New academy leaders appointed to support school development

The government has announced the appointment of 32 new academy leaders to support the further development of schools across England.

Leaders have been elected by their peers across the country and appointed by the Department for Education to join one of England's eight regional headteacher boards, which provide support to regional schools commissioners in overseeing local schools and feeding advice back to the central government.

Each academy leader was chosen on the basis of their experience and local knowledge, and will be joined on the headteacher boards by additional members selected by each regional schools commissioner. They will not have direct decision-making powers, but will provide local expertise to help inform future policy direction.

Headteacher boards have been in place since July 2014, when the regional schools commissioner role was created. They have already helped a growing number of academies to share expertise with neighbouring schools and within multi-academy trusts, resulting in tangible improvements for thousands of pupils.

The newly-elected academy leaders will assume their positions on November 1st 2017, and are all individuals who currently hold or have recently occupied roles as headteachers of top-performing academies that have been rated highly in Ofsted inspections.

National schools commissioner Sir David Carter said: "Over the last three years, the expertise of headteacher boards has been so important in helping to create a self-managing and ever-improving education system.

"I know from personal experience how much headteacher boards help inform decisions and I'm looking forward to working with the newly-elected members to help make our school system even better."