Northdown Primary School is an academy as part of The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT).

Please find a link to the TKAT Governance pages: http://www.tkat.org/140/governance
Please find a link to TKAT key documents: http://www.tkat.org/93/documents

TKAT is a multi-academy trust which was established on 1st September 2010. Its constitution is set out in the Articles of Association and this is shared with individual academies via the Scheme of Delegation. TKAT have, through the Scheme of Delegation, established Local Governing Bodies for each of the Academies.

The Local Governing Body of each of the Academies is responsible for fulfilling the strategic and operational governance role in the conduct of the Academy.

Click here to link to the Directors of the TKAT Board. http://www.tkat.org/96/meet-the-team

Governance for Northdown Primary School is provided through the Thanet Joint Local Governing Body which is a Governance partnership between Northdown Primary School and Dame Janet, Drapers Mills, and Salmestone Primary

The Thanet Local Governing Body is committed to TKAT’s mission:

• Inspiring Learners, Changing Lives.
• Our vision is to put children first to build a better world.
• We will ensure that the life chances of all pupils in our Academies are significantly improved as a result of our  educational provision.
• We will provide outstanding teaching and learning to enable all children – especially those from disadvantaged  backgrounds – to reach their potential and meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.

The Purpose of the Joint Governing Body is to:

• Provide strategic leadership and overview of educational provision through challenge and support of senior  leaders.
• Provide strategic overview of financial management and other key Governance responsibilities.
• Ensure equality of opportunity and provision across all schools – fair capacity sharing and ensuring no school is  disadvantaged.

The TKAT Thanet Academies serve the same community, already have a Director of Education working across all the schools and there is increasing close working between the schools.

The educational benefits from working collaboratively include:

• Better shared responsibility for the joint education of the children in all schools.
• Greater commitment to ensuring the moral duty to provide equally for all children in the TKAT Thanet Primary  Academies.
• Flexibility with provision for children.
• Recruitment and retention of staff – greater opportunities for promotion between schools.
• Increased capacity for school improvement between schools.
• Flexibility and greater stability with funding and finance.
• Greater consistency of embedding TKAT values.

All Schools share similar values and have a common core moral purpose but all have and their individual identity.

Governance

The following are key elements of the proposed Governance Structure:

• A single joint Local Governing Body for all schools.
• One Chair and Vice-Chair for the joint Local Governing Body.
• The Joint LGB holds the legal responsibilities for all LGBs.
• Initially, membership of the Joint LGB will be drawn from members of the existing LGBs via a skills audit. In the  future Governors may be recruited directly to the Joint LGB.
• The Joint LGB will agree and monitor the budgets for all five schools.
• Governors on the Joint Governing Body will have specific responsibility for all schools including Finance, Standards  and Assessment,  Behaviour and Welfare, Health and Safety, Safeguarding, SEND, EYFS, and HR/Legal.

The composition of the Joint Governing Body is:

• Chair of Governors
• Vice-Chair of Governors
• Eight appointed Governors
• The Director of Education (Ex officio)
• The Heads of School (Ex officio)

Each school has its own School Governance Committee responsible for:

• Standards and curriculum
• Behaviour, attendance, and Welfare
• Community Links

The composition of the School Governance Committee is:

• The Chair of the Joint LGB (or their representative)
• Any other member of the Joint LGB associated with the school
• 2 Parent Governors
• 1 Staff Governor
• Other appointed Governors who wish to serve on the School Governance Committee but not the Joint LGB
• Headteacher and other members of the School’s leadership team as appropriate (Ex officio)

The Joint LGB will be accountable to the Regional Board for the collective performance of the schools.

Individual School Governance Committees will be accountable to the Board for the performance of their individual schools.