Trust Governance Professional/Senior Secretary

SHAVINGTON ACADEMY

Rope Lane, Shavington, Cheshire CW2 5DH

Tel: 01270 260717

Email: recruitment@shavington.academy Website: www.shavington.academy

Headteacher: Mrs Emma Casewell

Applications are invited for the permanent post of

Trust Governance Professional/Senior Secretary

Required to start as soon as possible

Actual Salary: £24,136 - £25,726 per annum

37 hours per week, 40 weeks per year

Mon to Thurs 8:30am – 4:30pm, Fri 8.30am – 4:00pm

Overall Purpose of Post

To provide advice, guidance and administrative support to the Trust Board and Governing Body on, constitutional and procedural matters, working within the principles of the DfE Academy Trust Governance Guide.

Contributing to the efficient and effective functioning of the Trust Board, governing body and its committees by providing:

• Administrative and organisational support to the Trust Board, governing body and committees.

• Guidance to ensure that the Trust board, governing body and committees work in compliance with the appropriate legal and regulatory framework and understands the potential consequences for non-compliance

• Advice on procedural matters relating to the operational requirements of the Trust board, governing body and committees

To work with the administrative team, to provide secretarial and administrative support to academy staff, in order to ensure consistency and continuity in facilitating the smooth running of the academy

This post will involve the clerking of calendared meetings that fall outside of standard working time and are paid in addition

Main Responsibilities

• Preparing for and administrating meetings, to allow the Trust board, governing body and committees to make effective use of their time and focus on strategic matters.

• Working with others to prepare agendas and liaising with those preparing papers to make sure they are available on time

• Convening meetings and distributing papers as required by legislation

• Ensuring meetings are quorate, inclusive and well structured

• Overseeing the election of Members, Trustees and Governors

• Recording attendance/apologies and taking appropriate action in relation to absences

• Taking minutes of Trust Board and Governor meetings, indicating who is responsible for agreed actions with timescales, and circulate as agreed with by the trust

• Circulating draft and approved minutes to all trustees, governors, the headteacher and other relevant bodies within a timescale agreed with the Trust board

• Following up on agreed action points with those responsible and inform the Chairs of Trust and Governors

• Providing a confidential administrative service, to the headteacher, senior leaders and other staff

• Providing administrative support with individual health care plans

• Prioritising the flow of work to ensure agreed deadlines are achieved which enables the administrative responsibilities of the Trust Board, Governors, headteacher, senior leaders and other staff to be managed efficiently.

• Supporting the administrative team with any duties which will facilitate the efficient and timely management of academy business

Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills and Attributes

Essential:

· Strong background in performing administration duties

· Strong IT skills – including Microsoft office suite and facilitating meetings using Teams. Experience of using AI for generating meeting minutes (or ability to learn this)

· Attention to detail

· Excellent organisation skills

· Strong communication skills

· Strong literacy skills – including notetaking and preparation of high quality, accurate documentation

· Flexibility

· Trustworthiness and discretion

Desirable:

· Experience of working in an education setting

· Previous experience of clerking meetings in an education or public sector setting.

· Completion the Level 3 Certificate in the Clerking of School and Academy Governing Boards (or its equivalent), or a willingness to undertake this

Shavington Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all our pupils

and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment

All posts are subject to enhanced DBS checks and completion of Level 2 safeguarding training

Informal inquiries prior to application should be made to Mrs L Couper – Business Manager – lc@shavington.academy

Closing date: Monday 19th October 2026 @ 12 noon

Interview Date week commencing: 19.10.2026

To apply for this post, please complete an application form and provide a supporting statement of no more than two sides of A4 on your suitability for the post to Mrs E J Casewell, Headteacher.

Please note we may hold interviews as and when applications are received, and we reserve the right to offer to a candidate prior to the closing date. We therefore encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

Application packs are available from the Academy website: www.shavington.academy or by emailing: recruitment@shavington.academy Applications should be returned to recruitment@shavington.academy

Please note that only fully completed Academy applications forms will be considered