Shane Ierston

CEO, The Great Schools Trust

Shane Ierston was a successful academy principal for nine years before taking up his post as CEO at the Great Schools Trust. In 2012, he became the founding Principal of King’s Leadership Academy Warrington, which was later judged outstanding under his leadership. King’s Warrington was the first academy in the trust and performs in the top four percent of state schools nationally for progress. Shane’s career spans 26 years across a range of settings, his portfolio includes school transformation and cross trust improvement work for the DfE. Shane is a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and served as an Inspector at Ofsted for six years.

Hall 11b

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Leveraging the levy: the strategic role of teaching apprenticeships

This session is designed for trusts looking to make strategic use of the apprenticeship levy to strengthen their workforce pipeline, improve retention, and maximise public funding. The levy is widely underutilised, often due to misconceptions about its relevance and complexity. This workshop will address myths surrounding the levy, offering a clear, operationally focused overview of how trusts can leverage the levy to upskill teaching assistants and support staff into qualified teacher roles, without incurring debt or diverting core budgets. Attendees will hear directly from trust leaders who have integrated teaching apprenticeships into their workforce strategy, sharing insights on implementation, impact, and talent development.