Home / Roles / Principal & CEO | St John Rigby College
With a mission underpinned by its Catholic faith and supported by the Archdiocese of Liverpool, St John Rigby College, a highly successful sixth-form college seeks to appoint an innovative and inspirational leader to guide them into a bright future as they continue delivering outstanding, inclusive and aspirational education to young people in and around Wigan.
* Location: Wigan, North West
Following the announcement of our current Principal & CEO’s plans to retire in summer 2025, St John Rigby College is looking to appoint the next leader of our organisation and support the Governing Body in achieving its ambitions of delivering an outstanding, inclusive, and aspirational education offer for young people in and around Wigan, supported by the Archdiocese of Liverpool.
Our Catholic faith underpins the mission of our college, and this is a reserved post that requires the post-holder to be a practising Catholic.
Who we are
St John Rigby College (SJR) is a highly successful sixth-form college situated just 3.5 miles to the west of Wigan town centre and set within a dedicated 30-acre estate. Having formally served as a Boys’ Grammar School, SJR was established in 1972 as a co-educational sixth-form college under the trusteeship of the Archdiocese of Liverpool. Having celebrated its 50th anniversary two years ago, the College continues to provide high-quality post-16 provision for young people who come predominantly from Wigan and West Lancashire.
The quality of our provision and the high standards set by the organisation have recently been recognised by various inspectorates. Most recently, SJR was awarded an ‘Outstanding’ grading by the Catholic Schools Inspectorate (CSI) (Nov 2023), which was then followed by Ofsted awarding the same grade through their latest inspection (Jan 2024); the second consecutive time we have been awarded this grading. Our results continue to be high too. Our A Level pass rate is over 99%, above the national average. The same is true for the pass rates on our vocational courses across Levels 1, 2 and 3.
Outside of the formal rigour of inspection, on a day-to-day basis, our college is a genuinely warm, welcoming and inclusive place for both our staff and our students. Dedicated to the memory of martyr St John Rigby, the College has an underpinning ethos built upon the values of faith, courage, commitment, integrity and freedom. Collectively we are devoted to our organisational mission, to dedicate ourselves to the education and development of the whole person and supporting all students to realise their full potential.
Whilst we retain our Catholic principles, we deeply value the relationships we have built with schools across our surrounding region — and we welcome a diverse range of students of all faiths and none to our college each year. We take great pride in the attitudes of our students who each show a belief in our mission, support our Christian ethos and respect each of their peers.
About 40% of our students are Catholic, and in recent years, we have witnessed a growing number of students from other schools being attracted to our mission, our ethos and our inclusive approach to education.
We provide a broad curriculum that sees us deliver education to students with diverse hopes and aspirations each year. Our predominant delivery is A Level provision, delivered across 28 different subject areas, including the more common subjects such as English, science and humanities, but also with a keen focus on including art, film and music, languages and social sciences. We also deliver Level 3 BTECs in a range of subjects, Level 1 & 2 provision in areas such as health & social care and GCSEs in English and maths. From September 2024, the College recruited to T Levels in education & early years and health. We are now also ready to begin delivery across additional pathways – business, digital and legal, which will further widen our ability to help our learners realise their ambitions.
Alongside this formal learning, here at SJR we seek to create additional learning opportunities for our students which have a direct focus on their career aspirations; we do this through our Careers Academies. These are additional elective programmes which students studying on A Levels or BTECs can enrol onto. Examples of the streams we offer include Future Artists, Future Entrepreneurs, Future Software Engineers and Future Teachers. Each programme contains new opportunities for our students to better experience their potential career through workshops, visits and work placements.
Alongside our commitment to providing outstanding learning opportunities, we recognise the importance of doing this in a supportive, understanding, and safe environment — themes that are central to our ethos.
As such, safeguarding is of paramount importance to us. We are committed to ensuring that the young people in our care feel protected and offer whatever support they may need from us. Over 30% of the students who join us come from areas of high deprivation, so we work with them in partnership to ensure they can flourish.
“Students, including those with high needs, make exceptional progress on their programmes. They produce work of a very high standard.”
Ofsted 2024
We are tremendously proud of the facilities that we provide for our learners. Our site is made up of a number of buildings which have been built as our numbers have grown relating to the expansion of our site. These facilities include high-quality teaching spaces, two large self-directed study areas, a wide range of ICT sites across our campus, various eating spaces, dedicated practice spaces and equipment linked to performing arts, and sports facilities, which include outdoor training pitches, an indoor gymnasium and a fitness suite.
Whilst these facilities are of clear benefit to our students, we are also able to support the local community through opening our facilities to them. Alongside this, we take pride in our peaceful chapel, which provides a space for quiet reflection and prayer.
Our current Principal & CEO, Peter McGhee CBE, joined St John Rigby over 15 years ago. Under his leadership, we have developed our estate, faced national and global challenges head-on, developed hundreds of staff and achieved wonderful outcomes for thousands of students. All of this has been done whilst ensuring the sustainability of our finances and staying true to our ethos. With Peter having recently announced his retirement at the end of the academic year, we now seek to appoint a new Principal & CEO with the ability and experience to lead us on the next step of our journey.
Peridot Partners and St John Rigby College are, together, committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and our client expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced DBS check and satisfactory references before any final offer can be made.
For further information about the role or to arrange a confidential discussion, please contact our advising consultants at Peridot Partners:
Closing date: 9 a.m. Monday 3rd February 2025
Candidates informed of outcome: Thursday 6th February 2025
First stage interviews: Wednesday 12th February 2025
Second stage interviews: Friday 14th February 2025
If you would like to know more about this role please contact Dan Baxter.
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