Local Governance

The Kemnal Academies Trust is a multi-academy trust with 45 special, primary, secondary and all through academies.

The Kemnal Board of Trustees ensure their accountability for the provision, standards and outcomes in every academy via the senior executive team and the Directors of Education.

Our Directors of Education play the lead role in supporting, challenging and holding to account our Headteachers and their school teams.

The Kemnal Board has established local governing bodies to help Directors of Education in their role, to support their local school and local community, and to provide local knowledge and insight.

Please visit our Trust website for more information about our governance.

Composition of Local Governing Bodies (LGBs)

The Scheme of Delegation deliberately does not prescribe the composition of LGBs.  This is to allow flexibility, particularly where LGBs are federated.

Therefore, although the Board of Trustees reserves the right to determine the composition of LGBs, in practice an LGB is free to determine its own composition to ensure that it is able to carry out the core delegated functions. 

Most Governing Bodies in TKAT are composed of:  2 parents, 2 Staff, the Headteacher and appointed Governors as appropriate. 

Parents

Parents Governors are ideally parents of children currently in school (elected by a ballot of current parents), where this is not possible somebody who is a parent of child in the school or is the parent of a child in another school could be appointed.  There should be a minimum of 2 parents on each LGB.  Parents who would be eligible to stand as a staff governor at the school, or are an elected councillor are not eligible to stand as a parent governor.

Staff

It is good practice to have one member of the teaching staff and one member of the support staff on the LGB  (elected by the staff).  Governors who are employed by the Academy or by TKAT generally should not be Chair or Vice Chair of the LGB, or of individual committees, other than in exceptional circumstances.  The majority of governors should not be employed by the Academy.

The Headteacher can choose whether they sit on the Governing Body as a voting member or in a non-voting advisory capacity.

Appointed

Appointed Governors is a catchall phrase for all other governors, including what used to be called community Governors.  Whilst the Board of Trustees reserves the right to appoint these Governors directly in practice this is usually left to the LGB.  Once the size and composition of the Governing Body is determined there is no scope to co-opt further Governors (but it can include others on the LGB as advisors in a non-voting capacity).  The Appointed Governors should form a majority.

Structure and Composition

Where an LGB serves more than one school there is the flexibility to determine a composition according to the needs of the school.  Possible models include:

• Separate Governing Bodies for each school, with individual Governors serving on more than one LGB
• A single LGB for all of the schools involved in the agreement
• An executive committee serving all the schools and sub-committees for each of the schools

The agreed composition of the LGB needs to be recorded and publicised on the school website, with changes to composition and membership recorded within the minutes of relevant meetings.   

Click here to see our constitution. 

For correspondence with the Chair of Governors please address to Mrs C Thomas – Clerk to Governors and deliver via the school office.