How Governance works at Central England Academy Trust

Central England Academy Trust is a multi academy trust and, as such, a company limited by guarantee and an exempt charity – which means it is regulated by the Secretary of State for Education rather than by the Charity Commission. The MAT is registered as a company (company number 08425914) under the Companies Act 2006 and has to comply with relevant law. Currently the MAT consists of two schools: Oak Wood Primary School and Oak Wood Secondary School.

Following a re-structure of governance of the MAT to comply with current Department for Education (DfE) guidance, we now have three layers of governance:

• Members
• Trustees
• Governors

All academy trusts are charitable trusts and our Articles require us to have both members and trustees. Their roles are described in DfE’s Governance Handbook.

The following is the model structure, we have adopted, common to most MATs:-

TRUST LEVEL

Members

(who have strategic oversight and appoint trustees – the Chair and Vice Chair should be members but other members are different people from trustees)

Board of Trustees (Directors) for the Academy Trust

(who are a legal entity and have accountability. They appoint the CEO/Principal who usually sits on the Trustee Board)

SCHOOL LEVEL

Local Governing Boards for each school/academy within the Trust

(These are sub-committees of the Board of Trustees. Governors can be appointed by trustees, elected by parents and/or staff. The Chairs of all sub-committees are currently trustees who are required to report up to the Trustee Board).

Our current governors are:

• Sean Morris – Chair
• Eileen Booker – Co-opted
• Ben Payne- Staff Representative
• Natalie Haywood – Vice Chair / Parent Representative
• Amy Wilkinson – Parent Representative
• Joey Giddings – Co-opted
• Jessica Jenkinson-Crane 

Ex Officio – In attendance

Neil Wilson – Head Teacher

Stuart Day – Deputy Head Teacher

Claire Saliba – Deputy Head Teacher