The Journal for Executive and Governance Leaders
The Journal for Executive and Governance Leaders
February 2019 edition
Welcome to the third edition of Trust the digital professional journal for executive and governance leaders. This publication is one of the many outcomes of the close collaborative partnership between the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) and its wholly owned subsidiary National Teacher Accreditation (NTA). CST is the national organisation…
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Last month, the Department for Education launched the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, and the Early Career Framework (ECF). There was an astonishing amount of support from the sector for both. I think this reflects the way the DfE worked with the sector to develop this policy, but particularly the…
What gives us character? What makes us resilient? These are two of the questions I look forward to grappling with as I chair the group announced by the Secretary of State Damian Hinds in his recent speech focussing on this topic. The discussions and consultations which lie ahead for our…
I won’t pretend to be a governance expert, but I’ve served on the body of an independent school, as the chair of a single Academy trust, now as a chair of an LGB, as a trustee and member of a large MAT, and also on the board of a national…
It’s that time of year again when schools are beginning to consider what their curriculum and staffing structures might look like in September. The process of making the head’s educational vision a reality is not easy, and we know that School Business Professionals (SBPs) are a key link in the…
As part of a huge swathe of policy on teacher recruitment, retention and development, the government has announced a new suite of National Professional Qualifications (NPQs). These new qualifications will offer specialist routes for teachers to complement the existing and well-established management and leadership pathway. In this article I lay…
Without a curriculum, a school is just a building full of teachers and pupils. Curriculum matters and is key to defining the knowledge and experiences that pupils receive beyond their home environment. There are many extant definitions of curriculum, but at Ofsted our working definition is: ‘a framework for setting…
Not a day goes by when there isn’t something in the press about executive pay. Whether it’s a piece urging ethical governance or a piece challenging value for money, the emphasis placed on getting the process and decision making right is what trustees are now focused on and rightly so.…
Strong governance is vital to the success of any organisation and it is essential that those people employed to implement good governance practices in schools and multi-academy trusts have the skills and knowledge to make a positive difference. ICSA: The Governance Institute has, therefore, unveiled a new competency framework that…
Throughout 2018, the threat to schools from fraudsters has compounded – not only are schools’ finance teams being targeted through malicious emails or vishing (telephone) scams but their pupils also face an increasing threat. They too are vulnerable to scams, but equally worryingly fraudsters also look to vulnerable young people…