Chief Executive Officer - Laetare Catholic Multi Academy Trust

Chief Executive Officer - Laetare Catholic Multi Academy Trust - Merseyside

£Competitive to attract the right candidate - Catholic - Head/Principal
Ref: 142 Date Posted: Monday 10 Feb 2025

Salary: Competitive to attract the right applicant
Location: Flexible
Contract Type: Full Time
Contract Term: Permanent
Start Date: September 2025

This is a truly unique opportunity to become the CEO of the newly formed Laetare CMAT, a national CMAT for Religious Order schools, offering a distinctive but complementary option for schools under the Trusteeship of Religious Orders in addition to Diocesan CMATs.

The Laetare CMAT is an exciting project and the first national Catholic MAT with the first wave of schools being in the Northwest followed closely by schools in London and the Southeast.

The first school, De La Salle, St Helens, joined Laetare on 1st December 2024. It is expected that the next three schools, all founded by the Christian Brothers, St Anselm’s College and St Ambrose College will join Laetare in the immediate future, and St Joseph’s College will join on 1st November 2025. These will form the northern hub. There are a similar number of Religious Order schools in London and the Southeast preparing to join which will form a southern hub.The CMAT will largely be made up of secondary schools, reflecting the history of Religious Order schools, as well as some primary schools.

Laetare CMAT is uniquely committed to a governance model which respects and empowers each school’s unique identity and allows the individual charisms of each school’s Founder to be nurtured. It is the Trust’s expectation that schools will retain significant levels of autonomy as far as it is appropriate to do so.

We welcome applications from practising and committed Catholics with the ability to articulate a clear philosophy for Catholic Education. We are looking for significant school leadership experience gained in Catholic education through one of the following:

- Executive headship role
- Headteacher/Principal of a secondary school
- School improvement or previous Trust CEO/Deputy CEO experience

Now is a moment of real opportunity to lead and grow this unique national Catholic MAT, which makes this post an extremely attractive and rewarding career opportunity.

As a national CMAT this will involve the Central Team working remotely or within schools for the majority of the time. As a consequence, there is flexibility as to your location.

Closing Date: Monday 10 March at 5pm

Interviews: Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 March

For an initial informal chat please call Liam Dowds, our Emmaus Advising Consultant, on 01737 652 043 or email him at ldowds@emmausleadership.me for an Application Pack

All conversations will be held in the strictest confidence.

DO NOT APPLY ONLINE. ALL COMPLETED APPLICATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED VIA EMAIL.

Laetare CMAT is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and young people and all applicants are expected to share this commitment. All appointments are subject to pre-employment checks, including satisfactory references and an Enhanced DBS check.

 

 

"Emmaus were instrumental in persuading me to apply for the post of Headteacher. I had seen the school advertising in the past but nothing inspired me to get in touch. Once Emmaus advertised I felt intrigued and keen to learn more about the school. I was supported throughout the whole process, which was a very personal and positive experience. I would highly recommend Emmaus to any school thinking of recruiting, and candidates considering registering. If my new school had not used Emmaus I probably wouldn’t have applied."

Hannah Walters, Headteacher, Platt CE Primary School - Kent

"…we also considered other external recruiters, but Emmaus were clear favourites in terms of their recruitment expertise and in-depth knowledge and appreciation of the catholic school’s sector."

Peter Giorgio, Director of Education, Nottingham Diocese

"Having previously struggled to recruit two Headteachers - for both a Primary and a Secondary school - Emmaus came to the rescue. Their expert advice and deep understanding of recruiting Headship positions in Catholic schools is invaluable, and I have no hesitation in recommending their knowhow and their values."

Fr David Gibbons, Chair of Governors & Parish Priest, Archdiocese of Southwark

"Emmaus brings a level of professionalism, seen in other industry sectors, to church schools’ recruitment."

The Rt Rev Nick Baines - Anglican Bishop of Leeds

"I approached Emmaus following our unsuccessful attempts to recruit Deputy DDEs for both Dioceses. They went on to source a far greater number of candidates of high calibre. I highly recommend Emmaus!"

Canon Carolyn Lewis, Director of Education - Diocese of Leicester and Diocese of Derby

"Could we afford it? My belief, as Chair was that we couldn’t afford not to. We needed strong school leaders to be drawn to apply. Our success was down to using Emmaus and definitely money well spent."

Carry Lynott - Chair of Governors, Our Lady and St Brendan's Catholic Primary School, Bradford

"We tried going it alone to find a CEO for our MAT but had only 2 applicants who didn't meet our requirements. We approached Emmaus and from the start their professionalism was reassuring."

Barry Leyland, Chair - Blessed Edward Bamber Catholic Multi Academy Trust

"We considered TES, but the critical factor for us was that Emmaus are not only specialists in recruiting Headteachers, they are Christians focused exclusively on recruiting for Church Schools."

Canon Bob Baker, Chair of Governors,The Bishop’s CE School - Thetford

"We came across Emmaus by accident after our own attempts to recruit a Headteacher failed. We would not hesitate to engage them again to find a suitable candidate for a leadership position."

Michael Tennant - Chairman of the Board, St Edward's School

"I’m delighted with the way it went and the successful outcome (third SLT placement now!) helps confirm to Governors that your approach is right for these levels of appointment. It’s difficult to quantify the costs of recruiting and failing to get the right candidate ourselves - we’d only find out the true cost and also lost opportunities if we tried and failed. Altogether better to invest in getting it right first time, so thank you for all your hard work on this. The other side is the perception we leave with all candidates and I think we’ve worked together to do an excellent job (using your Assessment support). The communication, logistics and the care given I think is really important and Emmaus are a big part of that - you work as an extension of the school. I am fairly sure that all of the candidates will go away having had a great experience and that will help our reputation spread in a positive way."

Dave Cobb - School Business & Development Manager, Saint Cecilia's CE School, London

find_your_dream_job

phone_liam

We find the best leaders to inspire academic success and nurture faith. Register with us >