The Alpha Plus Gold Standard is the Group’s vision of educational excellence. It informs individual school and college aims and objectives, and sets the standards to which Governors hold the Heads and Principals accountable. Governors are responsible for creating an ethos of high expectation; they monitor, evaluate, support and challenge the Heads and Principals and their Senior Leadership Teams.
Governance is concerned with providing insight, wisdom and good judgement. It requires Governors to know their schools, and to promote the importance of good leadership. In this way, Governors are able to ask and answer key questions:
The three key responsibilities of the Governors are:
Alpha Plus also provides management and professional services to its schools and colleges.
There are five components to the Alpha Plus governance structure for schools and colleges:
The Educational Governance process is managed by the Director of Education who is responsible for:
The Director of Schools and Colleges is the primary contact point for the Head of each school. Key duties include:
The Director of Schools and Colleges is also a Governor. The Director of Education is works to ensure potential conflicts between line management responsibilities and governance duties are avoided or reconciled.
One advantage of being part of a Group is the scale benefit it provides; it enables the provision of expert resources across a number of professional areas, in particular:
The functions of Educational Governance, Operational and Line Management described above are all accountable to the Board of Alpha Plus Holdings plc.
The CEO, Executive Deputy Chairman, and non-executive Chairman of Alpha Plus Holdings are also Governors, and the Chairman is also Chair of the Governors. There are a number of other non-executive Directors who are not Governors.
The Board typically meets nine times a year to consider major operational and strategic matters. It reviews various reports, including the CEO’s executive summary, a financial report, and summary progress reports prepared by each Director. These contain academic, pastoral, and operational performance data and commentary for each school and college, as well as safeguarding and compliance issues, and inspection outcomes.
Each Head/Principal periodically attends a Board meeting to make a formal presentation regarding their school/college progress, performance, priorities and issues.
For the avoidance of doubt, the members of the Council (other than the Alpha Plus Holdings plc Chairman and Executive Deputy Chairman) do not have any Governance responsibilities for the Alpha Plus schools and colleges.
The Alpha Plus Council advises on the educational direction of the Group and reviews the educational performance aspects of the schools and colleges. The Council meets once per term and its observations and advice are noted by the Board.
Council members offer a range of experience and include the former parent of a child educated within the Group. The Council considers recent developments in education and their implications for Alpha Plus schools and colleges, such as: curriculum and assessment; child welfare and protection; government policy; regulatory and inspection issues; independent sector market developments; and social issues such as trends in social media and technology.