Great Schools Trust
Shane Ierston is the Chief Executive Officer of Great Schools Trust since September 2015, overseeing a network of non-selective state schools in the Northwest of England with a commitment to character and leadership development. Previously, Shane Ierston served as Principal of King's Warrington, the founding academy of the Trust, and held roles as Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Director at the Department for Education and inspector at Ofsted. Educational leadership experience includes positions as Vice Principal at both Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy Trust and North Liverpool Academy, along with earlier roles at Woolston High School and Cowley International College. Shane Ierston holds several leadership qualifications, including CMgr FCMI and NPQH, and has a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from the University of Liverpool.
This person is not in any offices
Great Schools Trust
Great Schools Trust is a values-led Multi Academy Trust. We place considerable emphasis on ensuring an ethical ethos and a strong values system permeates everything it does. Each of our schools prioritises character education, which is taught through a structured programme of character and leadership development. Each school holds several core beliefs that are central to its practice, including that all students must learn to be resilient on their educational journey to achieve these ambitions; and they must become confident contributing citizens able to develop a passion for both learning and character development. Our vision is to develop a family of Great Schools where all students, irrespective of starting point or background, flourish, are happy and achieve their full potential. We exist to bring aspiration and increased social value to the communities that we serve. To support academies in achieving our vision our Faculty for Education offers specialist expertise in several core areas: education; quality systems; people; finance; marketing; ICT; governance; capital programmes and estates; and data insight, thereby educating, equipping and empowering our community of schools to deliver excellence, driving continual improvement and system change. We believe in recruiting talented like-minded people and developing them to fulfil their full career ambitions within our academies. Our ambition is for all new staff to become one of our future leaders, to continue to shape the future of all our young people ensuring they become independent learners, have strong characters, gain intellectual habits and are successful citizens. Great Schools Trust consists of 5 secondary schools – King’s Bolton, King’s Hawthornes, King’s Liverpool, King’s Warrington & King’s Wavertree; 2 primary schools – King’s Lander & King’s Northway and one alternative provision school – King’s Phoenix, all located across the North West.