Agenda item

Monday 14^th July 2025, 5pm on Zoom

The next meeting of the Schools’ Forum was scheduled for Monday 14 July at 5pm. The Forum discussed whether future meetings should be in person or virtual, with a range of views expressed. Geographical dispersion was noted as a reason for continuing with virtual meetings however, it was expressed that face to face meetings generated better discussion. A number of Forum Members expressed that they preferred face-to-face meetings however, the challenges around attendance were recognised.

It was suggested that one option would be to have one or two in-person meetings per year. It was also suggested that a requirement for membership, that could be added to the Forum’s Constitution, was to include attending one face to face meeting per year. This could be considered by the working group as part of the review.

Exploring alternative locations, hybrid meetings and different more convenient meeting times was also suggested.

Regarding suggestions about hybrid meetings, Edwin Towill referred to his earlier comment about the relevance of agenda items to different members. He felt it would be very difficult to get maintained or academy school members to attend a series of meetings in person if the agenda was only partly relevant to them. He felt that this was where hybrid meetings would work better as representatives could attend for the items they were required for.

RESOLVED that it was agreed that the July meeting would take place virtually, with the format of future meetings to be considered as part of the working group’s review (detailed in discussions under agenda item seven).