Governance Structure

Chalfont St Peter Church of England Academy as an Academy Trust is a charitable company limited by guarantee. The Trust has two layers of governance:

• the Members, who operate at a strategic level with ultimate control over the direction of the Academy Trust, and
• the Governors (often referred to as the Directors or Trustees) with responsibility for day-to-day management and operation of the Academy Trust.

The Members

The functions of the Members of the Academy Trust include: overseeing the achievement of the objectives of the company, taking part in Annual and Extraordinary General Meetings, appointing some of the governors and signing off the company’s financial accounts and annual report. They have the power to amend the Articles of the company and, ultimately, to remove the governors.

Overall, Members usually have much more limited practical involvement in the management of the academy than the governors.

The Members are:

• The Bishop of Oxford 
• The Archdeacon of Buckingham
• The Oxford Diocesan Board of Education
• The Chair of Governors

The Governors

The Governing Body is responsible for setting general policy, adopting an annual plan and budget, monitoring the Academy’s expenditure of budgets, making decisions about the direction of the Academy, capital expenditure and staff appointments. The Governors have delegated components of their responsibility to three main committees: Administration, Curriculum & Ethos, and Finance. The Full Governing Body meets four times a year.

The HR & Operations Committee is responsible for admissions, appeals, personnel matters, health & safety, building matters and general administration. The Committee meets three times a year.

The Curriculum & Ethos Committee makes decisions on matters relating to the educational provision at the Academy including monitoring/reporting progress. It also ensures that as a designated Church of England education provider, the religious character of a broad and balanced curriculum is maintained in accordance with the principles, practices and tenets of the Church of England. The Committee meets three times a year.

The Finance Committee is responsible for contributing to the formulation of the Academy’s development plan, monitoring the annual budgets, forecasts and variance of expenditure. It also ensures all external reporting is adhered to for bodies such as HMRC, Companies House, Department of Education, Educational and Skills Funding Agency, Teachers Pension, Local Government Pension Scheme, etc. The Committee meets six times a year.

In addition, the Audit and Risk Committee meets termly to carry out and report on internal scrutiny of the Academy's processes and procedures. The Committee meets four times a year.

Details of the Governors who have served in the last 12 months are as follows:

Attendance at meeting in the last academic year (1 Sept 2022 – 31 August 2023)

Full Governing Body

HR & Operations Committee

Curriculum & Ethos Committee

Finance Committee

Audit & Risk Committee