The Trust has three levels of Governance:

• Academy Advisory Board (AAB) – Each school in the Trust has a stakeholder group to provide the critical friend relationship to the school leadership team. This group is made up of Parents, Staff and Community members

• Regional Governing Body (RGB) – Each Hub within TSAT has a Regional Governing Body made up of skilled unpaid volunteers that has delegated powers to oversee three elements of the school:
  • Strategic development
  • Education performance
  • Financial performance

• Trustees – Unpaid volunteers that oversee the Trust and hold the Executive team to account. They are supported by a number of committee including Finance, Staffing, Audit, Curriculum & Standards, Governance & Compliance and Operations

Initially Plymouth High School will have a merged AAB and RGB until the Trust has added further schools in Plymouth.

Yes on both counts.  Thinking Schools started with a girls grammar school and Plymouth High would be the third grammar in the Trust were we to join.  The Trust is committed to maintaining our admissions criteria and we have no plans to ask the RSC or the LA to make any changes to our admission criteria.

The Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) is interested in Plymouth Schools (LA and Single Academy Trusts (SATs)) investigating whether joining a Multi Academy Trust (MAT) is the right thing for them.  

The RSC made it clear that should Governors decide to investigate academisation, we would not be permitted to join a local MAT or to become a SAT, nor were we permitted to join with Plymouth SATs to become a new MAT.  We specifically discussed with the RSC whether they would consider the possibility of Plymouth High forming a local MAT with local Grammar Schools.  The RSC denied this as a possibility.   The only option would be for us to join a MAT new to the City that had a track record of school improvement or to stay with the Local Authority.  We were interested in talking to a MAT that already had Grammar schools as part of its family, had demonstrated effective school improvement with its own schools and could demonstrate a sound financial basis.  Thinking Schools met each of these measures.  

Thinking Schools is also experienced with working remotely across two areas in the South East and will be able to do so with Plymouth High.  However, the plan is for us to form a South West Hub of the Thinking Schools Academy Trust so that local support and collaboration will be part of our experience, alongside the virtual.  Indeed, colleagues at Plymouth High have already started to collaborate with Thinking Schools colleagues on teaching and learning issues to find solutions to common challenges.  Colleagues have enjoyed this experience and have valued the links they have made with the Trust. 

Thinking Schools has a child first approach at the core of its philosophy, just like Plymouth High.  We were only interested in having discussions with Trusts that put the child at the centre of what they do and what they stand for.  The communication we have had with the Trust and the comprehensive due diligence process we have been through has highlighted how Trust initiatives and practises make a difference to the experience the child enjoys at school.  

Like all Multi-Academy Trusts, Thinking Schools is an exempt charity regulated by the Department for Education and retains all funds generated. This money pays for innovative and professional development and leadership at all levels, resourcing, training for all staff, good value procurement and long term planning for systematic material improvement for their schools.  This all translates into giving learners a high quality experience. 

LA schools pay a portion of their annual funding to the local authority for central services and we also buy in other services.  If Plymouth High joins the Thinking Schools, we will get these services from the Trust and benefit from the considerable buying power that the trust commands.