Education (No. 2) Act 1986

Section 9(9).

Schedule 1 E+W Grouped Schools

General E+W

1 (1) In this Schedule—

• “group” means two or more schools grouped under section 9 of this Act; and

• “grouped school” means a school which forms part of a group.

(2) Any reference in any enactment to the governing body or governors of a school shall be construed, in relation to any grouped school, as a reference to the governing body or governors of the group.

Procedure in relation to making etc. of instrument of government E+W

2 (1) Before making an order under section 1 of this Act embodying the first instrument of government for any group; the local education authority shall consult the governing body and head teacher of each school within the group and, where the group contains one or more voluntary schools, shall—

(a) secure the agreement of the governing body of each such school to the terms of the proposed order;

(b) secure the agreement of the foundation governors of each such school to any provisions which will be of particular concern to the foundation governors of the group; and

(c) have regard to the way in which those schools have been conducted.

(2) Where such an order has been made, subsections (1) to (6) of section 2 of this Act shall apply in relation to any subsequent order embodying or varying the instrument of government for the group, or any proposal for the making of such an order—

(a) as if, in the case of a group which contains one or more voluntary schools, it were a single voluntary school; and

(b) as if, in any other case, it were a single county school.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (5) of section 2, any agreement required by sub-paragraph (1) above shall be deemed to have been required by subsection (2) of that section.

Election of parent and teacher governors E+W

3 The instrument of government for any group—

(a) may provide for the local education authority to have power to determine, in relation to every election of parent or teacher governors, the school or schools within the group the parents of registered pupils at which, or (as the case may be) the teachers at which, are to be entitled to stand and vote at the election; and

(b) shall, where it does so, provide for it to be the duty of the authority to ensure that the position after any such election will be that there is no school within the group which will not have had an opportunity to have so participated in the election of at least one of the parent or (as the case may be) teacher governors of the group.

Governors’ annual report to parents E+W

4 (1) In discharging their duty to prepare governors’ reports; the governing body for a group shall prepare separate reports in relation to each of the schools within the group unless they decide to hold a joint annual parents’ meeting, under paragraph 5 below.

(2) Where the governing body for a group prepare a single report covering all schools within the group, it shall be their duty to secure that any matters which they propose to report on and which are likely to be mainly of interest to the parents of registered pupils at a particular school within the group are treated separately in the report.

Annual parents’ meeting E+W

5 (1) In discharging their duty to hold an annual parents’ meeting for any grouped school the governing body for the group may, if they think fit, hold a joint meeting for all of the schools within the group.

(2) Where—

(a) a joint meeting is held; and

(b) the governing body have prepared separate governors’ reports in relation to each of the schools within the group;

the governing body shall, when discharging the duty imposed on them by virtue of section 30(4) of this Act, attach to the report prepared in relation to any one school in the group copies of the reports prepared for each of the other schools within the group.

(3) Where at any joint meeting the question is put on any proposed resolution which concerns one or more, but not all, of the schools within the group—

(a) only parents of registered pupils at the school or schools which the proposed resolution concerns may vote on the question; and

(b) the registered pupils at the other schools shall be disregarded for the purposes of section 31(4)(b) of this Act as it applies in relation to the proposed resolution.

(4) Where at any joint meeting there is any disagreement as to which schools within the group a proposed resolution concerns, the matter shall be decided by the chairman of the governing body.