What is a School Forum?

What is a School Forum

The Trust's family of schools have their own unique identities, seeking to serve their local communities. They are inclusive, welcoming children of the Christian faith, of other faiths or of no faith.

School Forums facilitate the essential 'bridge' from local to central. They serve to ensure that each individual school context is known, understood and supported by the Board, facilitating collaborative working and valuing local expertise, knowledge and partnerships.

Things like compliance, budgets and policies are removed from local governance so that they can focus on things like ethos, community and ensuring the school in an anchor in the community.

Forum - Definition

a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged.

Membership

School Forum membership is more flexible than that of the AGC, and can be evolved to meet the needs of the school and community. It is, however, expected that School Forums will run one of two models. These are:

1 x HT ex-officio
1 x member of the church community
3 x members of the local community
2 x parents of children attending the school

1 x HT ex-officio
2 x members of the church community
3 x members of the local community
2 x parents of children attending the school

The collective role is to ensure that the school is an anchor in the community - but within that there are also a number of individual roles to fulfil.

Individual Roles

The Chair

Church and community Representative

The Marketing Representative

Appointed to lead the School Forum and conduct responsibilities delegated by the Trust Board - including complaints, exclusions and suspension.

The Marketing Representative

Church and community Representative

The Marketing Representative

An individual who actively supports the school's marketing activities and initiatives to enhance visibility and reputation.

Church and community Representative

Citizenship and Sustainability Representative

Appointed to develop and improve existing links between the school, the community and the church.

Citizenship and Sustainability Representative

An individual who supports and drives the school's activities and initiatives to develop citizenship and and environmental sustainability.

Stakeholder Voice

Citizenship and Sustainability Representative

Stakeholder Voice

One or two individuals who capture the experience of PDET's parents and community stakeholders to ensure they are listened to and heard.

Appointment and Recruitment

All existing members of the AGC will automatically transfer to the School Forum, unless they request otherwise. This will continue to be on a four year term, except for the Headteacher who is ex-officio.

Any new appointments will be made by the Chair and Headteacher. For parent representatives, there will no longer be the need for an election, and can be done on skillset and experience. To support recruitment, a full marketing campaign has been created by PDET to support each school.

What is a school Forum?