Welcome from the Chair of Amplify 

Amplify was founded by the merger of Cathedral Schools Trust and Trust in Learning Academies. It is a multi-academy trust for Bristol and the immediately surrounding areas. It is founded on an exciting and ambitious educational vision to ensure outstanding educational experiences for all our pupils, to sustain an excellent environment where our staff can work and develop, and to ensure our schools are beacons in and beyond their communities.

At the heart of the Trustee Board’s work is our determination to make this vision a reality, ensuring outstanding outcomes for all learners in each of our schools. If you look at the brief biographies of our Trustees you will see remarkably talented and experienced colleagues who, like our school governors, put their time and expertise freely at the disposal of the Trust and each of our schools.

The Trustee Board has statutory responsibilities and is accountable to regulators and the regulatory framework in which the Trust operates. We take this very seriously. We are similarly responsible for the financial management of the Trust, and we aspire to invest in outstanding teachers, support staff, and facilities. In financially challenging times this can involve hard choices. Nevertheless, pupils and their parents can be confident that we will do all in our power to ensure that we remain a high-performing Trust focussed on delivering an outstanding learning environment for our pupils and a professionally supportive and rewarding culture for all our staff.

David Eastwood, Chair of Trustees

 

Amplify Governance 

Amplify is a charitable company limited by guarantee, and an independent legal entity. Our governance requirements are set out in our articles of association. The overall governance of our Trust is made up of three levels of dedicated volunteers:  the Members, the Trustees, and the Local Governing committees who bring a wealth of experience in areas such as HR, Finance, School Improvement and Education. 

We fully support the importance of local engagement and input for our schools and academies – Exceptional schools have exceptional governance and leadership. We offer two different local models to support day to day leadership and this is a cornerstone of our approach to improving schools. Those involved in governance at the local level are valued members of the Amplify network and have the opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of young people through education. 

We have structures in place to ensure local engagement is strong, effective and knowledgeable, focused on the core purpose for every school, the continued improvement of teaching. One of the benefits of being in a multi academy trust, is to enable local governance to focus upon supporting leaders in improving the classroom experience, rather than on operational aspects and running of a school, which can be fully supported by the Central Team and network of the Trust. 

As a group of schools working together ‘governor learning’ is seen as an important aspect of our work and our commitment to our schools and cross-school professional development for governors is a regular feature of our work together. 

 

Members 

Members sit above the board of Trustees and have a largely hands-off role, similar to a company's shareholders and have some specific responsibilities including the appointment of Trustees. 

Trustees 

The Trustees are both charity Trustees and company directors of the Trust (both terms are commonly used). They make sure the Trust complies with charity and company law, and the Trust's own funding agreement with the Department for Education. The Trust Board is the non-executive body accountable for all aspects of the conduct and performance of the schools across the Trust. They oversee the running of the schools and are responsible for the strategic priorities of the organisation, its growth plans, major capital investments, for approving the budget and overseeing the management of finances across the organisation.  

Committees  

The Trust Board retains close oversight of different aspects of the work of the organisation by appointing committees to take responsibility for the following areas of its work: Finance, HR, Quality of Education and Standards, and Risk and Audit. 

Local governors 

At Amplify, the Trustees delegate some of their functions to ‘local governing arrangements' (LGBs and School Performance Boards) in each of the schools. Both LGB’s and SPB’s are technically committees of the trust board who have delegated powers, which are set out in the terms of reference and a scheme of delegation. Local governors who sit on LGBs and SPB’s are not trustees or directors (unless they also sit on the trust board) 

Join our Governance Team 

Governance is a vital part of the trust and its success.

As a group of schools working together, ‘governor learning’ is seen as an important aspect of our work, and our commitment to our schools and cross-school professional development for governors is a regular feature of our work together. 

We would like to hear from you if you would be interested in working with us as either a Member, Trustee or Local Governor. 

We look forward to hearing from you, and please contact us by email at: info@ampedu.co.uk or via post to Company Secretary, Members and Trustees, Amplify Education, Trust House, Teyfant Road, Bristol. BS13 0RF