Academies are still state schools, but they are funded and operated a little differently than maintained schools.

Instead of being funded by the local authority, academy trusts are paid directly by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. This means that academies have more control over how they do things, than schools that aren’t academies.

Academy trusts are not-for-profit companies. They have trustees who are responsible for their performance. The trustees are both company directors and charity trustees, and the academy trust employs the school staff.

We’re proposing to join an existing multi-academy trust, The Challenge Academy Trust. This means that we’ll be part of a family of schools that are governed by one board of trustees. Our school will continue to have its own local governing body. The trust also employs a team of central staff to support the group of schools and drive school improvement. As part of a trust with multiple schools, our school will have the opportunity to collaborate and share resources with the other schools across the trust.

1. Improved teaching and learning for our students, because:
• Teaching expertise and resources can be shared across the trust
• There will be more training opportunities for our staff
• There will be more opportunities to collaborate with other schools and colleges

2. More support and challenge to the leadership of our school to ensure that the school continues to improve.

3. Greater freedom in deciding how to spend government funding and greater financial efficiency to ensure a sound and sustainable future for the school
•By procuring goods and services at a larger scale across the trust
•By giving us more direct access to capital investment from central government

Over the last 2 years we have researched every multi-academy trust within a 40 minute car journey of our school. In doing this we established the following criteria for decision making.

• Our chosen family of schools should share our commitment to promoting social justice
• The quality of education must be improved further by collaboration and the professional development of staff.
• We must preserve our ethos as a community and child-centred school.
• Financial stability must be guaranteed and investment increased
• Staff pay, conditions and welfare must be protected
• We should place ourselves within a principled and robust framework for accountability

The Challenge Academy Trust meets these demanding criteria. We have worked closely with them for the last 18 months in a “Trust Partnership Agreement” that was licensed by the Department of Education. This has enabled us to get to know the Trust very well. They have proved they can meet all our criteria.

However, a decision to join will only be considered once a full consultation process has taken place with staff, parents and the community.

No. Academy trusts are charities, and any surplus or other income must be used to benefit pupils.

At present our school funding is given to Wirral Local Authority, who then retain a portion of it to fund their central services. The Local Authority controls our access to capital investment. As the number of maintained schools has fallen (there are currently only 4 maintained secondaries), the Local Authority capacity to support schools has diminished.

If we join a Trust, it will receive our school’s money directly from the Department for Education . It will also retain a proportion of this funding to form a fund to pay for some central services before passing on the rest to our school. This is known as “top-slicing”. The Trust’s top slice will be 3.75% of our funding.

The amount of funding allocated per student at our school won’t change. We’ll get the same funds that we would have done as a maintained school.

However, we’ll be able to negotiate our own contracts for products and services, which means we’ll have the opportunity to find better services and prices. We will also have more direct access to capital investment from the Department of Education.
The legal costs of academy conversion are covered by a grant from the Department of Education.

Academies are inspected by Ofsted, and are held to the same standards as other state-run schools.

Academies don’t have to follow the National Curriculum. However, because they are still inspected by Ofsted they are expected to meet the same standards of curriculum design and implementation. The aims of our curriculum are the aims of the national curriculum. We aim to develop successful learners, confident and inspired individuals and aspiring and responsible citizens.

No. We will continue to be South Wirral High School.
Our uniform will remain the same.

We do not anticipate any changes to term dates. Term dates are selected to harmonise as far as possible with Liverpool and Cheshire.

This will remain entirely under the control of our governors.

The school will continue to administer its admissions through Wirral Local Authority.

Academies must follow the same rules for admissions as other state schools.

Students and parents will not notice any difference in the day to day running of the school, but in the long term there should be more opportunities for students.

Students will notice a wider range of extra-curricular activities will develop over time.

Students will also benefit from greater capital investment into facilities over time.

Academies have the same requirements when it comes to SEND as other state schools, as set out in the SEND Code of Practice.
Parents will still have full access to the Wirral Local Offer.

Our provision should benefit from closer collaboration with other secondary and primary schools, which should enable better sharing of best practice.

Staff will be employed by the Challenge Academy Trust rather than by Wirral Local Authority.

Once a decision to academise has been made there will be a Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) process. This is sometimes known as TUPE.

The Challenge Academy Trust follows all aspects of nationally agreed pay and conditions.

Staff pensions will not be affected.

No member of staff will be at any greater risk of losing their job.

All trade unions have been consulted at all stages of the process, so far.