Astrea seeks new executive head on six figures –as fourth layer of managerial hierarchy above its Cambridgeshire schools

A controversial academy trust is advertising for a new executive principal to oversee two of its schools –as some of its teachers face cuts in the amounts they can spend on curriculum resources.

Astrea Academy Trust, which controls 26 schools in Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire, is seeking to fill this post, which would see the new recruit leading up to two secondaries in the latter county, on a salary of between £116,552 and £133,677 a year.  

But it comes as this website learns of teachers at St Ivo Academy, a secondary in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, being asked to make cuts to their budgets for classroom resources, with finance pressures at school level within the trust thought to extend to other schools as well.

Astrea, whose advert for the new position states it is influenced by the Teach Like a Champion teaching handbook, and the work of the government behaviour adviser Tom Bennett, has generated controversy including sustained coverage on this website, for more than a year.

The trust yesterday faced comments from a Conservative MP in Cambridgeshire that he was “deeply troubled” about how parents and the wider community feel about two of its secondaries in the county.

Hierarchy within the trust