Governance

Holy Trinity Church School is a member of the Bath & Wells Diocesan Academies Trust (BWMAT). 

The Board of Trustees is the accountable body and the proprietor for all the schools in BWMAT. As the accountable body for the school, the Board of Trustees is responsible for governance.

As an academy, it is important to remember that the Trust is one entity, and that the Board of Trustees and Trust leaders are responsible for the quality of education provided in all the schools that make up BWMAT.

The Board of Trustees has identified that each school in the Trust will have a dedicated committee to oversee the governance arrangements of the school on their behalf. This committee is called the Trust Local Committee (TLC) and it works closely with the school’s senior leaders in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for all pupils.

The trust has a trust approach to governance and Trustees have determined the role of the TLC given that it is a committee of the Board of Trustees.

The role of the Trust Local Committee (TLC) is to form a positive partnership with the school’s stakeholders and provide confident, strategic leadership to the school community. The TLC will create a robust accountability framework that enables oversight and assurance of the school’s arrangements to promote safeguarding and high standards in all aspects of the school’s work whilst promoting a distinctively Christian ethos in support of the Trust’s wider vision.

As part of this role, the TLC ensures that Christian distinctiveness is a golden thread that runs through all of the school’s activities.

The TLC meets half-termly and its work reflects the Trust’s Scheme of Delegation that identifies the duties delegated to the TLC by the Board of Trustees.

Members of the TLC work very hard to ensure that they know what it is like to be a learner in the school. They undertake a range of activity in relation to the core functions of governance and these activities enable them to understand the school’s strengths and areas for improvement.

The key elements of the Trust’s local governance framework in relation to the role of the TLC are as follows:

i) Strategic leadership

The TLC helps to shape the vision for the school and this is reviewed as required. It also looks regularly at the progress being made against achieving the school’s priorities for the year.

The School Development Plan (SDP) identifies the school’s priorities for the year and the TLC is instrumental in working with the headteacher to develop this and then monitoring progress against the identified priorities for the year.

Members of the TLC may be linked to areas of the SDP and undertake a range of activity during the year – meeting staff, talking to pupils, reviewing plans, looking at pupils’ work – so that they can see the progress being made against the priorities for themselves.

One member of the TLC has an oversight of the school’s safeguarding arrangements as this is such an important area of school life. This member’s role is to monitor the school’s arrangements to support safeguarding to ensure that the school is doing what it should in this area.

Members of the TLC report on their activity to the meetings of the TLC so that all members are aware of what is going well and what is in need of development.

The TLC also identifies and manages any risks that might impact on the outcomes achieved by the school. Significant risks are escalated to the Board of Trustees to ensure that those areas identified as being of particular concern are being effectively managed and the risk mitigated.

ii) Accountability and assurance

The TLC acts as a critical friend to the school and is always striving to ensure that the school is doing the best it can for every pupil.

The TLC regularly reviews the information provided by the school on the progress and attainment of pupils and challenges the school’s senior leaders when performance appears to be uneven or inconsistent. It holds senior leaders to account for the school’s support and provision for pupils experiencing disadvantage, those with SEND, those who are known (or previously known) to children’s social care, and those who may face other barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing.

TLC members ask about the organisation of the curriculum and the quality of teaching in the school. They make sure that the school has a robust system in place for supporting the professional growth of staff. The TLC and Trust staff work together to support the professional growth of the headteacher.

The TLC looks at a range of external data and information to see how the school compares to local and national benchmarks. It also receives and reviews the reports of external partners about the school so that it has as wide a view as possible of how the school is performing.

iii) Strategic engagement

The TLC is the Trust’s anchor in the local community. To fulfil this role, the TLC has developed communication channels, consulted stakeholders and worked in partnership with the school’s local community. It ensures that stakeholder views are accounted for when looking at planned developments in the school. By actively engaging with the local community, the school is able to make a positive contribution to life outside the school.

As well as attending business meetings of the TLC, individual members of the TLC also attend regular training and development sessions. These relate to either the development of the TLC as a whole or to the personal development of individuals. All members of the TLC undertake regular, Trust-identified training. They can also access on-line training through GovernorHub.

The school follows the policies approved by the Trust and, as such, these are all available on the Trust’s website. The school has then developed its own procedures for each policy area that reflect Trust policy and identify how the school is putting the policy into practice.

The TLC is always trying to improve its effectiveness and efficiency and an annual self-evaluation takes place at which the TLC decides, in terms of governance, what has gone well during the year and what the areas of focus need to be identified for the following year.

Our Trust Local Committee (TLC) comprises the following TLC Members:

Sam Hann, Chair, Foundation TLC Member

Sam has served as a Foundation Governor since March 2017. She began her career in the private sector at a local firm of Solicitors, where she studied and qualified as a Legal Executive. Seeking to broaden her legal expertise and gain experience within the public sector, Sam joined the NHS in 2008 to work in the Governance and Legal Department at Somerset Primary Care Trust.  During her time in the NHS, Sam held a variety of roles specialising in legal services, governance, assurance and risk management ultimately progressing to Acting Director of Governance at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust. She has since moved on from the NHS and now works for the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of health and social care in England.