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School Organisation and Education Project Management

We're very flexible about how we work, and the services that we offer are agreed with each client to suit their needs. Below are the types of work that we have been involved with recently. 

 

ACADEMY CONVERSION AND SUPPORT

 

We can do any or all of the following: supporting investigation of academy status; due diligence (of MAT and / or of school considering joining); procuring legal advisors and / or auditors; managing the drafting of the legal documents (i.e. the interface between the academy trust and Council lawyers); preparing reports for governor / trustee meetings (including working groups) and attending to answer technical queries; preparing and managing the consultation required with stakeholders, including attending meetings with staff and parents; preparing TUPE Measures declarations and supporting any HR due diligence; undertaking evaluation of land, finance, employment, equalities, and other school specific issues; working with senior leaders to identifiy necessary implementation actions; and developing governance structures and schemes of delegation. 

 

We have project managed 60 conversions to academy status, including primary, secondary and special schools, voluntary and sponsored conversions, establishing single- and multi-academy trusts, turning single academy trusts into multi-academy trusts, and expanding multi-academy trusts. We have provided 'critical friend' support to other schools and trusts to support their senior leaders in a more light-touch way. And we have worked with individual schools and groups of schools who have explored academy status but decided - for a variety of reasons - not to convert. 


FORMING OR GROWING A MULTI ACADEMY TRUST


We have supported trusts to develop their vision and medium term strategy. We have then supported them to ensure that governance and leadership structures are able to evolve to meet the changing needs of the organisation, including governance reviews and updating the Scheme of Delegation. 


If a MAT wants to grow, we have helped it clarify the type of growth it wants, identified potential schools to work with, undertaken due diligence, and project managed the conversion of schools to join the trust. 


SCHOOL COLLABORATION


We work with schools to explore potential models of collaboration, of which a multi academy trust is only one. We have set up partnership agreements, Memorandums of Understanding, and secondment agreements between schools in order to suit their local needs. 

 

PUPIL PLACE PLANNING AND SCHOOL ORGANISATION

 

We can review your place planning methodology and data, interogate data to better understand locality or council issues, and produce locality and council projecdtions. We have worked in nine council areas (including unitary and shire authorities) and with one Diocese on pupil place planning. 

 

We can support or manage all aspects of school organisation processes. This includes reviewing primary, secondary, special, or alternative provision using a variety of data sources; developing options for a range of scenarios; leading discussions with school governors and headteachers and councillors; managing public and statutory consultations including document production and public meetings; and producing reports for governors / trustees, councillors and the ESFA. We have sometimes undertaken only part of a process for a client, and sometimes managed the whole project. 


We have worked with schools, academies, councils and Diocese. We have expanded primary schools, reviewed special school provision, evaluated options for alternative provision, added SEN provision to mainstream schools, established satelitte sites, established new schools/colleges via competition or through the free school programme, amalgamated infant/junior schools, and managed age-of-transfer processes.