Skip to main content
Tes home
SearchBack to search
Principal

Principal

East London Arts & Music Academy (ELAM)

Tower Hamlets

  • £101,459 - £118,686 per year
  • Expired
Job type:
Full Time, Permanent
Start date:
September 2025 (With option of earlier start)
Apply by:
28 February 2025

Job overview

As Principal, you will lead ELAM into its next decade, driving its vision, sustaining its culture of excellence, and shaping the future of creative education. This role, like any Principal position, requires wearing many hats, from operational management to strategic leadership, all while fostering an environment where staff and trainees can thrive. Key priorities include:

  • Leadership Development: Build and empower a strong leadership team to ensure sustained excellence.
  • Vision and Impact: Strengthen ELAM’s influence within the Trust and the wider creative industries.

We are looking for an experienced leader with a deep understanding of education, pedagogy, and the ability to inspire young people. While a background in the creative industries is not essential, you must be able to lead an organisation that prepares trainees to excel in creative fields.

This is an opportunity to make a lasting impact, helping diverse young people succeed and ensuring ELAM continues to thrive as a values-driven organisation.

Attached documents

About East London Arts & Music Academy (ELAM)

ELAM is a world-class 16-19 Academy which opened in September 2014. ELAM offers young people everything that they will need to lead successful lives within the music, games design and film and television sectors. We are based in Bromley-by-Bow, have Trainees from every borough in London and we are diverse in every way.

Our vision is that all children in the uk should see themselves reflected in uk culture. To do this we see our role as recruiting talented young creatives who, once they succeed, would diversify and ensure the creative industries are more representative.

We believe this can be achieved by increasing the access routes into those industries for talented young people. However, unlike many other industries, it is not always clear how to get into these jobs and therefore there is often a lack of diversity within these sectors. Increasing the access routes to everyone will therefore increase the quality of talent and the continued growth of the sector long term.

We don't do this alone

We have partnered with sector-leading organisations including YouTube, Universal Music, The BPI, Grain Media and Creative Assembly to devise a curriculum that will develop the future leaders of these sectors by meeting the relevant knowledge, skills and cultural demands. The involvement of these organisations sends a powerful message to young people that these careers are for them, they belong, that they can (and will) succeed.

Who is involved?

ELAM has been founded by a group of leading figures from industry and education. Will Kennard, Musician and one half of production duo Chase & Status, is a founder and governor. Alongside Will, the Governing body has senior executives from across the creative industries and education. We have support from a wide-range of partners from the music, film and games industries.

We work hard, we achieve high and we produce amazing creative products.

Our YouTube shows the range of talent that our Trainees have and develop - see ELAM’s vision in action here (our YouTube) and here (our most recent end of year showcasing website).

In addition, all trainees at ELAM undertake a study of Maths and English as we know written and spoken communication, problem solving, data analysis and research are the key traits of the leaders in these fields.

Ofsted report

East London Arts and Music has been judged outstanding in all categories when inspected.

Please note that you are wholly responsible for fact checking in respect of the information provided by schools. Please also check for the latest visa and work permit requirements that may apply. Tes is not responsible for the content of advertisements or the policies adopted by advertising schools. Tes asks that all schools follow Tes' Fair Recruitment Policy.

Applications closed