Governance for Halley House School
From September 2018, the Local Governing Board was replaced by a Local Advisory Board following a review of the Governance structure across all schools in the Bellevue Place Education Trust (BPET).
Halley House School’s local governance is overseen by the Local Advisory Board (LAB) which has a strong focus on three strategic functions:
- Setting the vision, ethos and strategic direction for the school, within the overall vision of the Trust.
- 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 LAB by the BPET Board, which is the maintaining authority for the school. Visit the BPET website for information on BPET’s governance structure and how this oversees the strategic governance of Halley House School.
Free Schools are schools funded by the government with the freedom to govern independently – but all are accountable to the Secretary of State for Education. To share resources and best practice, Halley House benefits from the Trust – a network of schools under one legal body.
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 Halley House School
The delegation for Halley House School is set out in the BPET Scheme of Delegation. To support BPET Local Advisers, all are provided with the BPET Local Advisory Board Handbook that sets out the terms of reference and structure, along with a code of conduct for BPET Local Advisers.
This means that Halley House School’s Local Advisers 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 LAB. The following decisions set the limits on this local choice:
- The LAB must operate within the BPET structure, and must remain within the overall vision, ethos and strategic direction of the Trust
- The Chair of each LAB is 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 an LAB is 6-10
The LAB meets four times a year.
All Local Advisers are required to complete a Declaration of pecuniary and personal interest every academic year.
Current Local Advisers
- Nick Walters – Chair of Advisers
- Claire Syms – Headteacher
- Soozii Lim – Staff Adviser
- Natalie Andrew – Staff Adviser
- Rose Ferguson – Adviser
- Sinead Maskew – Adviser
- Adam Franklin – Adviser
- Kam Cheung – Adviser
- Gurjinder Dhaliwal – Adviser
Governor Appointment and Attendance Record
All schools are required to publish each governors appointment date, type of governor, term of office and attendance record.
Below is a table of the Halley House governors and their attendance record for the academic year 2020/21.
Local Advisors | Type | Date appointed/resigned | Meetings attended | Out of a total of |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nick Walters | Community | 11 Feb 19 - present | 4 | 4 |
Helen Cooper | Community | 1 Sept 15 - 28 Sept 16 20 Feb 17 - 31 May 2021 | 3 | 4 |
Claire Syms | Headteacher | 1 Sept 15 - present | 4 | 4 |
Rose Ferguson | Community | 1 Sept 19 - present | 3 | 4 |
Adam Franklin | Community | 1 Sept 19 - present | 4 | 4 |
Kam Cheung | Community | 1 Sept 19 - present | 4 | 4 |
Emma Foster | Community | 11 Feb 19 - present | 3 | 4 |
Barsa Tripathy | Community | 1 Sept 19 - 1 Feb 2021 | 2 | 4 |
Sinead Williams | Parent | 11 Feb 19 - present | 3 | 4 |
Natalie Andrew | Staff | 1 Sep 20 - present | 4 | 4 |
Soozii Lim | Staff | 1 Sep 20 - present | 4 | 4 |