Governors

Governance within Exceed Academies Trust

There are three layers of governance within Exceed Academies Trust:

Members – responsible only for fundamental decisions such as changing the constitution of the academy trust.
Trustees (Directors) – have ultimate responsibility for making strategic decisions about the day to day running of all the schools in the Trust.
Governors – support the Trustees by monitoring and challenging the performance of each school at a local level.

Each school has a Local Advisory Board (in some cases a more focussed interim board will be implemented to support rapid improvement), which has delegated responsibility for monitoring the day to day running of the school. The LAB is made up of the Governors of the school. Some Governors are appointed by the Trustees whilst others are elected by parents or carers of pupils/students at the school or by staff. A LAB includes:

A representative of the Trust;
The Principal;
2 Parent Governors;
2 Staff Governors;
Up to 3 Co-opted Governors.

For further information about governance within Exceed Academies Trust please visit the Trust’s website by clicking here.

Our Local Advisory Board

Our governors act as the critical friend of the Principal and senior leadership team, and provide support and challenge to ensure effective running of the school. Their key responsibilities include:

ensuring the quality of educational provision;
challenging and monitoring the performance of the school;
ensuring good financial health and probity;
supporting the SLT in management of staff.

In order to fulfil these responsibilities, our Local Advisory Board will:

help the school to set high standards by planning for the school’s future and setting targets for school improvement;
keep the pressure up on school improvement by monitoring and evaluating the progress the school is making towards it’s set aims and objectives;
be a critical friend to the school, offering support and advice;
help the school respond to the needs of parents and the community;
make the school accountable to the public for what it does;
work with the school on planning, developing policies and keeping these under review;
exercise its responsibilities and powers in partnership with the Principal and staff;
not intervene in the day-to-day management of the school unless there are weaknesses in the school, when it then has a duty to take action.

Meet the Governors

Our LAB Chair is Mrs Cassandra Doyle.

You can contact the Chair of our Local Advisory Board (or another Governor) through the school by calling 01274 600550 or emailing info@appletonacademy.co.uk, or via our Clerk (Peter Taylor) by emailing info@exceedacademiestrust.co.uk.

Please be aware that, If you wish to make a complaint, you should follow the procedures set out in the Complaints Policy in the first instance. The Chair of Governors cannot consider a complaint before it has been made to the school first, or intervene or meet with parents during the course of investigations into an open complaint.

Interested in Becoming a Governor?

If you feel you could make a positive contribution to the work of our Local Advisory Board, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact our Clerk, who will provide further advice and information, by emailing info@exceedacademiestrust.co.uk.

Diversity Data

The DfE encourages academy trusts to publish easily accessible data about the diversity of their board and associated committees. In order to ensure that individuals cannot be identified, we have collated diversity data provided voluntarily and anonymously by all representatives of our governance community. This includes Members, Trustees, and Local Governors. The data can be accessed below.