governance
Relationship between the Trust Board and Local Governance:
The Board of Directors/Trustees is the legal entity with which ‘the outside world’ transacts with the Trust. It is the employer of all the staff. All HR policy is set at trust board level after consultation with the unions. It is the body that is accountable for the standard of the education provided by all its schools, and for the financial performance of the trust as a whole. The board is the governing body for all the divisions of the trust, i.e. its schools/academies, its central office, its ITT arm, TS Hub and it is the admissions authority.
We operate with the support of a system of committees, to which it delegates significant responsibility. These committees include local governance committees for schools. The majority of local governance is appointed directly by the Trust Board.
What is the Trust’s ambition for its children and young people and what is the role of local governance in this ambition?
The Trust’s motto is “Ambition, Excellence, Community”. Our ambition is that all our children and young people are prepared for life and nurtured to become people we are proud to know – good neighbours, citizens, friends, whose light shines. We are proud of all our schools and actively seek to maintain and develop individual school identity. Collectively, we share and co-develop best practice for the benefit of all our schools as part of our mission to deliver excellence through partnership and collaboration, excellent teaching and learning for all, exceptional care and guidance and outstanding performance.
Key functions of the local committees are:
- To set the strategic direction of the school, planning, prioritising, monitoring progress and managing change.
- To set the culture, values and ethos of the school successfully and monitor the impact on outcomes for our young people and the reputation of the school in the wider community.
- To make strategic decisions in relation to school improvement.
- To work collaboratively with key stakeholders and partners which will foster productive relationships.
- To evaluate and prioritise risks in the school and ensure appropriate actions are taken to mitigate these.
- To hold the school leadership to account for the educational performance of the school.
How does the CET support the local governance function?
- The CET has a concise and detailed governor induction programme so that all governors know and understand the responsibility of being a local governor in one of our schools.
- The CET has an established reporting format for governance which includes key indicators on attendance, behaviour, exclusions, safeguarding, Prevent, safeguarding, health and safety, and school targets and progress towards these at Key Stage 4 (GCSE)
- Central and effective administrative support and assistance which reduces the burden on the HT, SLT and the LGC and takes responsibility for the formal statutory and regulatory requirements for governance within schools, Trust and school policies, financial reporting, GIAS, secure access, Companies House etc.
- There is a larger of pool of governors to draw from with a variety of skills and experience when additional responsibilities are needed, i.e. pupil discipline panels. Collaborative working amongst governors allows them to be more strategic.
- A central pool of experienced clerks available to support each committee meeting.
- Collaborative working with like-minded professionals who want the same thing for all of our schools.
- A developing school improvement arm which will be the cornerstone for maintaining and building effective schools where all stakeholders share the responsibility for learning and achievement.
- Access to GovernorHub, on online service designed to help governing bodies run more efficiently. It helps trustees, governors and clerks to communicate and store documents, membership details, meeting schedules and other information in one secure, accessible and fully GDPR-compliant system
