Thirty-two academy leaders elected to help schools thrive

The names of 32 academy leaders elected to help shape the future of schools in their local areas, have been announced today (11 October) by the Department for Education.

The leaders – who were elected by their peers across the country – were chosen because they have the right experience and local knowledge to take on this important role. They will each join one of the eight regional Headteacher Boards across England. The boards provide support to the Regional Schools Commissioners in those areas as they work to provide effective oversight of local schools and advise the National Schools Commissioner, Sir David Carter and the government.

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System, Sir Theodore Agnew, said:

Headteacher Boards have already shown they can provide invaluable support in improving the education of pupils across England and I’d like to thank everyone who has played an important role so far.

The local expertise and wisdom of the newly elected members will be vital in helping schools continue to flourish and I look forward to working with them in my new role.

The newly elected members will build on the successes of the previous Headteacher Boards, which have been in place since July 2014 when the role of Regional Schools Commissioner was created. The Headteacher Boards have already helped a growing number of academies to share expertise with neighbouring schools and within multi-academy trusts, driving improvement for thousands of pupils.

Two additional board members will be appointed by each Regional Schools Commissioner, and the board will be able to appoint further members to fill skills or expertise gaps in the future. Those elected to Headteacher Boards do not have decision-making powers, but provide local expertise to inform the decisions of National and Regional Schools Commissioners and ministers.

National Schools Commissioner, Sir David Carter, said:

Over the last three years the expertise of Headteacher Boards has been so important in helping to create a self-managing and ever-improving education system.

I know from personal experience how much Headteacher Boards help inform decisions and I’m looking forward to working with the newly-elected members to help make our school system even better.

The academy leaders elected to the Headteacher Boards, assuming the position on 1 November 2017, are:

Further information:

1. The electorate was made up of all academies in England open on 1 June 2017. Each senior leader was only able to vote in the election for the Headteacher Board covering the region in which their academy is located.
2. The elections used a first-past-the-post system with conditions to ensure that at least one primary head and one secondary head is represented and to ensure that no more than one head per single academy chain is elected onto each board.
3. Candidates for the elected positions must either: • currently be serving as a headteacher of an academy rated by Ofsted as ‘outstanding’ overall with ‘outstanding’ leadership and management or • currently be serving as a headteacher of an academy rated by Ofsted as ‘good’ overall with ‘outstanding’ leadership and management or • have (within five years of 1 June 2017) served as a headteacher of an academy which met either of the first two criteria above at the time of your departure, and is now serving as a Senior Executive Leader* (SEL). [*A Senior Executive Leader (SEL) is defined in the Academies financial handbook 2016]