Dispelling The Myths
Some say when joining a multi-academy trust
- You lose your identity
We say when you join Lincolnshire Gateway Academies Trust
- We want all our academies to keep their identity
- There will be no change to uniforms
- There will be no change to staffing and leadership
- What is important to the school will be important to the Trust
Some say when joining a multi-academy trust
- You lose control
We say when you join Lincolnshire Gateway Academies Trust
- The existing governing board will become the new local governing body with one person elected on to the Lincolnshire Gateway Academies Trust Board
- The local governing body will retain its responsibilities for holding its school to account and for representing its community’s aspirations and needs
- A school with an Ofsted judgement of good or better will retain control over its organisation, curriculum and pedagogy
- The Headteacher retains all the power and responsibilities attached to that position
Some say when joining a multi-academy trust
- It will cost more
We say when you join Lincolnshire Gateway Academies Trust
- The school can choose to retain existing service contracts where they are appropriate and represent value for money
- A small percentage of the school’s devolved budget will be used to contribute to the centrally run finance, HR and school improvement functions
- Extra services such as estates and facilities, ICT, EWO and goods and services negotiated as a Trust are charged at cost in line with the size of the academy
- Academies keep their own reserves. Principals work closely with the Finance Director to decide budgets and financial priorities. Members of local governing bodies can and do attend Trust finance meetings
- The Trust operation is designed to be cost neutral and any savings made in the course of the year are passed back to academies
Some say when joining a multi-academy trust
- You are remote from the “centre” where decisions are made
We say when you join Lincolnshire Gateway Academies Trust
- We have not, nor do we intend to have, a national spread; all our academies are clustered within the geographic area of north eastern Lincolnshire
- No academy is more than 40 minutes drive-time from the Trust’s administrative centre
- We believe in face-to-face meetings across the Trust to make Trustwide decisions, share successful practices, enable collaborative staff development and ensure “back-office” functions are matching individual academy needs
- We enable and celebrate Trust-wide events for staff and pupils where all our family of academies meet together
- Lincolnshire Gateway Academies Trust is a real, not a virtual, family