Traditionalist academy trust with multiple layers of management seeks new curriculum director on up to �100k

The original Teach Like a Champion, which Astrea's new curriculum and assessment director will emphasise

An academy trust with multiple layers of senior management is provoking fresh controversy after advertising for a new director on up to £100,000 a year, who will be tasked with implementing a “knowledge-rich” curriculum, having also reportedly made cuts on the ground.

Astrea Academy Trust, based in Sheffield, is seeking a new “Director of Curriculum and Assessment (Secondary), as it aims to underline its commitment to a “traditionalist” teaching approach which appears to be tightly-controlled from the centre.

Sources close to Astrea got in touch to complain about the presence of the advert, set in the context of what seems to be a large central infrastructure and alleged cutbacks in school-level provision.

This week, the trust was also under fire again from teachers’ representatives in relation to one of its schools, St Ivo Academy in Cambridgeshire, after reported cutbacks to arts subjects there. A union, the NEU, claimed that management were making “dictatorial” decisions, about which staff had not been consulted.