Job Description

The School Library Association is a charity dedicated to supporting all who work within school libraries – primary, secondary and sixth form.

Our mission is to build a community to share best practice and to work towards all schools in the UK having their own (or shared) staffed library to help all children and young people build their literacy skills and fulfil their potential. 

We are looking to appoint an experienced Chair for our Board of Trustees. We particularly want to hear from candidates with charity, business or membership development experience as we look to strengthen our brand, our membership reach, and financial growth. 

Our Board currently has a mix of Trustees from business and the school library and educational sectors which helps to strengthen the range of skills and perspectives the SLA and its CEO can tap into. We have recently invested in a new Association Management system, members portal, website and back office system which will substantially improve our ability to personalise our offering to members and our potential reach to new members. 

Our Board meetings are mostly online, either in an evening or on a Saturday morning. There are two in person board meetings planned for this year, for which all expenses will be reimbursed

In advocacy terms, our involvement in the Great School Library campaign (our CEO is the joint chair) and Awards, has raised the profile of school libraries considerably in recent years and we wish to continue this journey in the coming years. 

The SLA has, over the last 5 years, made huge changes to its organisational and governance structure, Board strength, and employee skills base. Trustees joining us now will help to take us on the next stage of our exciting journey to reach more members and schools and help children achieve their full potential. 

Applications will be taken through our website, where you can also access the role description and person specification for each role.