The Sherborne Schools’ Partnership had worked closely together for many years to provide an excellent education for our young people across the pyramid and included the Sherborne Learning Centre.
The timeline for the formation:
The Sherborne Area Schools’ Trust was established on 1 June 2017. The Gryphon School, a standalone Church of England academy since 1 August 2012, converted to become a multi-academy trust. It came together with six new academy schools; a former maintained school, four Church of England VC Schools and one Church of England VA School. A Deed of Variation of the Funding Agreement and Articles of Association was approved by special resolution.
Key Features are:
• a new mixed primary: secondary MAT with 7 schools
• the formation of a new hub in an identified target area (Dorset) for academy provision
• a MAT with 2700 pupils from 0-19 years
• a large specialist workforce of 184 teachers (151 fte); 292 non-teaching staff (158 fte) including 92 teaching assistants; 37 office/support staff
• a combined budget of £13.2 million expenditure
The benefits and opportunities include developing our provision, sharing best practice, being more creative in our curriculum, enabling further development of our teachers/staff and taking collective responsibility for all of the children’s development and progress. There is also more freedom on how we spend our funding and we would be able to explore opportunities for financial efficiency, determining for ourselves which services and providers we will buy into to provide outstanding provision for our children.
SAST Proposal - Executive Summary Feb 2017