About the role: We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Finance Officer to join us on a fixed-term basis at The Leigh UTC & Inspiration Academy. You will be part of a busy Finance office with the sole responsibility of controlling the purchasing system through to bank reconciliations, aged creditors and debtors, staff expenses and other tasks to assist the Finance Manager. This is a rare and exciting opportunity to join an established finance team in the education sector. Please note that this is a busy position; our successful candidate will need to be able to demonstrate strong interpersonal skills, the ability to prioritise and also accuracy and attention to detail.

Please note that this role is covering Maternity 29.6 hours per week, Term Time working pattern.

Working with us: Having opened in September 2014 with state-of-the-art facilities originally for Key Stage 4 and 5, The Leigh UTC provides an exciting, innovative, business-led, problem-solving curriculum, enabling students to achieve relevant work-related qualifications and transferable skills for future training or employment. The most unique feature of The Leigh UTC is its business ethos that are emphasised by our students' behaviours and supported by our sponsors.

In September 2017, following the request of the Department for Education due to our continued success, The Leigh UTC marked history by expanding its student intake to incorporate Key Stage 3 – the first UTC in the UK to do this. Furthermore, being the first UTC to have IB World School Status has enabled us to develop strong links in Germany and Qatar. Having IB Status will enable us to further develop the mid-years programme (MYP) for our Key Stage 3 students and thus providing a joined-up pathway from ages 11 to 19. The overarching mission of the Inspiration Academy is to develop curious, academically-skilled young people who aspire to be principled, compassionate learners. Our curriculum strives to create students who are self-motivated, competent, willing to take risks and lifelong learners.

Our key successes and features that our successful candidate can be part of are as follows;

The promotion of pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
Pupils, including the disadvantaged and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, catch up from previous underachievement and make strong and often rapid progress in a range of subjects and disciplines
Application to learning is often exemplary.
The Leigh UTC makes a real difference for its pupils and surrounding area. Pupils become motivated to find and follow their passions. They leave well equipped to succeed in engineering and related technical and design careers and contribute to the economy.
The Principal, with his leaders and staff team, model a high-quality working environment. This rubs off on pupils, who value the supportive ethos, work-like atmosphere.​​​​​​​

Being part of Leigh Academies Trust: As of 1st September 2021, our Trust will comprise 31 geographically organised academies (15 secondaries, 14 primaries and 2 special) educating 20,000 students, and employing 2,500 talented staff. The Trust is establishing four ‘clusters’ of academies: North West Kent; Central Kent; South East London; Medway. In addition, the Trust is responsible for one of the region’s biggest initial teaching training organisations, a large teaching school hub and is an accredited apprenticeship provider. Click here to view our future plans in our Vision 2025 document.

As part of Leigh Academies Trust you will have ample opportunity to collaborate with your peers both within the academy and across the whole Trust. This is an important part of our vision as we know through experience that we perform better when we work together. You are supported to undertake regular self-development to continue your professional development and hopefully progress further within the organisation.

Our commitment to safeguarding: Leigh Academies Trust and all of our academies are committed to ensuring the highest levels of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our pupils, and we expect all our staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We adopt a fair, robust and consistent recruitment process across all academies and business units. All offers of employment are subject to an Enhanced DBS check, references, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching check.

Our commitment to equality and diversity: As a Trust we are passionate about diversity and recognise that as individuals, we all bring something unique to the role regardless of any protected characteristics which is why we treat all of our people equally, without compromise. We are committed to providing equality and fairness throughout our recruitment and employment practices and not to discriminate on any grounds.

Based on the quality and quantity of applications received, Leigh Academies Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy sooner than the specified closing date. Applicants will be notified of this where possible. Therefore, early applications are encouraged.