School Trust CEO Programme

England’s school trust landscape has expanded rapidly, with more than 10,000 academies now operating within over 1,200 multi academy trusts. Trusts educate the majority of disadvantaged children and young people and employ most of the school system’s workforce, making their leadership nationally significant.

The DfE has identified that "the best trusts are successful in large part because of the leadership and systems which the most effective Chief Executive Officers bring to their trusts, supported by effective oversight from trust boards (including chairs) and excellent central teams."

The CEO role is vital in both leading and shaping the education system. It is complex, demanding, highly influential, and nuanced. It is community-shaped and community-shaping, as well as subject to national and international influences. It is also relatively new in comparison to other roles in the sector.

With this challenge in mind, we have created a programme for new and current CEOs of school trusts to enable them to thrive in this rewarding and vital role.

Our approach reflects the complexity of the role; the local, the national, the internal focus on standards, and the external focus on the role schools play in the lives of their children, families, and neighbourhoods.

The programme aims to:

• Build the next generation of CEOs and system architects
• Provide the knowledge, insight and practice to ensure CEOs can run successful, sustainable, thriving trusts that develop as anchor institutions in their communities
• Build a powerful diverse network that colleagues can utilise in the future for the benefit of their own trusts and in shaping the system
• Nurture the talents of the most senior leaders in our system to lead and grow large multi-academy trusts especially in areas where they are needed most

Through a hybrid learning approach, the programme will support participants (known in the context of this programme as School Trust CEO Fellows) in preparing for these dimensions:

• Self-study, including podcasts and digital approximations, will cover both the concrete knowledge of the CEO role and involve discussions with successful CEOs to explore the nuance of the role
• Immersive learning experiences in successful trusts will prepare the Fellows to navigate three complex and yet frequently occurring challenges faced by school trust CEOs
• Fellows will build up a mentoring relationship with successful CEOs, further supporting participant learning
• Peer mentoring will support the navigation of the unique complexities of a school trust

The School Trust CEO Programme will support new and experienced serving CEOs who have an appetite for development and a commitment to the system. It will prepare them to support more schools, accelerating change to ensure no child or community is left behind.

Fellows must have:

• Significant leadership experience across a number of schools
• Sustained exposure to the CEO role if they are not a CEO already
• System leadership experience, including working beyond their own organisation.

This trust-funded development programme will provide tailored immersion opportunities to work alongside some of England’s leading trust CEOs, access to peer mentors, live conferences and self-studies. It will support the Fellows to excel in their role as CEO, consider potential for growth, and develop their role as a system architect.

Immersion: Fellows will engage in two tailored immersive experiences alongside a leading trust CEO. The two immersion opportunities cover some of the biggest questions that face CEOs and trusts, including the approach and implications of trust operating models, communications within and beyond the trust (including the community locally and nationally, local and national government), and how to achieve high standards for all pupils and the levers for this.

Self-study: the self-study element of the programme is meticulously crafted to cover all aspects of the trust CEO framework, equipping the Fellows with a comprehensive understanding that will be further enriched through immersion activities. This component is especially valuable as it showcases real-world applications of this knowledge, featuring authentic examples from high-performing trusts and invaluable insights from current and former CEOs of trusts.

Live conferences: three conferences across the programme will feature thought leaders and expert contributors from the English trust system and beyond who will deepen understanding of the programme's content even further. Each conference is designed to reflect core elements of the framework, thereby making explicit connections between theoretical knowledge and practical applications. They will also serve to build a successful and supportive peer group and widen the perspectives of the Fellows, developing their role as system architects.

In April 2026, we collected insights from our first three cohorts of the School Trust CEO programme to see how CEOs can learn from each other to improve the education system.

Our findings draw on interviews and survey responses from over 100 serving and aspiring CEOs and offer practical insight into how chief executive leadership develops in real contexts.

You can read our summary of the report's 10 recommendations; or dive in to the full report itself.

The full programme includes:

• 1hr virtual induction session
• 3x 2-day in-person conferences (overnight stay)
• 2 immersion experiences lasting 5 days each
• Up to 18 hours of self-study

In person conferences will be held in Birmingham.

Fellows will be assessed via:

• Short presentations and written reflections based on the immersion experience, presented to the host CEO
• Financial resource analysis and digital approximations
• Presentations to the Fellows’ senior teams, summarising learning from sessions and identifying implications for their trusts

These assessments are valuable for participant learning but also for applying the learning from the programme in their day-to-day work.

The programme is trust funded and costs £7,800.

Applications are currently closed. You can register your interest for the next cohort here.

Upon acceptance of offer, participants will be invited to have an orientation conversation with the programme lead.

Applications will be selected on a rolling basis.

We offer a whole host of other NPQs from subject specialisms to leadership skills. Take a look at the other related NPQs we offer:

• NPQ for Leading Teaching
• NPQ for Early Years Leadership
• NPQ for Senior Leadership
• NPQ for Headship
• Early Headship Coaching
• NPQ for Leading Teacher Development
• NPQ for Executive Leadership
• NPQ for SENCOs