New* Governance Structure from September 2020

New Governance Structure

As the GEMS Learning Trust has grown this year, we have taken the opportunity to re-structure our governance. The changes below will take effect from September 1st 2020.

Governance Structure

*Quality of Education and Safeguarding Committees has replaced the Local Academy Boards and the Standards Committee. New from September 2020/2021

Merging the LAB and Standards Committee

We have merged the Local Academy Boards with the Standards Committee, which are now called Quality of Education and Safeguarding.

We have made this decision for a number of reasons:

1. To improve communication between the schools and the Trust Board

2. To avoid repetition of information shared with the Standards Committee and the LABs

3. To give members of the LABs a stronger role to play in governance

Membership of the new QES Regional Boards

From September 1st 2020 members of the QES Regional Boards will be called Governors.

Elections will be held to replace parent members and votes will be held amongst staff to replace staff members if vacancies should arise. WPA will have elections and votes in the Autumn term 2020.

Status of Governors

Governors appointed to the QES Boards will not be appointed as Directors to the Trust Board and will not need to attend full Board Meetings. 

QES Meeting Cycle

There will be four QES meetings per year, the location will rotate between schools in the hubs (Hub 1, DPA and WPA in Oxfordshire and Hub 2. TPA and SPA in South West London) and membership of the two QES Boards will consist of:

Oxon QES - Membership

• WPA Principal - Ex Officio
• DPA Principal - Ex-Officio
• GLT CEO - Ex Officio
• 1/2 DPA parents - Voted by Parents
• 1/2 DPA staff - Voted by staff
• 1/2 WPA parents - Voted by Parents
• 1/2 WPA staff

SWLON QES - Membership

• WPA Principal (Whilst new Surbiton school is being built)
• TPA Principal - Ex-Officio
• GLT CEO - Ex Officio
• 1/2 TPA parents  - Voted by Parents
• 1/2 TPA staff - Voted by staff
• 1/2 SPA parents - Voted by Parents
• 1/2 SPA staff - Voted by Staff

Key

TPA: Twickenham Primary Academy

DPA: Didcot Primary Academy

SPA: Surbiton Primary Academy

WPA: Wantage Primary Academy

Directors and Governors - Roles and Terms of Office

Quality of Education and Safeguarding Regional Boards - remit

Performance

• Support the Chief Executive Officer in holding the academy Principals to account
• Provide robust support and challenge to academy Principals
• Agree and set targets for pupil attainment and progress
• Review Development Plans and Self Evaluation forms (SEF) and any Post Ofsted Action Plans
• Arrange and engage annual external reviews of progress and standards and respond to recommendations
• Monitor the impact of pupil and sports premium funding on attainment
• Scrutinise attainment and welfare of all children, highlighting vulnerable children and other groups of pupils in reference to ASP, local and national benchmark information:
  • Progress of children towards targets
  • Black and Ethnic Minority Children
  • Pupil Premium
  • SEND
  • Traveller Children
  • Service Children
  • Looked After Children
  • Young Carers;
  • Inclusion / Special Educational Needs
  • Literacy/Numeracy
  • Transition
  • Equality
  • Behaviour and Discipline
  • Bullying and Racial incidents
  • Pupil exclusions;
  • Attendance
  • Other areas of the curriculum; 

Safeguarding and Child Protection

• Promote an exceptionally safe and vigilant culture
• Review the audit child protection and safeguarding processes and ensure recommendations are followed by each Academy
• Approve and monitor Safeguarding and Child Protection policy

Special Educational and Physical Needs

• Review the SEND systems in each academy and ensure compliance to the SEND code of practice

School development and improvement

• Teaching and Learning
• Curriculum and extracurricular opportunities
• Trust development and growth
• Internal monitoring and audits
• CPD
• Collaboration between trust schools
• Term dates

Stakeholder engagement

• To engage with stakeholders; pupils, staff, parents/carers and the community

• To monitor the effectiveness of the complaints policy and procedures; provide one or more representative the Trust on a complaints panel
• To ensure that each Academy meets legal requirements to publish information online
• To be consulted on a wide range of issues such as Academy uniform, SMSC, FBV, term dates, the school day, provision of after-school clubs, enrichment etc.