Our Board

The Sycamore Church of England Trust is a charitable company (a company limited by guarantee and an exempt charity) which exists for the provision of education.

Members

Every trust has members who have a similar role to shareholders of a company limited by shares. The members of an academy Trust have a different status from the Trustees.

The Academies Governance Guide (2025) summarises the role of members as follows, They:

• are the subscribers to the memorandum of association (where they are founding members)
• may amend the Articles of Association subject to any restrictions created by the funding agreement or charity law
• Members have an overview of the governance arrangements of the Trust and have the power to appoint Trustees and remove these Trustees may, by special resolution, issue direction to the trustees to take a specific action 
• Appoint the Trust's external auditors and receive (but do not sign) the audited annual report and accounts (subject to the Companies Act)
• have  power to change the company's name and ultimately, wind it up

Members must not be employees of the the Trust nor occupy staff establishment roles on an unpaid voluntary basis. While members can also be Trustees, retaining some distinction between the two layers ensures that members, indpendent of Trustees, provide oversight and challenge. 

In the Sycamore Church of England Trust, the Members, acting corporately and by majority vote, appiont members of the Board of Trustees. Members may remove any Trustees appointed by them and receive the Trust's Annual Report, including its annual accounts.

In addition, in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006, Sections 489 and 490, the members ensure the Trust has legally appointed auditors. 

Trustees

New Trustees are recruited from time to time. This is done in a transparent way using a role description and an indication of the areas of specialist skill, experience or expertise the Board wishes to strengthen in the light of an audit of skills and experience. 

In accordance with our Articles of Association, the Foundation Trustees must always hold an overall majority of at least two. It is the Foundation Members who appoint the Foundation Trustees. Where it is felt by the Foundation Trustees that additional skills are required on the Board, with the consent of the Diocesan Board of Education, they may appoint additional co-opted Trustees.

The Board of Trustees discharges its responsibilities through meetings 4-6 times per year which include all Trustees, including the CEO, and the CFO, in attendance.

It receives reports from:

• The CEO summarising the achievements and challenges of the Trust against the Trust's development plan and any strategic decisions the Trust faces
• All Local Academy Committees, comprising a year group by year group analysis of standards and updates on progress to development plan targets 
• Trustees' Finance Committee - summarising end of key stage anticipated performance at each termly data drop and performance against Ofsted criteria in each category
• Director of Operations report summarising key activities as well as key HR measures of Trust, programme management, risk register and compliance (including school website content, H&S and manadatory policies)