Governance Professional at The Bishop of Winchester Academy

Are you looking for a career in a thriving, friendly and supportive environment where staff welfare is a priority? Are you passionate about making a difference to the lives of young people in a role that really matters? If so, The Bishop of Winchester Academy wants you!

The Bishop of Winchester Academy is a single academy trust in Bournemouth seeking to appoint an experienced and highly organised Governance Professional to support the work of our Trust Board. This key role provides professional advice and guidance and administrative support to the effective operation of the academy’s governance.

This is an excellent opportunity for a capable governance professional with experience of education governance. A Governance qualification would be desirable, however there is training available if you are keen to complete this and have prior education experience.

The post offers flexible working hours, aside from scheduled meetings which are usually in the day before 5pm, with most meetings held in person at the academy and a small number being virtual online meetings. The role is an annualised, term time only contract and does not have a defined number of hours per week. We have estimated that there is approximately 400 hours per year, however this may fluctuate slightly dependent on activity surrounding meetings.

As Governance Professional, the successful candidate will:

• Undertake all aspects of a clerking service (scheduling, agendas, papers, attendance, formal minutes, correspondence) for TBOWA and related meetings within the scheme of delegation.
• Ensure statutory information about governance is collated and supplied in a timely manner for publication on the academy’s website.
• Provide procedural and legislative expertise to the Trust Board and ALT regarding academy governance.
• Undertake recruitment of new trustees and members. Undertake all aspects of trustee appointment, record-keeping, and membership monitoring.
• Manage induction and training, online and in-person to trustees and members.
• Facilitate ongoing development for trustees to strengthen capacity, effectiveness, and succession.
• Facilitate and support the monitoring and effectiveness of the trust board, identifying and prioritising areas to be resolved/improved, in agreement with the Chair and the Principal.

The Bishop of Winchester Academy is a thriving Church of England school, recently recognised by Ofsted as prioritising ‘wider opportunities alongside achievement so that pupils “live life to the full.”’ (Ofsted 2023).  Operating from recently refurbished facilities, our shared mission to improve the life chances of all of our students is at the very centre of our work.

We put the welfare of our staff at the heart of everything we do and can offer you:

• Career development with a bespoke CPD programme.
• Excellent newly refurbished teaching facilities with free onsite parking and good local public transport links.
• Employee Assistance Programme and Cycle to Work scheme.
• Close proximity to beaches and the Jurassic Coast to assist your work life balance. 

Please be aware that due to the ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ legislation we do not accept CV’s.

We reserve the right to close a vacancy earlier than the advertised date if we have received applications that meet the criteria.

The Bishop of Winchester Academy values the diversity of our workforce and welcomes applications from all sectors of the community.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people; this is a commitment which we expect all staff and volunteers to share. The successful candidate will be required to have a Disclosure and Barring Service check in line with the Governments safer recruitment guidelines.

The pro rata salary shown is based on the number of hours and weeks worked and includes appropriate paid annual leave and bank holiday entitlements.

The salary quoted is the annual salary for the position at the time of advert. The salary will be paid in equal monthly instalments and will be adjusted at the start of employment and again if leaving part way through the school year to ensure the correct salary is received for the work completed in an academic year.

This role is UK based and your Right to Work will need to be established as part of the appointment process.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974. The amendments to the ROA 1974 (Exceptions Order 1975, (2013 and 2020)) provide that when applying for certain jobs and activities, certain spent convictions and cautions are ‘protected’, so they do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account. The MOJ’s guidance on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Exceptions Order 1975, provides information about which convictions must be declared during job applications and related exceptions and further information about filtering offences can be found in the DBS filtering guide.

Keeping Children Safe in Education

The Bishop of Winchester Academy will conduct online searches of shortlisted candidates. This check will be part of a safeguarding check, and the search will purely be based on whether an individual is suitable to work with children. All aspects of social media and internet searches will be conducted. As care must be taken to avoid unconscious bias and any risk of discrimination, a person who will not on the appointment panel will conduct the searches and will only share information if and when findings are relevant and of concern.