Academy Governance

The Bluecoat School is part of Meridian Trust (MT).  The Trust was formed with a simple and clear vision: ‘to ensure high quality education for all at the heart of the local communities.’

The school has an Academy Council which provides local governance.  It is made up of  volunteers from the local community, parents, headteacher and colleagues from MT. 

The Academy Council is focused upon the individual school context, monitoring standards and achievement, and supporting and challenging school leaders to provide the best possible education for the students.  The Academy Council role includes:

• Setting strategic priorities and plans
• Monitoring standards and achievement within the school
• Ensuring Trust policies are implemented
• Engaging with all stakeholders to improve outcomes
• Supporting and positively challenging school leaders.

Each Academy Councillor takes on the role of Champion for a particular area, in which they hold the Academy leadership to account by providing challenge and support within an agreed framework.  The Academy Council meets as a full body six times in the year.  There are no committees.

Key information about MT, including governance structure, the scheme of delegation and key legal and financial documents can be found https://www.cmatrust.co.uk/key-information/governance-key-information/ This includes funding agreements.

Academy Council members can be reached by contacting Governance@meridiantrust.co.uk

Register of Academy councillors, pecuniary interest and meeting attendance

Welcome from our chair, Chris Barrett

On behalf of the Academy Council of The Bluecoat School, we are delighted to welcome you to our website. As you can see from the information elsewhere on this site, The Bluecoat School prides itself on its ability to support, guide and challenge our children, ensuring that they realise their full academic and social potential. 

The Academy Council has a strong and positive involvement with the school. Together with Mrs Houlton, our Headteacher, we have set high ambitions for our school and pupils. We are all working hard towards meeting these ambitions and are determined to achieve them.  The active support of our parents is central to the on-going success of our school and we are grateful that so many parents engage so positively with all aspects of school life.

If you are a parent with children already at our school, I would like to thank you for your continued interest and support. If you are a parent considering sending your child to Bluecoat, I hope you agree we have a great deal to offer. If, having explored our website, you have any further questions, please do get in touch with me or Mrs Houlton; we’ll be more than happy to talk you through the great things which are happening in school.  

Our Academy Council meets in full a minimum of once per half term with each Academy champion also meeting and visiting approximately once per term to focus in detail on their assigned champion area. Our councillors also regularly visit the academy and are often in attendance at our parent consultations and wider academy events.

Chris Barrett, Chair of Academy council

All Academy councillors can be contacted via Governance@meridiantrust.co.uk