School Governance: Thinking Schools Academy Trust Regional Board

Regional Board Governance involves Governors overseeing pupil outcomes across several schools in Portsmouth, impacting over 3000 children. 

Aims

The staff member was on the board of New Horizons Primary School and the Regional board of the Thinking Schools Academy Trust, Portsmouth

Background

The staff member arrived at Charterhouse already on the Board and continued this role.

The opportunity arose by responding to an advertisement on the Portsmouth City Council website and the staff member has been a Governor since October 2019.

Resources

The educational and leadership expertise and experience of the member of staff was crucial to the success of the role in having positive impact on outcomes for children.

Charterhouse releases staff to enable them to fulfil their duties as governors during term-time.

Impact

Good governance is crucial to successful outcomes for pupils.

The impact of governance is assessed via inspection outcomes for schools which occur approximately every three years, as well as Trust measurements of impact. New Horizons Primary School was most recently assessed as a good school (December 2019). Overall, the Trust schools in Portsmouth are all good or outstanding. This is a significant improvement when compared to a long history of poor performing schools in the local authority previously.

Frequency

It required a voluntary commitment in the late afternoon and evenings two-four times a term, totally around 12-15 hours a year. It ended in August 2022.