Watling Park School’s local governance is overseen by the Local Governing Board and its local governors; they have a strong focus on three strategic functions:
- Setting the vision, ethos and strategic direction for the school, within the overall vision of the Bellevue Place Education Trust (BPET), of which we are part of
- Holding the Headteacher and senior leadership team to account for the educational performance of the school, its pupils and the performance management of staff; and
- Ensuring investment in educational improvement is value for money and having an impact.
These functions have been delegated to the local board by the BPET Board of Trustees, which is the maintaining authority for the school. You can visit the BPET website for information on its governance structure and how this oversees the strategic governance of Watling Park School.
Free schools are funded by the government with the freedom to govern independently – but all are accountable to the Secretary of State for Education. Watling Park benefits from being part of BPET, a family of schools which share resources, best practices, and suppliers for economy of scale.
BPET responsibilities are set out in the two key following documents that are contracts between BPET and Secretary of State for Education:
- Master Funding Agreement – a contract with BPET, as a multi academy sponsor
- Supplementary Funding Agreement– a sub contract of the above for Watling Park School
The delegation for Watling Park School is set out in the BPET Scheme of Delegation. To support BPET Local governors, all are provided with the BPET Local Governing Board Handbook that sets out the terms of reference and structure, along with a code of conduct for BPET local governors.
This means that Watling Park School’s local governors are able to concentrate on the things that really matter – educational strategy, school outcomes and high educational aspirations to meet the needs of the local community.
In keeping with the BPET vision of developing autonomous schools, there is extensive local choice about the structure, size and operation of each local board. The following decisions set the limits on this local choice:
- The local board must operate within the BPET structure, and must remain within the overall vision, ethos and strategic direction of the trust
- The Chair of each local governing board appointed by the BPET Board, serving at the pleasure of the BPET Board
- The Chair and Headteacher together use a skills-based approach to appointing the local advisers, each to serve for a four-year term.
- There must be a minimum of two parent advisers, but there is no maximum
- The suggested size of a local group is 6-10
The local governing board meets four times a year. The Chair is Mr Ian Phillips who can be contacted via the office: office@watlingparkschool.org.uk
All local governors are required to complete a Declaration of pecuniary and personal interest every academic year.