We meet in a caf\u00e9 in Retford, Nottinghamshire. It\u2019s a noisy place. Noughties music rings out, along with the scraping of plates and hissing of coffee machines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truby\u2019s dressed in a blue suit. A badge, decorated with his trust\u2019s colours, is pinned to his jacket lapel. Softly spoken and with grey hair, he tells me he\u2019s 45, but jokes: \u201cI look older, I\u2019ve been through a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was brought up in the Northumberland village of Seaton Sluice. Sundays were spent at church. His parents taught French in secondary schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his teens, Truby spent weekends working at his aunt\u2019s hotel in Whitley Bay. It was \u201cwild\u201d, with stag and hen dos regularly descending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was quite eye-opening,\u201d he says. \u201cI learned to deal with some really drunk people in difficult situations which could be dangerous, could get out of hand. You learn different skills in communication, de-escalation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While at university studying French and Spanish, Truby had his first taste of teaching. As tutors, he and a friend led language lessons in schools and colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After completing his studies and securing a PGCE, he went solo, taking \u201cthe whole [business] on\u201d. At its height, the firm employed 30 teachers across the north of England. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI saw an opportunity. It was the time when [the Labour government] had just brought in 10 per cent PPA time for teachers and schools were struggling with a solution to that. My solution was \u2026languages.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Truby says he was freeing up teachers to have their breaks, while also giving schools someone to lead language lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2006, Truby moved with his wife, who is now the deputy head of a Catholic school, to Sheffield. He \u201capplied for lots of different jobs\u201d, taking a role at St Marie\u2019s Catholic Primary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Truby was on a fast-track leadership programme at the time and, three years later, was appointed deputy head at another school in the city \u2013 St Thomas of Canterbury primary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before starting the role, he learned the head was due to retire. The school began recruitment with Truby keeping the seat warm. But he saw an opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI proposed to the chair of governors at the time and to the diocese, \u2018You\u2019ve only got one person in for [interviews] and if you wanted to interview me alongside, I\u2019m offering myself to do that,\u2019\u201d Truby says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI knew they may have laughed me out of the door. When I think about it now, I think it’s a crazy thing to do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n His gamble paid off and he was given the top job. Truby was 29, and believes he was one of the country\u2019s youngest heads. He soon realised \u201cthere were lots of things I didn\u2019t know. I was really idealistic\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The sector was abuzz with \u201cexcitement\u2026 [carried over] from the Blair administration\u201d, he recalls. There was \u201ca lot of wacky stuff going on\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was in a creative partnership and there was a lot of money for random projects, [like] you could bring artists into school [and] we had sculptors. It was called a creative curriculum move \u2013 completely the opposite of a knowledge-based curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut as a result of it, our results went down in 2011. I had to do some really hard thinking.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Truby remembers feeling he had \u201cdone all this stuff, got all these grants\u201d but was still asking himself \u201cwhat the heck is going on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He concluded the school \u201chadn\u2019t sorted out the basics\u201d. He and his staff \u201ctightened everything up\u201d, introducing behaviour expectations, \u201ca clear lesson structure\u201d and a \u201cdefined curriculum\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2014, it secured an \u2018outstanding\u2019 Ofsted. This \u201cled to other things\u201d, Truby says, with the primary becoming a teaching school and he became a National Leader of Education (NLE). <\/p>\n\n\n\n The NLE programme saw leading headteachers \u2013 who had to meet specific eligibility criteria \u2013 support challenging schools. It has been replaced by Labour\u2019s flagship RISE school improvement drive<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n For this, 65 experienced turnaround leaders have been seconded as advisers who are appointed to specific underperforming schools<\/a> to identify priorities and propose an outside organisation to deliver support over two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During his time as an NLE, Truby \u201coccasionally\u201d worked with \u201creally exceptional\u201d leaders who \u201cdeveloped\u201d over the course of the programme. However, the \u201creverse\u201d was more common. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019ve gone in there, leadership has been an issue to begin with, they\u2019ve gone along with your plan \u2013 but when you\u2019re not going back, they\u2019ve reverted to what they were doing before,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnless you\u2019ve got someone really driving [improvement] \u2026 [these heads] will quickly fall back into getting absorbed by the things that were distracting them before.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s for this reason he fears RISE \u201ccould waste a lot of time, energy and resource\u201d, as well as \u201cchildren\u2019s one opportunity in the classroom\u201d, if the leaders of the struggling schools aren\u2019t up to snuff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy concern with the programme is, do you just keep throwing good money after bad? [RISE advisers] should be able to at least make the case for a structural intervention to ensure they can go to the right place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In September 2021, Truby interviewed for a new job. He\u2019d seen a \u201cmysterious\u201d, \u201cintriguing\u201d advert for a role leading a not-yet-launched Catholic turnaround trust as part of a Department for Education pilot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The trial \u2013 which also funded the formation of the Falcon Education Academies Trust \u2013 was started to find a temporary home for \u201corphan\u201d schools. The idea was they would be \u201cincubated\u201d by the trusts, before moving to a permanent home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He became CEO of the new Liverpool-based trust, that became St Joseph Catholic Multi Academy Trust, in January 2022. On his first day, Truby was its only employee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had a bank statement, but I had nobody to sort it out and get money from the DfE. We were building the plane as we were flying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe had interim people, a lot of consultants. We literally couldn\u2019t appoint people quickly enough into the roles with notice periods and everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Truby and the trust board agreed to have \u201ca really decisive plan\u201d for improvement as otherwise they were \u201cgoing to fail\u201d. School improvement directors were also hired from Harris Federation and REAch2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He modelled the trust \u2013 which received \u00a31.25 million in government start-up funding \u2013 on the likes of Ark, Outwood Grange and Dixons, organisations that \u201cwere high performing but also had high levels of disadvantage\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019ve got a handle on curriculum, teacher development, behaviour systems. We wanted to ensure that we had the best possible fusion between what the highest-performing trusts do and how we have Christ at the centre.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data for that period was used by government officials to name and shame 37 trust CEOs<\/a>, including Truby, for high pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n To calculate this, the Education and Skills Funding Agency initially grouped trusts by type and pupil numbers \u201cto minimise bias\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n CEOs were deemed to be \u201coutliers\u201d if they fell into the top 5 per cent in their band for having both the highest pay in absolute terms, but also as a proportion of their overall grant funding. No further action was taken against any of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Truby says the workings that landed him on the list were \u201cincorrect \u2026because the period that was covered was a partial year [for St Joseph]. I was the only employee and we didn\u2019t have schools, so it was completely skewed in that period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schools Week<\/em>\u00a0later revealed<\/a> how the clampdown allowed the biggest chains to escape scrutiny as the method used to identify \u201coutliers\u201d appeared to be loaded against smaller trusts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Truby says his current \u00a3150,000 to \u00a3160,000 pay packet is \u201cin the typical range\u201d. But he believes the sector would benefit from a \u201ctrust leader national pay scale\u201d, akin to those already in place for headteachers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re doing a role in education, in the public sector, and therefore we should have a range of pay, which would have a cap on it, [as] it would create more consistency. It could settle some of the debate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just a year after St Joseph was launched, it was announced its sister chain Falcon would shut<\/a>, having only taken on four academies since 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Truby-at-the-age-of-2-inset-600px.jpg\")
Tutoring \u2018solution\u2019 <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Leadership fast-track<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Andrew-Truby-1inset-800px.jpg\")
Outcomes fall<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Good money after bad<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Mystery advert<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Truby-with-his-son-Ben-on-holiday-inset-600px6.jpg\")
Pay crackdown<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Relief\u2019 and mega MATs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n