The Purpose of Trust Schools
The aim of Trust schools is to use the experience, energy and expertise from other schools and professions as a lever to raise standards in schools.
To acquire Trust status
- Existing Foundation schools can set up a charitable trust
- Community schools can take on Foundation status and set up a trust within a single process
- Both Foundation and Trust schools remain local authority maintained schools.
What is a Trust School?
A trust school is a maintained school (primary, secondary or special) which is a foundation school supported by a charitable trust. The school manages its own assets, employs its own staff and sets its own admission arrangements. The introduction of trust schools is part of the Government’s choice and diversity agenda. The Government wants self-confident schools with a distinct ethos, working with parents, children and young people, the local community and other partners, and a clear framework of local accountability.
Trust schools are seen as one of the ways of engaging more with parents and local communities, building long-term relationships with partner organisations, and creating better opportunities for young people. A trust school has a governing body with a minimum of 11 governors (one elected parent, two staff, one local authority representative, one community representative, and six governors appointed by the trust of which three must be parents). A separate legal entity, referred to as a trust, is established to hold the land and assets of the school and to manage them subject to the terms of the trust.
A trust school follows the national curriculum, is inspected by Ofsted like other schools, and is funded like other maintained schools (the funding goes to the governing body, not the trust).
