Horninglow 2

Our Governance

Governance is an integral part of Trust business.  It is key to leadership and management and is at the heart of delivering educational excellence. 

As a Multi Academy Trust,The de Ferrers Trust is a charitable company limited by guarantee. This means that the Trust is a single legal entity, but it has several academies within its family of schools.

Currently, there are seven academies within The de Ferrers Trust. These are situated across Staffordshire and South Derbyshire and vibrant communities. To learn more about each of the academies within The de Ferrers Trust family, you can visit our the 'Our Schools' page

Effective governance will help the Trust to achieve its overarching vision to ensure that all children and young people in our care have the opportunity to fulfill their potential through achieving highly, regardless of their ability or background.  

This page provides an overview of how the Trust is governed.

Members, Directors and Governors

The Trust has established three key layers of governance: 

  1. Members
  2. Directors
  3. Local Governors 

You can view the detailed governance structure here.

Members

The Trust consists of five Members who are very similar to shareholders in a normal company. They are often considered as the custodians of the Trust and act as a ‘check and balance’ on the performance of the Multi Academy Trust. The Members have the power to appoint or remove Directors, amend the Articles of Association and, if necessary, wind up the Multi Academy Trust. To ensure robust accountability within our governance structure the Members are independent of the Trust Board. The members will meet as often as is necessary to carry out their duties, but at least on an annual basis.

You can see who our Members are by clicking this link.

The Trust Board

As The de Ferrers Trust is a charitable company, the Board of Trustees are regarded as Directors in company law, and Trustees in charity law. Reflecting the charitable objects at the core of the Trust’s work, members of The de Ferrers Trust's Board are referred to as our Directors. They meet as a minimum five times per year, with Board Committees meeting in addition to this.

The Trust Board is responsible for three core strategic governance functions:

  1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
  2. Holding the CEO and Principals to account for the educational performance of each academy and its pupils, and for the performance management of staff
  3. Overseeing the financial performance of each academy and the Trust overall, and making sure that the Trust’s money is well spent.

The Trust Board’s key responsibilities are to ensure, through their governance structure and leadership teams, that the Multi-Academy Trust is making proper and effective use of public funds and for the quality of provision.

Diversity on the Board will ensure that each volunteer can bring a different perspective to constructive conversations to ensure the best outcomes for all pupils and young people.  Diversity will ensure the Board remains relatable to the community it serves and will ensure all decisions are made with the views of stakeholders in mind.  

You can see who our Directors are by clicking this link.

Local Governors

Although the Trust Board is accountable for all of the academies within the The de Ferrers Trust, it highly values the work undertaken by local governors in supporting and challenging our academies and senior leadership teams to deliver high quality and inclusive education. Therefore, each academy has a Local Governing Body (LGB) that meets up to six times per year.

To find out who the governors are, please see the ‘Governance’ areas on each academy website.
The de Ferrers Academy LGB 
The Pingle Academy LGB
Granville Academy LGB
Horninglow Primary LGB
Lansdowne Infant LGB
Eton Park Junior LGB
Richard Wakefield C.E. LGB

The different responsibilities overseen by Members, Directors and Local Governors are set out in our Scheme of Delegation, which is reviewed on an annual basis.

To contact any of The de Ferrers Trust's Members, Directors or Governors, please email: MAToffice@deferrerstrust.com
To send correspondence to the Chair of Trustees, please either send a letter addressed to:

Chair of Trust Board
c/o The de Ferrers Trust
The de Ferrers Academy
St. Mary's Drive
Burton on Trent
DE13 0LL
or by email to: MAToffice@deferrerstrust.com