Welcome to Truro and Penwith Academy Trust

CEO Jennifer Blunden introduces the Chief Financial Officer role

Thank you for your interest in the role of Chief Financial Officer for Truro and Penwith Academy Trust.

We are a large across-phase Trust in Cornwall serving some 7000 pupils across 34 schools.  Over the past 9 years we have grown our Trust in order to facilitate great collaboration between our schools at all levels – leaders, teachers, support teams and pupils.  We are proud to have a strong track record of school improvement success both in primary and secondary phase with our sponsored academies and those schools who have needed support to be rated Ofsted ‘Good’.

Our schools are all unique.  A core feature of our schools is their distinctiveness, serving communities from rural West Penwith to more urban communities in Truro and Liskeard.  Pupils in our schools enjoy a curriculum designed specifically for their communities and context with a strong focus on outdoor learning, sport and physical literacy, creativity, music and the arts and STEM.  Technology is a feature of our learning with the launch of our Advantage programme, using digital technology to enhance learning and teaching in our schools.

In 2019 we were the first Trust in the country to be subject to a MAT Summary Evaluation by Ofsted.  This Trust-level scrutiny was extremely positive about the Trust, our vision and ethos for improving life chances for all pupils in our schools and our collaborative ethos.  I am particularly proud that ‘the Trust is one that schools want to join’.   Follow the link for the full report.

Over the past few years we have developed our expertise in supporting children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities through the provision of Area Resource Base’s in several of our schools.  This specialist provision in our mainstream schools ensures expertise in teaching and learning to meet specialist needs is integrated fully to our professional development for our staff, benefiting all pupils.

We are looking forward to opening the first new secondary school in Cornwall for 30 years, with Perranporth School opening in 2026.  This large 11-16 years school will serve the communities of Perranporth and surrounding villages with a particular intention to develop skills in Science Technology Engineering and Maths with focus on enterprise.  This is an exciting new development for the trust and this school will work alongside our 5 other secondary schools.

We are looking for someone to engage and lead the financial management of the organisation through integrity, openness and transparency; able to work with the Board and stakeholders to support the CEO develop and deliver a compelling vision for the organisation, for those who deliver education and support to our pupils, and above all to the pupils themselves and their families.  Our CFO will strategically lead our non-education aspects of the organisation and be creative in seeking solutions to the challenges of small-school budgets in our rural communities.  The right candidate will lead a highly skilled, dedicated team who work directly with all our schools to maximise the resources available to benefit pupils’ learning.

This role is a great opportunity to apply your drive and passion for education, and your willingness to lead collaboratively, in the service of a Trust which already does amazing work and which wants to do even better.

We very much look forward to hearing from you.

Dr Jennifer Blunden OBE
Chief Executive Officer