Governance Structure

Governance plays a vital role in ensuring the best possible educational opportunity for every child in each of the Trust schools. The structure for the Coombe Academy Trust has been developed to support the culture of the Trust and to ensure the effective management of our schools.

The Board of Trustees is accountable to the Secretary of State for all schools within the MAT and responsible for compliance with government and Education and Skills Funding Agency requirements, company law and charity law. Whilst the Board of Trustees will always remain accountable, our governance structure allows for the delegation of decisions to the most appropriate body.

Roles and responsibilities within our governance structure

Members

There are five members, two of whom are also Trustees. The members:

• are the subscribers to the memorandum of association (where they are founding members);

• may amend the articles of association subject to any restrictions created by the funding agreement or charity law;

• may, in certain circumstances, appoint new members or remove existing members;

• have powers to appoint and remove Trustees;

• may, by special resolution, issue direction to the Trustees to take a specific action;

• appoint the Trust’s auditors and receive the audited annual accounts; and

• have power to change the Trust’s name.

Trustees

The Board of Trustees is responsible for the three core functions of governance:

1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction

2. Holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils, and the performance management of staff

3. Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent.

The Board has four sub-committees: Resources, Infrastructure, Audit and Remuneration.

The Board meets twice a term.

Governors

The Trust delegates many of its functions to its Local Governing Bodies. All our schools have their own governing bodies with elected parent and staff governor representatives.

Governors monitor and discuss a wide range of issues including;

• The strategic priorities and targets for the school

• The progress of the students in the schools

• Provision for students with special educational needs

• The school's budget, including the expenditure of the pupil premium allocation

• The school's staffing structure and key staffing policies

• Pastoral issues

• Specific curriculum issues for which they have a statutory responsibility

• Health and Safety issues

Collaboration.

Ambition.

Trust.