teaching at senior management level in primary schools but will also welcome candidates with other backgrounds.
The ideal candidate is likely to have and to be able to demonstrate a combination of the following skills and characteristics:
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A demonstrable knowledge of, interest in and passion for primary education.
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Self-motivation and an entrepreneurial ‘can do’ mentality. You will be the only employee of the Trust and so it will be important to be a self-starter and to be able to build relationships with new and existing partners.
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An ability to build relationships and deal with and influence people in leadership positions, most importantly in the education sector (for instance primary school head teachers and senior executives in multi-academy trusts). There are strong existing partnerships to build on.
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Highly developed social media skills, as this is seen as key to developing the relationships and influencing ability of the Trust, which will be key in allowing us to distribute research effectively.
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Experience of managing and driving projects. This will be particularly important for our new direct school funding programme.
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An ability to work collaboratively with the Trustees who have a wide range of educational and commercial experience. Further information on the Trustees is available on the Website.
For avoidance of doubt the Trust Executive’s role does not currently involve fundraising, although the Trustees believe that if successful the new programme may enable the Trust to raise additional funding in the future.
Key Terms and Conditions
Remuneration
This is a part-time role and will be remunerated for the first year at least on the basis of an average 3 days (24 hours) per week over the year. The Trustees will be flexible in how this time commitment is fulfilled: there are no fixed days or times of employment.
Remuneration will be in the range of £27-33,000 based on 3 days a week (equivalent to £45-55,000 for a full-time role), depending on the experience of the successful applicant. You will be offered the opportunity to join the Trust’s Workplace Pension Plan. The Trustees will review the remuneration annually as of the month end following the anniversary of the appointment.
Working Hours
There are no fixed working hours. We anticipate that the demands of the role will be much greater in term time than in school holidays, and the role may therefore particularly suit candidates who have greater time availability in term rather than during the holidays.
Holiday entitlement will be 15 days’ paid holiday (being 25 days pro rata for 3 days’ work a week) plus public holidays. The dates of your holiday must be agreed beforehand with the Chair. Consideration should be given to important Trust dates in the calendar and taken during school holidays when possible.
The role will involve attendance at Primary Headteacher Forums and at the annual Farmington Conference, which is held in Oxford normally on the last weekend of June (the 2026 dates are Friday 26 - Sunday 28 June).
Location
The Trust does not have an office and so this will be a work from home role. The Trust will meet the reasonable expenses of this.
Reporting line
The Trust Executive will report to the Chair.
Start Date
The Trustees are flexible but would ideally like the successful candidate to start as soon as possible subject to completion of necessary background checks.
Safeguarding
Temple Grove Schools Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We ensure that all our employment practices reflect this commitment. The successful applicant will be subject to DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) clearance, satisfactory references and qualification checks and such additional checks as the Trustees deem necessary.
Application Process
Applicants should send a CV and covering letter, explaining why the role is attractive to them and how they believe they meet the Person Specification, by email by latest 31 January 2026 to Simon Lough, Chair, at simonlough@btinternet.com. Please include the names, job titles and contact details of two referees, one of whom should be a current employer.
It is anticipated that first interviews will be conducted by video conference. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview with Trustees in person in London towards the end of February. The interview will include a presentation by candidates. References will be called for shortlisted candidates at this stage.
If you would like to discuss the role before applying, please feel free to email Simon.
Equal Opportunity
The Trustees are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of age, gender, race, colour, ancestry, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, citizenship, marital status, disability or gender identity. Therefore, we actively encourage people to apply from all backgrounds. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know in advance so that we can accommodate that in the recruitment process and any interviews.
Other Requirements
Please note the successful candidate will be subject to safeguarding checks (as outlined above), which may include reviews of their social media activities, and must be able to evidence their legal right to live and work in the United Kingdom.
APPENDIX: Direct Funding Project
Background
We believe that for many primary schools a small amount of funding can make a material difference in funding key projects which can have real educational impact on their school. The problem is that there is no obvious source for such funding, and where there is the application process involved is often quite tortuous - which can put time-pressured head teachers off from applying. We have some innovative ideas to make the application process as simple as possible for head teachers and senior leaders.
The aim of the project is to provide funding for specific projects identified by head teachers which they believe will make a substantial impact on their school and then share the learnings with other teachers.
What sort of projects will we look to fund?
We will look for projects that aim to make a make a material learning difference to the school as a whole or to particular groups within the school (e.g. a particular year group or cohort). The project could involve the curriculum or enrichment activities. We don’t want to be prescriptive about the types of projects that we want to fund as we are trying to encourage new ideas and approaches. However, as a guide the type of project that we might be interested to fund include:
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Projects that improve the physical environment at the school. Examples might include:
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Reading nooks
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Sensory/forest gardens
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Wellbeing rooms
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Projects that are intended to change something cultural within a school. Examples might include projects that are intended to address resilience, which could for instance involve bringing in external speakers or experts to inspire students and/or provide training and development for teachers. (For avoidance of doubt) we would expect any such project to include a project involving students to follow on from the external visit.
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Projects that involve taking children offsite for a specific extra-curricular activity which will broaden their horizons. An example of this would be two teachers Keren Elson and Cath Richards from Riverside Primary on the Wirral who received a Temple Grove Farmington scholarship last year. They took their pupils to visit both Liverpool cathedrals and worked with sculptor Stephen Broadbent, helping the children create sculptures of their own. TGST funded the travel costs which enabled the trip to happen. A video of the project can be viewed on YouTube.
Next steps
We will be happy to share further details of our thinking with shortlisted candidates. The Trustees have already committed in principle to fund this project as part of the strategy of expansion, but we look forward to working with the successful candidate to finalise and implement the project for the 2026/27 academic year.