Catch22 maintains a sponsor relationship with the Catch22 Multi Academies Trust (the MAT), exercising control through being a member of the MAT and appointing Trustees.
The MAT, which is an independent charity, has its own Board made up of Trustees, senior executives and advisors, and oversees the Catch22 academy schools.
The Trustees are appointed to oversee the operations and strategic direction of the charity. As such, the objective is that they have significant experience of senior operational, strategic and educational leadership, combined with knowledge of young people in difficult situations more broadly.
The Spires Academy is connected to its community through a local governing body. The local body should have a clear area of focus and a formal delegation scheme setting out its responsibilities.
Strategic and financial oversight sits with the MAT Board, curriculum development and staff performance management sits with the relevant Headteacher, and community/parent engagement and school performance sits with the LGB. This enables the LGB and the schools to benefit from shared expertise including the provision of financial and other KPI reports that will support their decision making in the day to day running of the schools.
Decisions and functions reserved for the MAT Board include:
Matters delegated to each Headteacher include (but not exclusively):
The Local Governing Body, whilst engaged and consulted on a range of issues, is directly responsible for:
In summary, the LGB is responsible for the curriculum, standards and school improvement; the day to day running of the schools including compliance with standard operating procedures/policies and community and parental engagement, including feedback from young people and parents.
The Local Governing Body (LGB) will meet at least termly. Papers will be prepared in advance by the Headteacher to an agreed agenda with the chair of the LGB. These will include a review of the implementation of the Education Plan, the latest financial and KPI reports, supported by a commentary by the Headteacher on these and the use of resources at the school. The review of the Education Plan will identify any areas of the curriculum where attention is required to improve delivery. This suite of reports, produced and distributed independently of the Headteacher will enable the LGB to track performance see clearly if the school is improving. These reports will inform the LGB decision making and enable them to challenge the Headteacher on performance if necessary.
The LGB also has a responsibility for the adherence of the school to defined procedures and policies. A suite of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the day to day running of the school are defined in the Catch22 Blueprint for Education. The Blueprint is supported by a suite of policies that define standards and expectations for the running of the Academy across a range of topics such as safeguarding, diversity, health and safety. The ownership of these will be split across the LGB members who will become Link Governors for their own specialities. For instance, the Link Governor for Safeguarding, Prevent and SEND would be responsible for giving challenge and support to the school in these areas. The Governor would complete a termly visit and giving direct feedback to the school and also sharing the outcomes at the next LGB meeting for inclusion in the minutes.
Governors can challenge policies and the views of the school staff and LGB will be actively be sought in this ongoing development. The school will also be able to supplement the policies with specific local policies where this is required to meet the needs of their cohort or community.
LGB members will also be able to assess school performance through feedback from parents, pupils and teachers. The presence of Parent Governors will ensure there is first hand experience of the day-to-day academy operation within the LGB and they will be encouraged to share their feedback at LGB meetings. All members of the LGB will be expected to visit classes to observe lesson delivery and gain face to face feedback from teaching staff on a termly basis. LGB members will also conduct formal visits to review performance in their own specialist areas on an annual basis. For example, the member of the LGB with responsibility for Human Resources will be seeking evidence of compliance to the relevant policies such as Safeguarding and Equality and Diversity. LGB members will also be given a summary report of parent evenings and other surveys.
The Chair of the LGB will note any areas of performance where they have concerns in the LGB meeting minutes and the Executive Principal will be tasked by the MAT Board to set out an action plan for the Headteacher to execute detailing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound (SMART) targets for improvement. The Executive Principal will share this plan with both the Headteacher for action at the school and the Chair of the LGB. The Executive Principal will be responsible for monitoring progress against this action plan and will provide updates to the Chair of the LGB for review at subsequent meetings.
All decisions made within the LGB meetings will be documented in the minutes. The Executive Principal will ensure that the Headteacher follows up on these and that the outcomes of these decisions are tracked and reviewed in future LGB meetings and noted in subsequent minutes.