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WAT Recruitment Set Play

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WAT Recruitment Set Play

The WAT Recruitment Set Play: Introduction & Roadmap Hello everyone, and welcome to the WAT Recruitment Set Play.

Claire Gething, Director of Communications, Community and HR

Every time we invite someone new to join the Windsor Academy Trust family, we are writing the next chapter of our story. As educators and leaders, you know better than anyone that our people are our greatest asset. Finding those exceptional individuals who will inspire our students and strengthen our communities is a profound responsibility—but we know it is also an incredibly demanding one. We created this playbook because we care deeply about supporting you and protecting your time. Finding great talent shouldn’t mean reinventing the wheel or navigating administrative stress every time a vacancy opens. This Set Play is designed to lift that weight from your shoulders. It provides a clear, supportive, and legally robust roadmap from the moment a resignation is handed in, right through to the end of a successful probation. By following these shared steps, we ensure that every single candidate experiences the true warmth and excellence of our culture, while guaranteeing that our highest standards of safer recruitment are fiercely protected. Thank you for everything you do to build and nurture our teams.

How to Use This Document •

Navigate directly to your required section: Jump straight to the phase you are currently managing based on where you are in the hiring lifecycle.

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The “You Are Here” Map: At the start of every section, you will see a full-page WAT Recruitment Roadmap. The phase you are reading about will be highlighted. Simply find your current “stop” on the journey and follow the key actions for that specific phase.

WAT Recruitment Set Play

The Purpose of the Set Play •

Consistency & Excellence: To ensure every candidate receives the exact same high-quality, professional Windsor Academy Trust experience.

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Protecting Capacity: This is a codified playbook so nobody has to reinvent the wheel every time a vacancy opens, removing the guesswork for hiring managers.

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Safer Recruitment & Compliance: To guarantee that every single hire meets our strict safeguarding, KCSIE, and internal auditing standards without exception.

Roles and Responsibilities This playbook is executed through our HR structure, working alongside the hiring managers, executive approvers, and finance:

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School HR Leads / Central Team HR Administrator: You are the engine of this process. You are responsible for executing the day-to-day administration from Phase 2 through Phase 9. This includes pulling templates, setting up MyNewTerm, conducting KCSIE checks and administering probations.

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People Partners: You are the advisors and quality controllers. You will advise hiring managers on business cases and step in to support escalations such as failed probations. You are primarily involved at Phase 1 for brand new roles, ensuring structural integrity, financial alignment and providing final sign-off on new NJC/Leadership grading.

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Executive HR Lead: You provide Trust-wide oversight and ensure compliance with safer recruitment requirements.

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Hiring Managers: You are the decision-makers. You identify the need, conduct the interviews, manage the new hire, and conduct Phase 9 probation check-ins.

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Executive Approvers: The CEO approves all Central roles; the Director of Secondary Education approves Secondary roles; and the Director of Primary Education approves Primary roles. Approval must be secured before recruitment begins. Once a preferred candidate is identified, the proposed offer should reflect the salary and terms already agreed. If the proposed offer differs from what was originally approved, further executive approval must be obtained before the offer is made.

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Finance: You ensure the role is affordable within the agreed budget and confirm the proposed salary. If the terms of the appointment change during the recruitment process, any financial implications must be reviewed before an offer is made.

WAT Recruitment Set Play

Phase 1: Need & Approval Phase 2: Preparation & Assets Phase 3: Attraction & Advertising Phase 4: Application & Shortlisting Phase 5: Assessment & Selection Phase 6: The Offer & Pre-Boarding Phase 7: Compliance & SCR Phase 8: Onboarding & Induction Phase 9: Probation & Performance 4

WAT Recruitment Set Play

Phase 1: Need & Approval The Triggers & Forms •

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Handling a Resignation (Like-for-Like): When a colleague moves on, it is a great time to evaluate your current structure. If you decide to replace the role exactly as it is, please complete Section A of the Request for Recruitment Form. Creating a New Role or Substantial Change: If you are growing your team or completely redesigning a role, please complete Section B of the Request for Recruitment Form. This allows you to outline your rationale clearly. Please share the details with your People Partner for benchmarking and grading.

Approval Before Recruitment Before any role is advertised, the Request for Recruitment Form must be approved by the appropriate Executive Approver and Finance must confirm that the role is affordable within the agreed budget. This ensures the role, salary and recruitment approach have been agreed before the vacancy goes live. At this stage, please also consider our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion priorities to help ensure the recruitment process is as inclusive as possible.

Changing an Existing Contract: If you simply need to increase a current team member’s hours or update their pay scale, please use the Contractual Change Request Form.

AI Advantage • Drafting the Business Case: Paste your rough notes into an AI tool and ask it to structure a professional rationale for a new role. • Role Scoping: If you are creating a brand new role, ask AI to list the standard industry responsibilities for that job title to help you accurately build out the Request for Recruitment Form.

Toolkit Exit Interview Questionnaire Template Contractual Change Request Form Request for Recruitment Form Salary Benchmarking & Grading Guide Job Evaluation Submission Checklist

WAT Recruitment Set Play

Phase 2: Preparation & Assets Once you have executive and financial approval, it is time to build your candidate-facing materials. Consistency is key here.

Using the Master Library For existing roles, start with the approved Job Description and Person Specification in the Master JD & PS Library. Adapt the relevant sections to reflect the specific context of your school, team or vacancy, while retaining the core Trust-wide requirements. For a brand new role, work with your People Partner to develop a new Job Description and Person Specification using the standard Trust templates. This will help ensure the role is appropriately structured, benchmarked and aligned with the Trust-wide Pay Policy.

Assembling the Job Pack Take your approved JD and PS and build your Job Pack. You must use either the School-Specific template (which highlights local community impact) or the WAT-Specific Central Team template (which focuses on Trust-wide scale). Ensure that the EDI needs you identified in Phase 1 are clearly reflected in the language of this pack.

Setting the Timeline Before you go live, establish your key recruitment milestones. Map out exactly when the advert will close, the date you will conduct shortlisting, and the date the interviews will take place.

WATconnect Check AI Advantage • Adding your context: Once you have selected the standard Job Description and Person Specification, give AI the template alongside your notes about the school, team and role. Ask it to suggest how your local context can be incorporated clearly without changing or duplicating the core requirements. • Template check: Give AI both the original Trust template and your adapted version and ask it to flag any core responsibilities, criteria or wording that may have been accidentally removed or materially changed. Use this as a sense-check before the documents are finalised.

Before advertising the vacancy, check that the relevant Post, Grade and salary scale points (SCPs) have been set up in WATconnect. If anything is missing, contact Lorna Quigley to arrange the setup. This ensures everything is ready once a suitable candidate is identified, so they can be added to WATconnect, their contract can be raised and payroll can process them without delay.

Toolkit Link to Recruitment JD and PS Library Master 2026 Job Pack Template (School-Specific) Job Pack Template (WAT-Specific/ Central) Recruitment Timeline Calculator/ Milestone Template

WAT Recruitment Set Play

Phase 3: Attraction & Advertising Now we take the role to the market. This phase is about deploying the right message to the right platforms to attract top talent.

The MyNewTerm Hybrid Workflow To protect your capacity and ensure we consistently share the true Windsor Academy Trust culture with applicants, the Central Marketing and HR teams have pre-built your job adverts. We use a ‘Hybrid Workflow’ for posting vacancies on MyNewTerm. The system handles the standard data via locked templates, while you drop in a highly tailored, pre-written advert and attach your bespoke Job Pack. Please follow these exact steps when you are ready to take your vacancy to the market: Step 1: Access the Master Library: Go directly to our Master JD and PS Library. Click the Google Doc link in the ‘Adverts’ column for your vacancy to open your pre-written, strategy-aligned job advert. Step 2: Customise the Yellow Highlights: Update the highlighted placeholders in the Google Doc with your specific school name, subject details, or local community context.

AI Advantage Centralised AI Efficiency: We know how precious your time is. To protect your capacity, the Central Marketing and HR teams have leveraged advanced AI tools to build our strategyaligned advert library for you. If you want to use AI to support your Phase 3 attraction, try pasting your Job Description into an AI tool and asking it to draft three short, engaging social media posts for LinkedIn and X to promote the live vacancy.

Step 3: Select the MyNewTerm Template: Log into MyNewTerm, click ‘Post a Job’, and select the relevant core template from the dropdown menu to populate the foundational details. Step 4: Paste Your Advert: Scroll down to the blank ‘About the Role’ section in MyNewTerm. Paste your finalised text from your Google Doc here. Do not paste your entire Job Description into this box. Step 5: Attach Your Job Pack: In the ‘Contact Details’ section, click ‘Attach Files’ and upload your completed Job Pack as a single PDF. This should include the Job Pack, Job Description and Person Specification combined into one document.

Advertising & Promotion Always check for internal talent first and promote the Staff Referral Scheme. When external advertising is required, use the most appropriate channel for the vacancy. This may include MyNewTerm, WM Jobs, TES, Indeed, DfE Teaching Vacancies or other relevant sector-specific job boards. If you would like additional support promoting a vacancy through Windsor Academy Trust social media channels, please contact the Central Marketing and Communications team directly.

Toolkit Recruitment Advert Library Standard ‘Apply Now’ Social Media Graphics Customisable Canva Templates for Social Media Staff Referral Scheme Policy & Submission Form Advertising Tier Matrix & Costing Guide

WAT Recruitment Set Play

Phase 4: Application & Shortlisting This phase is where speed and safeguarding become critical. We want every candidate to feel valued while strictly adhering to safer recruitment practices.

Managing the Pipeline Where candidates request a visit, arrange a school visit where practical so they can see the school and learn more about the role. MyNewTerm will manage the standard candidate communications and reference requests, helping to keep the process clear and timely for applicants. The remainder of Phase 4 can stay as currently written unless affected by general proofing or capitalisation changes.

Objective Shortlisting and Compliance To ensure a fair selection process, please use the Role Suitability Checklist to score candidates objectively based on the Person Specification. To protect our safer recruitment standards, it is

essential that you conduct KCSIE online searches and declare any employment gaps before interviewing anyone. Your checklist will guide you through this, and HR Leads are always on hand to help flag any concerns.

Communication Flow & The Silver Medalist While the MyNewTerm handles the automated interview invites and standard rejections, please remember the human touch for your ‘Silver Medalists’. If you have great candidates who just missed out, please reach out to them respectfully and invite them to join our talent pool for future roles.

AI Advantage • Candidate Communications: While the MyNewTerm handles the basics, you can use AI to help draft warm, empathetic, and highly personalised rejection emails for your Silver Medalist candidates. (Note: We never use AI to screen CVs or make shortlisting decisions. Human review using the Role Suitability Checklist is mandatory for fairness and safeguarding).

Toolkit Role Suitability Checklist (with KCSIE Checks) Reference Request Form (Teaching) Reference Request Form (Professional Services)

WAT Recruitment Set Play

Phase 5: Assessment & Selection The interview is our chance to assess the candidate, and their chance to assess us. The process should be well organised, welcoming and appropriate to the role, giving candidates a clear opportunity to demonstrate their skills and experience.

Logistics and Standardisation Before the interview day, book the required spaces, arrange any technology and confirm the interview panel. At least one member of every interview panel must have completed safer recruitment training. Use the Interview and Candidate Schedule templates to organise the day, and ensure the mandatory safer recruitment questions are included for every candidate.

Tailoring the Assessment The assessment must match the reality of the role. For school hires, utilise observed lessons and student panels. For central hires, consider in-tray exercises or strategic presentations. When building your interview panel pack, please select from our Core Question Bank to assess cultural fit, but you must also add your own bespoke, role-specific questions to test their technical competency.

AI Advantage • Role-Specific Questions: Paste the Job Description into AI and ask it to generate a robust bank of technical interview questions tailored to the daily responsibilities of the role. • Scenario Generation: Ask AI to generate realistic, role-specific “in-tray” exercises or hypothetical problem-solving scenarios for candidates to complete.

Toolkit Interview Schedule Template Candidate Schedule Template Core Interview Question Bank Standardised Scoring Rubrics Task Examples

WAT Recruitment Set Play

Phase 6: The Offer & Pre-Boarding You have found your candidate. Now we must officially secure them, ensuring all legal, financial, and compliance boxes are ticked before they walk through the door.

Confirming the Offer

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Health & Qualifications: Completion of the Everwell confidential Medical Questionnaire and

Once you have selected your preferred candidate, make sure the proposed offer reflects the salary and terms originally approved for the vacancy.

evidence of GCSE English and Maths, degree and QTS where applicable.

If you want to make an offer outside the agreed scope, for example a different salary or materially different terms, further approval must be obtained before the offer is made.

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Conditional Checks

Keep in touch with successful candidates during their notice period so they continue to feel welcomed and connected before they start. This could include a friendly check-in or welcome email, sharing copies of the WAT Family Bulletin, school newsletters or other relevant updates, and encouraging them to explore the WAT Talent Institute Hub once access has been provided.

Make the verbal offer (bring in your People Partners if complex negotiations are required). You must issue the written Offer Letter within 48 hours, and ensure the legal Contract is issued before their start date. Clearly communicate to the candidate that the offer is conditional upon the following checks: •

References: Two satisfactory references (one from their current/most recent employer working with children).

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Payroll: Completion of Bank Details and HMRC Starter forms.

Keeping Them Warm

Formal induction information and joining instructions will be managed through the WAT Talent Institute Hub as part of the onboarding process.

Compliance: Enhanced DBS with barred list check (requiring ID verification), Right to Work in the UK, Prohibition Orders, Section 128 checks, and overseas checks where applicable.

AI Advantage • Keep-Warm Emails: Use AI to draft a series of friendly “check-in” emails to send to the candidate during their notice period, sharing recent school newsletters or Trust-wide updates to build excitement.

Toolkit Pre-Employment Medical Questionnaire Link/Instructions New Starter Forms

WAT Recruitment Set Play

Phase 7: Compliance & SCR (Single Central Record) Before our new colleague can officially begin, we have a vital responsibility to ensure all safeguarding and statutory compliance requirements are fully signed off and recorded.

Enhanced DBS Check t School HR Leads/Central Admin must ensure that an Enhanced DBS check is applied for promptly as part of the pre-employment process for every role where one is required. The outcome must be received, verified and recorded before the new colleague is cleared to start.

Final Compliance Check Once all required checks have been completed and verified, the School HR Lead or Central Admin must complete the Final Compliance Checklist. This confirms that all safer recruitment requirements have been met, the SCR is complete and the personnel file is ready to move from applicant to active employee status.

Updating the Single Central Record Accuracy here is essential. The School HR Lead or Central Admin must ensure the Single Central Record (SCR) is fully updated with the verified dates and details of all required checks, including Enhanced DBS, Barred List, Right to Work in the UK, Prohibition Orders and teaching qualifications where applicable.

AI Advantage • Zero AI Policy: Because this phase deals exclusively with highly sensitive personal data, background checks, and legal compliance, we do not use AI tools here. Total human oversight ensures 100% data privacy and accuracy for our Single Central Record.

Toolkit SCR Update Checklist & Guide Final Compliance Checklist Personnel File Handover Checklist

WAT Recruitment Set Play

Phase 8: Onboarding & Induction A great induction is more than just a checklist; it is the foundation of making a new colleague truly feel they belong. At the heart of the WAT Family’s strategy are inclusion and co-creation, and their first impression should deeply reflect these values.

The WAT Talent Institute Hub: your induction one-stop shop To provide a consistent induction experience across the Trust, the WAT Talent Institute Hub brings together the key information, training and resources new colleagues need when they join us. Once a new starter has been cleared and entered into Arbor, they will receive access to the Hub before their first day. From here, they can complete mandatory training through Flick, explore the Windsor Academy Trust strategy and access relevant induction resources. Where a school or team has its own staff handbook or local guidance, this can also be shared as part of the induction process.

The first 14 days & the 90-day buddy Because our systems are beautifully integrated, simply uploading the new staff member into Arbor automatically triggers their IT and estates setup. We ask that administrators ensure this is done well in advance so equipment and access are perfectly ready before arrival. While the digital platforms handle the logistics, the human connection is vital. On day one, please assign the new employee a peer Buddy to provide a friendly face and a safe space for informal questions. Throughout the first 14 days, line managers and administrators should use the shared digital checklist on the Hub to track progress, ensuring a structured end of week one check-In takes place.

AI Advantage • Customised Itineraries: Paste the standard induction schedule into an AI tool alongside the specific job description, and ask it to draft a personalised, welcoming 14-day itinerary tailored to that exact role. • Local induction guides: Use AI to help draft a simple local guide for new starters, covering practical information such as where to find key facilities, useful contacts, local processes and common school or Trust acronyms.

Toolkit WAT Induction Toolkit & Buddy Programme Guide

WAT Recruitment Set Play

Phase 9: Probation & Performance Feedback and Continuous Improvement We want our onboarding process to be driven by the employee’s actual experience. To support this, our Central Team will automatically send a “New Starter Survey” to your new colleague during their second term. We use this honest feedback to continuously improve our welcome journey across the Trust.

Transitioning to the Appraisal Cycle Once probation is successfully completed, managers should use the Transition to WAT Appraisal Cycle Checklist to seamlessly move the employee onto our BlueSky platform. This ensures they are fully integrated into our annual rhythm and can set meaningful objectives aligned with our core strategy of Co-creating Brighter Futures for All.

AI Advantage • Conversation starters: Use AI to suggest thoughtful questions or prompts to help explore themes raised during the probation review, such as progress, confidence, support, relationships or development needs. These should complement the Probation Review Meeting Template, not replace or alter it. • Enhancing the review conversation: Use AI to help turn brief notes or observations into useful discussion prompts, helping managers prepare for a more meaningful and supportive probation conversation while still following the agreed review template.

Toolkit Probation Review Meeting Templates Probation Sign-Off/Extension / Escalation Form Transition to WAT Appraisal Cycle Checklist

WAT Recruitment Set Play

Notes

WAT Recruitment Set Play