Local Advocate Board (LAB)
All Trust schools are accountable to the Academies for Character and Excellence (ACE) Board of Trustees who have overall responsibility for effective and appropriate systems of control. A number of our schools have their own dedicated Local Advocate Board (LAB). Our small schools can choose to operate a single LAB across more than one school.
The LABs are made up of parents, staff and members of the local community.
For our schools with a Church of England Foundation they may consider a separate Ethos Committee to oversee, challenge, support and develop the Christian ethos and Christian distinctiveness of the school. They will monitor the school's preparation for a SIAMs inspection. However for our small church schools this aspect of their element may be addressed by their TLC.
For further details Please click links below:
Local Advocate Board
The Local Advocate Board plays a significant role in helping the school and the Trust achieve its core purpose of:
Delivering outstanding outcomes for all pupils
Supporting the effectiveness and impact of the schools’ provision for Social, Moral, Cultural and Spiritual purpose
Supporting the school's child protection and safeguarding policy
Monitoring attendance at school level
Local Advocate Board (LAB) members: Ethne Staniland (Head of School), Kate Albon (Chair, Health & Safety), Jim Fallon (Foundation), and Hayley Welch (Parent, Safegaurding & SEND), Vacancies (Link trustee, foundation). LAB members can be contacted via the school office.
The committee will meet four times during the academic year.
Meeting dates for 2024/2025:
11 November 2024
27 January 2025 (online - admissions)
3rd March 2025
9th June 2025
Electronic or hard copies of minutes from the meetings of the Local Advocate Board are available upon request. Please contact the school office.
Ethos Committee
As a Church of England school within the Academies for Character and Excellence (ACE), Buckland St March C of E Primary is a small village primary school. Due to the size of the school there are insufficient volunteers to establish their own separate Ethos Committee. Therefore, the work of the Ethos Committee will be included in remit of the Local Advocate Board (LAB).
The Ethos Committee as part of the LAB will focus on the support and development of the Christian foundation and ethos of the school. It will be intrinsic to the development of the Church school status and progress against the SIAMs framework. The LAB will aim to provide an environment in which Christian Distinctiveness is promoted and allowed to flourish and it is of the utmost importance to our work to seek to answer the SIAMs overarching question:
How effective is the school's distinctive vision, established and promoted by leadership at all levels,
in enabling pupils and adults to flourish?
Reporting and monitoring will therefore lead on from this question and will be based on the seven strands of the SIAMS framework:
Vision and Leadership
Wisdom, Knowledge and Skills
Character Development: Hope, Aspiration and Courageous Advocacy
Community and Living Well Together
Dignity and Respect
The Impact of Collective Worship
The Effectiveness of Religious Education
The key documents that will be reviewed and monitored will be the SIAMS Self Evaluation Form and action plan.
For further details on the Ethos Committee please contact the school office.