School Forums

PDET has School Forums rather than governance at a local level.

The purpose of each School Forum is to support the school to demonstrate faith in action. Its representatives act as ambassadors for the school in the local community. Each School Forum also facilitates the Board’s understanding of each school’s local context.

Aims

The three aims of each School Forum are as follows:

• Aim 1: To further develop the school as a church school – serving and supporting the school to live out its vision and values as a church school
• Aim 2: To further develop the school as the anchor in its community – serving the local and wider community
• Aim 3: To facilitate the essential ‘bridge’ from the local school to the Board - ensuring each individual school context is known, understood and supported by the Board, facilitating collaborative working and valuing local expertise, knowledge and partnerships.

School Forums gather key stakeholder feedback to provide insight into the experiences of pupils, parents, staff, church and the wider community.

Chairs of the School Forums

Chairs of the School Forums undertake the following delegated functions as outlined in the PDET Scheme of Delegation:

• Safeguarding (procedural): Monitoring procedural aspects of safeguarding at their school;
• Equalities: Monitoring their school’s implementation of, and progress in relation to, the school’s Equalities objectives;
• Complaints: Investigating complaints at Stage 2 of the Trust’s complaints process; being members of a Trust Panel Committee, established at Stage 3 of the Trust’s complaints process;
• Suspensions / Exclusions: Being members of panels established to review Trust suspensions and permanent exclusions in line with the Trust’s Exclusions Policy.