Local governance and parental engagement play an important part in linking our Board of Trustees to those local communities and providing support for our Principals on a day-to-day basis.

We have been reviewing our approach in this area to make sure we have the most efficient and effective arrangements in place and we will be implementing some new structures during the autumn term of 2024, to take effect from 1 January 2025.

It is worth remembering that our Board of Trustees retains accountability for the work of each of our academies, alongside our extensive executive teams.

We ask each of our academies to ensure they have in place an effective parental engagement strategy and we will be strengthening this approach by appointing Academy Parent Ambassadors (APAs) in each of our academies.

APAs will oversee the arrangements for seeking and responding to stakeholder feedback and they will have the opportunity to report to the Board and to meet with the Chief Executive Officer on an annual basis.

They will also be responsible for ensuring we meet statutory requirements in relation to other governance matters, including the formation of Governor Disciplinary Committees (GDCs) to consider pupil suspensions and exclusions.

In this, they will be supported by a professional secretariat overseen by the Corporate Affairs Director and by a highly experienced and fully trained group of people that we will refer to as our 'Resolutions Group'.

Many of those who will be part of this group have served diligently and effectively as members of the Academy Advisory Councils (AACs) that we had in place across our Trust until 2023, and we continue to value their expertise and support very highly indeed.

These new arrangements will come into force in January 2025 and you can find out more by visiting www.greenwoodacademies.org.