Director of Education - Diocese of Brentwood

Director of Education - Diocese of Brentwood - Essex

Competitive + TPS + Relocation support (Hybrid working) - Catholic - Head/Principal
Ref: 145 Date Posted: Monday 10 Mar 2025

Diocesan Director of Education

The Bishop of Brentwood, The Rt. Revd. Alan Williams, is seeking to appoint a Director of Education as a key member of his senior diocesan leadership team.

The Diocese of Brentwood stretches from Harwich to Shoeburyness and Saffron Walden to Canning Town. This comprises the County of Essex, five London Boroughs (Havering, Barking & Dagenham, Newham, Waltham Forest, Redbridge) and two Unitary Authorities of Thurrock and Southend.

The Diocese serves a network of 90 schools: comprising 72 primary and 18 secondary schools, providing for the formation and educational needs of some 40,000 children and young people.

The role of Director of Education is an inspiring, rewarding and fulfilling position. The successful candidate will join a dedicated and committed team at a significant time for the education sector, for Catholic education nationally, and for the schools and colleges across our own Diocese as we look to serve Bishop Alan and the mission of our Church with Christ as the foundation of our entire educational enterprise.

As Director you will be expected to establish good relationships with each authority as well as engaging with the Regional School Director, ESFA, and Ofsted so that our schools and their staff are well served.

The role offers the opportunity to utilise your existing skills, gifts and talents in new and innovative ways as we look to preserve and protect our distinctive educational heritage and history whilst forming and co-constructing an authentically Catholic educational landscape for the future.

As Director of Education, you will:

  • Promote and implement the Bishop’s vision for Catholic education within the Diocese
  • Build capacity, trust and good relationships within the diocesan family of schools; encouraging collaboration to develop and sustain school improvement, and raise aspirations
  • Confidently and enthusiastically articulate the role of Catholic education in the mission of the Church and be an effective witness to it

We are looking for someone who has:

  • Extensive leadership experience in an education context, at Headteacher level in school/academy/diocesan leadership or local authority/SIP setting.
  • A strong grasp of current educational issues (including CMATs’ evolving role within the parish, diocese and local community)
  • Excellent leadership and management skills - the ability to communicate a clear vision, win trust, influence and respect and bring people with you
  • A deep knowledge and understanding of Catholic education as structured in this country

Now is a moment of real opportunity within the educational and Catholic life of the Diocese, which makes this post an extremely attractive and rewarding career opportunity.

A requirement of the post is that applicants must be practising Catholics.

  • Closing: Monday 7 April at 12 Noon
  • Shortlisting: Tuesday 8 April
  • Interviews: Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 April

Whilst your normal place of work will be based at Cathedral House, Brentwood, we anticipate some hybrid working, with 3 days being spent in the office.

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.

The Diocese of Brentwood is an equal opportunities employer and committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. DBS check required.

"This is the second time our Governing Board has used the services of Emmaus Leadership in the successful appointment of a new headteacher and we have no hesitation in recommending them to others."

Rosemary Johnson, Chair of Governors - Lowton CE High School

"We are delighted with the appointment we made and I have reported to the whole community that we could not have been more thorough in the search or more rigorous in the selection process. Thank you Emmaus Leadership."

Jacqui Feely, Chair at All Hallows Catholic College, Macclesfield

"…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

"I have no hesitation in commending Emmaus to any school that is seeking to appoint a Christian Headteacher. In particular, Emmaus’ ability to promote the school, assess the ethos of the school and communicate this within the networks of those who might be considered as possible candidates was invaluable."

Clive Purser, Chair of Governors, St Andrew's CE High School for Boys, Worthing

"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

"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

"Thank you for everything you did to successfully support our recruitment of an outstanding Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher. Using Emmaus Leadership to manage the recruitment to the post was much debated and was the subject of intense scrutiny by our Governing Body who were somewhat reluctant to use a leadership recruitment specialist. However, their confidence was reinstated as a result of your professional approach, your insightful knowledge and the resulting candidate pool produced for both appointments. I have no hesitation in recommending Emmaus to other schools."

Annie Sutton - Executive Principal, St Joseph's RC Specialist School and College

"I cannot imagine a better service to fulfil the requirement of helping a Catholic school find a Head. I was impressed with the number and high quality of candidates sourced by Emmaus Leadership."

Marjorie Bannister, Chair - St Michael's Catholic College, London

"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

"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

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