Role of the School Improvement Board

Consilium is a Multi-Academy Trust with a family of nine schools across the North West, North East and Yorkshire. Within each school a School Improvement Board (SIB) has been established, including in Wyvern. The SIB is group that has delegated school improvement responsibility from the Trust Board’s Performance Committee.

The School Improvement Board is chaired by a member of the Trust School Improvement Team and consists of Senior Leaders from other schools in the trust, LAB members and representation from Darlington Local Authority.

In order to clearly delineate the SIB and the LAB, the LAB takes responsibility for ensuring that the voices of the community including parents, teachers and students are heard whilst the School Improvement Board focusses on the progress made on School Improvement priorities for the school through a balance of challenge and support.

Raising Standards Committee

Chair of the School Improvement Board  

Kate Hewson - Director of School Improvement

Representation from School Leaders in other Trust schools:

Brett Joynson
Lynne Parkin

Wyvern Academy School Leadership Team (SLT)

Peter Seed
Jonathan Willis
Kris Marley
Lauren Mitchell
Clare O'Keefe
Tony Raw

Wyvern Academy Local Academy Board (LAB)

Tobias Livingstone
Elaine Richardson
Lucy Stainsby
Adetinuke Apata
James Preston-Pacey
Caroline Moss
Caroline Stokle
Sarah Park

Local Authority Representation

Helen Ellison (Darlington LA) 

Consilium is a Multi-Academy Trust with a family of nine schools across the North West, North East and Yorkshire. Within each school a Local Academy Board has been established, including in Wyvern.  Local Academy Boards (LAB’s) may also be known at other Trusts as ‘Academy Committees’, ‘Local Governing Boards’ or ‘Local Advisory Committees.

Each LAB is composed of different members, there are two Parent places available within the LAB, parents of our pupils who are interested in becoming a member are encouraged to apply.  Parent members are elected through the school, using a process which is defined in a key document called the ‘Articles of Association.’

Parent members play an important role within the board. The role is to support the Trust itself through providing insight on behalf of other parents of students who attend Wyvern.  A key function of the LAB is to engage in a meaningful way with all parents and carers as a whole.

The Trust Board determines the level of delegation or responsibility which is to be passed to the Local Academy Boards. This is subject to review on a yearly basis and responsibilities can be added or removed dependent on how well the Trust Board feel that the LAB is managing its role.  Local Academy Boards are a formal and important part of the governance of Consilium Academies and the contributions of members are very much valued by the Trust Board.

Some of the typical areas which are covered at local level may be;

• Support of the efficient and effective operation of the Trust and its policies
• Support and challenge (where appropriate) to the school leaders
• Share issues and risks with the Trust Board if necessary
• Scrutiny of reports which may be supplied by school leaders or LAB members themselves
• Provide a meaningful link with the community, parents and the students of the school, sharing feedback with the Board, regarding challenges but also to celebrate successes
• Provide feedback to the Trust Board in relation to policies and practices which are personal to the school, (policies which are delegated to the LAB are identified in a document called the Scheme of Delegation.

Local Academy Board Representation

The LAB has representation from the community, staff, and parents as well as directors of Consilium Academies (MAT). Any staff or parent vacancies that arise are advertised through the website and via an email to staff for staff LAB member vacancies. Once self-nominations have been received a ballot paper is drawn up, should there be multiple nominations, which is then circulated and voted upon. The staff are balloted for any staff member vacancies and parents are balloted for any parent member vacancies. These results are then publicised and the successful candidate informed.

Chair, Mr Tobias Livingstone, can be contacted via email at wva.enquiries@consilium-at.com