Agenda item

Jessica Bailiss introduced the report (Agenda Item 5), which aimed to review and where necessary update the membership and constitution for the Schools’ Forum, which was carried out on an annual basis.

The membership composition of the Forum and number of members representing each sector needed to be broadly proportionate to pupil numbers. Table one showed a breakdown of pupil numbers compared to 2020 by sector and it could be seen the number of number of pupils in each sector had remained broadly the same and therefore no changes were proposed to the structure of the membership.

The Constitution for the Forum needed to comply with the Schools’ Forum Regulations 2012.  There had only been one change to the Regulations in 2020, which enabled Schools’ Forums to continue to meet remotely if they wished. There was one proposed change to the constitution which was detailed under section 6.1 of the report following the declaration of interest exercise that was carried out earlier in the year and it was proposed that going forward there should be no more than two representatives from one school/academy across the groups that make up the Forum. This was only proposed for new members joining the Forum and would not be actioned retrospectively. 

It was recommended that the Forum approve the membership and constitution including the proposed changed detailed under section 6.1 of the report.

Jonathan Chishick raised a query regarding how the school groups were divided between Headteacher and Governors. He felt that this needed clarifying within the constitution under section 2.2. It was also noted that under 2.3 it was stated that primary and secondary representatives would be elected by their respective heads’ forum. The process for governors differed to this and this needed to be clarified in the constitution. Jess Bailiss stated that she would look in to this following the meeting.

The Chair invited the Schools Forum to vote on recommendation set out in section 2.1 of the report. John Hewitt proposed that the recommendation be approved and this was seconded by Chris Prosser. At the vote the motion was carried.

RESOLVED that:

• Jessica Bailiss would review the points raised by Jonathan Chishick and ensure that these were clarified within the constitution.
• The membership and constitution was agreed by the Schools’ Forum, including the proposed amendment set out in section 6.1 of the report and clarification of the points raised by Jonathan Chishick.