Sponsorship and Governance
Thomas Deacon is a sponsored ‘phase 1’ academy. Our Board of Directors, as we are technically a company limited by guarantee, is also our governing body and the board of trustees, as we have charitable status too.
Our Board and Sponsors
The board comprises a non-executive chairman, 2 sponsor Directors from Perkins Engines, 2 sponsor directors from the Deacon’s School Trust, 2 elected parent directors, a local authority representative, who is a local councillor, a co-opted member who was the project manager and the Principal who sits on the board ‘ex officio’.
The Committees
This board meets 5 times a year, receives full reports from the CEO and monitors both the strategic direction and operational effectiveness of the academy team. Much of the detailed monitoring work happens in committees. The Resources and Facilities Committee meets every two months and monitors all to do with finances and premises. This committee is serviced by the Director of Business Resources. The Education Committee is serviced by the two Directors of Learning and meets 5 times a year. It is a large committee where college leaders and other third tier leaders are invited to discuss educational strategy, the curriculum, learning and achievement.
The People and Remuneration committee meets thrice yearly and is serviced by the Director of Human Resources. The External Affairs & Strategic Development and the Admissions Committee meet less frequently, when necessary, and are serviced by the CEO.
The Advisory Board
Beneath this board structure sits the Advisory Board of Governance. The purpose of this group is to gather up and discuss representations from the employees at the Academy and from the community and to report to the board, through the Principal/CEO, the outcomes of those discussions.
The Reference Groups
To maximise ‘stakeholder participation’ across a widespread and disparate group there is a structure that enables groups of similar involvement to come together on a regular basis to share issues, celebrate achievements and suggest actions. In this way a collective view can be generated and distilled before issues arrive at the Advisory Board of Governance. 3 of these reference groups: staff, students and parents meet formally several times a year. The community reference group meets informally on a regular basis. Each of these reference groups nominates two representatives to sit on the Advisory Board of Governance.