Trust Board
The Trust Board is made up of a maximum of 15 trustees. The terms trustee/governor/director are commonly used although at KWS we try to stick to ‘Trustee’ and ‘Trust Board’ to reflect the fact that we are a single academy trust school and as such, we are a Trust Board as opposed to a maintained school’s Governing Body.
The legal name of the Trust that KWS belongs to is Harpenden Secondary Education Trust (HSET).
The board is made up of trustees appointed in different ways; member appointed, parent elected, staff elected and one position is appointed by the remaining trustees. Once in post, all trustees are considered equal and the type of trustee they were appointed as is irrelevant.
Key Responsibilities
The trustees of the Trust Board meet at least six times per year to carry out their governance responsibilities and hold the school to account. These core functions can be summarised into three main areas:
- Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent
- Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils
- Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
Trustees’ Duties
Trustees are allocated to the Resources Committee or the Education Committee depending on their skillset and the board’s requirements at the time of appointment/election. Each committee meets at least twice per term apart from the Remuneration committee which meets at least once per year. Trustees also each have at least one area of additional responsibility such as safeguarding, diversity and inclusion, wellbeing, teaching & learning, etc. that they meet with school staff once per term to discuss current progress and future strategies.
Members of the Board
The 5 Member Organisations that originally collaborated to establish HSET are:
- Rothamsted Research
- Roundwood Park School
- Sir John Lawes School
- St George’s School
- The University of Hertfordshire
Each organisation elects a representative to be a Member of the Trust and the Chair of Trustees is a Member of the Trust. Members are expected to attend the AGM annually, appoint the majority of trustees and oversee the running of the Trust.
The Members are:
Rothamsted Research Limited represented by Angela Karp
Sir John Lawes School represented by Phil Newbery
St George’s (Harpenden) Academy Trust represented by Andy Ford
The University of Hertfordshire represented by Penny Carey
Roundwood Park School Academy Trust represented by Alan Henshall
Jenny Howarth
Committees:
For the academic year 2023/2024, KWS has three committees; Resources (HR, finance, H&S, premises), Education (teaching & learning), and Remuneration. The terms of reference for each committee can be found:
