Governance

The governance arrangements for Teesside Learning Trust, as detailed in the Articles of Association, are set out below:

Members

Members are subscribers to the Memorandum and Articles of Association and no changes may be made without Member approval. Members oversee the achievement of the Company’s objects and have the responsibility of appointing up to seven directors. Members also have the power to remove such directors.

The minimum number of Members within the Trust is three.

The Members of Teesside Learning Trust are:

Professor Graham Henderson
Mr Kevin Fletcher
Mrs Barbara Ashton
The Reverend Adam Gaunt
Mr John Baker (as Chair of the Board of Trustees)

Board of Trustees

Trustees manage the academies on behalf of the Trust, through undertaking the core functions as detailed in the The Department for Education (DfE) Governance Handbook ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction; holding the Chief Executive to account for the educational performance of the academies and its students and the performance management of staff; and overseeing the financial performance of the Trust and making sure its money is well spent. Trustees also need to ensure that the Trust complies with charity and company law and operates within the Funding Agreement that has been signed with the Secretary of State.

The Articles of Association state that the Board of Trustees shall have the following composition:

• Chief Executive
• Up to 7 Trustees appointed by Members
• A minimum of 2 Parent Trustees if there is no presence on Local Academy Councils

There is also the facility for the Trustees appointed by Members to appoint Co-opted Trustees.

Trustees (apart from the Chief Executive) shall have a 4 year term of office and can be re-elected at the end of the term.

The current membership of the Board of Trustees is detailed below.

There are two sub-committees of the Board of Trustees;

The Staffing committee
provides detailed scrutiny and production of reports, policies and advice on matters relating to Human Resources aspects of the Trust.

Membership;

Mr John Baker (Chair)
Mrs Linda Halbert
Mr Chris Ingoe
Ms Patricia White

The Finance and Resources Committee
provides detailed scrutiny of reports, policies and advice on matters relating to financial and resourcing aspects of the Trust under the terms of the Trust’s Scheme of Financial Delegation.

Membership;

John Anthony
Linda Halbert
Andrew Haslam
Alec Johnson (Chair, Badger Hill Local Academy Council)

Local Academy Councils

The Academies within the Trust have Local Academy Councils, their principal remit as described in their terms of reference is to;

• act as a critical friend to the Principal/Head Teacher;
• represent the views of the community in discussions on budget issues that relate to community engagement and activity and make recommendations to the Principal;
• support the Trust’s senior management staff, deal with parental complaints pursuant to the Trust policy on parental complaints; and
• support the Principal in exclusion processes where appropriate.

The responsibility and authority delegated to the Local Academy Councils is laid out in the Trust Scheme of Delegation.
Membership of the Local Academy Councils is as follows;

Badger Hill Academy

Vacancies
Co-opted 1

Freebrough Academy

Thornaby Academy

In the event of any academy within Teesside Learning Trust being judged by Ofsted as Requiring Improvement or Inadequate, the Trust Board reserves the right to review the Scheme of Delegation to that academy until such time it is judged by Ofsted to be good or better. As an academy currently judged as inadequate the Trust Board has decided not to set up a Local Academy Council at Thornaby and undertake the role itself.

A Parent/Community group will be formed in the near future to ensure ‘local’ issues are addressed.

Whitecliffe Academy

Vacancies
Parent 2