Governance

St Margaret’s Academy operates as a Single Academy Trust (SAT) with a governance structure designed around clear checks and balances.

By splitting power between members and trustees, the trust prevents abuses of authority, protects financial integrity, and maintains a strict boundary between oversight and operational management.

Members serve as the hands-off "guardians" of the trust to champion its long-term vision. Trustees form the working board, steering both strategic direction and school operations. Together, these individuals leverage a diverse blend of corporate, legal, and educational expertise to run St Margaret’s as both a limited company and a registered charity, ensuring rigorous accountability for the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).

 

Core Areas of Governance Responsibility and Scrutiny

• Financial Management & Accountancy: Reviewing monthly management accounts, approving multi-year budgets, monitoring cash flow, and driving institutional efficiency.

 

• Human Resources: Appointing the Headteacher, placing trustees on senior leadership interview panels, and ratifying a financially sustainable staff pay policy that aligns with national frameworks.

 

• Estates, Health & Safety: Overseeing school infrastructure, authorising capital expenditure for building works, managing maintenance schedules, and enforcing strict workplace safety compliance.

 

• Data Analysis & School Improvement: Evaluating pupil progress tracking, exam results, and national benchmark data to challenge underperformance and drive up standards

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• Safeguarding & Child Protection: Verifying total compliance with statutory Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) updates, tracking vulnerable student provisions, and monitoring attendance data.

 

• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND): Ensuring optimal deployment of high-needs funding to deliver inclusive education and secure legal compliance for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).

 

• Community & Stakeholder Engagement: Building strong, visible partnerships with local parents, regional employers, and diverse cultural or religious communities.

 

The School Trustees have a vital role to play in the running of the school and are closely involved in all the major decisions affecting the school. The Board is a combination of appointed, elected and co-opted member/trustees and is made up in accordance with the school's Instrument of Government. The membership is as follows:

 

Members: 

• Mrs C Shiers
• Mrs J Bruten
• Mrs B Duff

 Trustees 

Minutes of the Full Board Meetings can be viewed - please ask at the school office