Thistley Hough Academy
Stoke-on-Trent
Salary:
Negotiable. Dependent on experience.
Job type:
Full Time, Permanent
Apply by:
9 October 2025
Job overview
Thistley Hough Academy is seeking an exceptional Principal to lead our vibrant, high-performing school into its next exciting chapter. This is an opportunity to make a lasting impact, drive academic success further and nurture the embedded culture of ambition.
Job Title: Principal
Location: Thistley Hough Academy, Stoke-on-Trent
Salary: Negotiable. Dependent on experience.
Start Date: Ideally January 2026
Contract Type: Permanent
Working Pattern: Full-Time
Application Closing Date: Thursday 9th October 2025
1st Round Interview Date: Thursday 16th October 2025
2nd Round Interview Date: Thursday 23rd October 2025
About You:
You are a dynamic and compassionate leader with a clear vision for educational excellence. With a strong track record of school improvement, you inspire others through high expectations, strategic thinking, and a deep commitment to inclusive, student-centred education.
As Principal, you will champion our core values of Respect, Resilience, and Responsibility, driving continuous improvement and shaping a culture where every student can thrive and succeed.
Our Ideal candidate will have:
* Substantial experience in school leadership, ideally as a Vice Principal or Deputy Headteacher, with a strong track record of raising educational standards.
* Commitment to your own professional development, holding NPQSL or equivalent.
* A deep understanding of school improvement strategies and the ability to lead through periods of change.
* Proven ability to inspire, lead, and motivate staff within a performance management framework, including professional development and managing underperformance.
* A commitment to inclusive education, with the ability to foster a culture of high aspiration and expectation for every student, including those with SEND.
* Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build trust and strong relationships with students, staff, families, and the wider community.
About Thistley Hough Academy:
Thistley Hough Academy is a vibrant, inclusive, and high-performing secondary school at the heart of Stoke-on-Trent. As one of the city's highest achieving non-selective schools, we are proud to celebrate our best-ever GCSE results with the 2025 cohort, reflecting our relentless drive for academic excellence and student success.
Significantly oversubscribed, our popularity is a testament to the quality of education, care, and opportunity we provide. We are a modern school with a strong sense of community, where students are supported to thrive socially, emotionally, and academically. Our ethos is built on high expectations, expert teaching, and a culture of kindness.
Our core values, Respect, Resilience, and Responsibility are woven into every aspect of school life. We foster an inclusive environment where every student feels safe, valued, and empowered to aim high and achieve their full potential. We believe in nurturing the whole child, combining academic ambition with a deep commitment to wellbeing and personal development.
As proud members of the Creative Education Trust, we benefit from a forward-thinking, collaborative network that shares our commitment to educational excellence. Since joining the Trust in 2013, Thistley Hough Academy has undergone a transformational journey, recognised by Ofsted as a 'Good' school in May 2022.
We offer a broad and ambitious curriculum, delivered by passionate subject specialists in a disruption-free learning environment. Our diverse and multicultural school community is a true reflection of the local area, and we actively celebrate and promote this richness in our daily practice.
At Thistley Hough Academy, we are passionate about building strong partnerships with families and the wider community. We believe that education extends beyond the classroom and that meaningful engagement with parents and local organisations is key to our continued success.
This is an exciting time to join our school, please visit our
website
to find out more.
About Creative Education Trust:
Creative Education Trust is a growing network of 17 schools, educating over 13,500 children and young people across England. Since 2010, we have worked in partnership with communities to deliver an education that inspires ambition, promotes equity, and unlocks opportunity for every learner.
We believe every child has talent, every community has strength, and every school can be a place where excellence thrives. Our curriculum is rich, broad, and inclusive, designed to build knowledge, nurture creativity, and prepare students for the future.
We are united by a shared purpose: to transform lives through education. Our schools are places where students feel safe, supported, and empowered to lead their own lives with confidence. Through collaboration, high expectations, and purposeful leadership, we ensure that success is both expected and achieved - together.
Visit our Trust
website
to explore how we support our staff and discover more about our mission, values, and opportunities.
Ready to Join Us?
Submit your application directly through our website. We warmly welcome visits to our school, and if you'd like to arrange a visit or confidential conversation with the Line Manager, our friendly HR/Recruitment team is here to help. Reach out to us at, and we'll be delighted to assist you.
Essential Information:
Creative Education Trust (CET) is committed to Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people by keeping them safe, we expect all our colleagues to share in this responsibility.
All shortlisted candidates are subject to online checks prior to interview.
The CET Recruitment Policy follows the guidance set out by Keeping Children Safe in Education, where all offers of employment are subject to an Enhanced DBS Check, separate Barred List Check, References and where appropriate a Prohibition from teaching search.
This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974.
CET is committed to developing, maintaining, and supporting an inclusive culture and environment for the benefit of its employees and the communities it serves.
Recruiter contact:
Email us
Call us
About Thistley Hough Academy
Thistley Hough Academy
castle Lane, Penkhull
Stoke-on-Trent
ST4 5JJ
United Kingdom
Welcome to Thistley Hough Academy – a community school in the heart of Penkhull, Stoke-on-Trent. Our academy prides itself on its warm and welcoming ethos in which every student is valued as an individual. This is an important part of our identity and this ideology will always remain at the heart of our work. As an academy we believe passionately in supporting all students to achieve their absolute best.
Thistley Hough was first opened in 1938 and over the last seven decades scores of local children have been successfully educated at Thistley Hough. We are proud of our history and we remain dedicated to the same vision - to provide the best possible education for local children of all backgrounds, abilities and beliefs. Over 35 languages are spoken at Thistley Hough and we value and respect all faiths and cultures.We believe in celebrating success and we want our students to be recognised for the amazing things that they achieve. I have very high expectations of our academy and I am clear that all students must be aware of exactly what is expected of them.
In order to be an outstanding academy it is my belief that there are several key things that we must ensure are in place every single day:
* Quality teaching, academic support and enrichment that delivers excellent results and engages students
* The highest expectations of behaviour, uniform and student conduct in order to create a calm and productive working environment
* Outstanding and fully inclusive pastoral care and academic guidance
* Provision tailored to the personal needs of all students as individuals so that they may all achieve personal excellence.
You can be assured that we are relentlessly focussed on achieving these goals. We believe passionately in working closely with our community in order to ensure that every one of our students is cherished and nurtured. We want to work in partnership with all stakeholders to ensure success for our current students whilst continuing to strive for an outstanding school of the future.
Our Vision and Values
Our vision is very clear:
"Thistley Hough Academy: Where students are empowered to take responsibility for their future."
We work with each student as an individual, providing an inspirational learning experience that ensures personal excellence. At Thistley Hough Academy we create well rounded, caring, compassionate and ambitious members of society.
The academy motto, adopted in 1938 when the school first opened and taken from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem 'Of Old Sat Freedom on the Heights', epitomises these values:
"My open eyes desire the truth"
At Thistley Hough Academy, our thirst for knowledge and awareness is never-ending, as we continually seek ways to make our academy, our lives and our world a better place.
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