Governance at Fern Hill

Fern Hill Primary School converted to an academy and joined Kingston Educational Trust on 1 January 2022.

Full details of the Trust, including its governance structure can be found on the Trust website here.

Whilst the board of Kingston Educational Trust (KET) retains responsibility for statutory compliance and the performance of schools within the Trust, it can delegate functions to committees and has established a Local Academy Committee for each school within the Trust (as well as a finance and audit committee).

Members of the committees, who are not KET trustees, are known as trust associates.

The level of delegations to each committee is recorded in the Trust’s Scheme of Delegation, see copy attached below.

 

The Fern Hill Local Academy Committee

The purpose of the Committee is to provide local accountability, support and oversight of the school’s leadership team and a link between the Trust and parents and the wider community, as described in the Terms of Reference, see copy attached below. Key areas of focus for the committee are Standards, Safeguarding, SEND and Stakeholders.

The Committee meets once every half-term.

 

Members of the Fern Hill Local Academy Committee

Details of the trustees and trust associates that sit on the Fern Hill Local Academy Committee, including their category, date of appointment and appointing body are available linked below and brief biographies can be found in the 'Meet our Local Academy Members' page from the menu to the right.

Members are appointed for a four year term, after which time they may seek re-appointment. Recruitment, appointment and re-appointment is on the basis of the Trust's Recruitment Principles, which are linked below.

It is important to note that, although these members are representative of the school community, they are not intended to represent the views of the particular community from which they are drawn. Once elected or appointed, members should always act in what they consider to be the best interests of the school.  

Trustees/trust associates must also accept collective responsibility for all decisions taken, regardless of whether they personally voted for them and ensure that the detail of discussions in meetings, including the votes of individual trustees/trust associates, remain confidential. This latter point is crucial for ensuring mutual trust, which is essential for effective school governance. All trustees and trust associates act in accordance with the adopted Code of Conduct, which can be viewed from the menu to the right.

Minutes

Copies of the minutes of Committee meetings may be requested from the governance professional (see below). Minutes of the meetings of Kingston Educational Trust's board are published on its website here.

Contacting the Committee and its Members

The Chair of the Committee, Mr Sean Weston, may be contacted via Ms Francesca Lee, the governance professional to the Committee, by email: flee@kingstoneducationaltrust.org or via the school office.

Questions or concerns regarding the operational running of the school should be addressed to a member of Fern Hill staff or its Senior Leadership Team (Adam Scott, Rachael Crook, Sam Stephenson or Anna Davies ).