Consultation may take place before an application is made for academy status but must be completed before a funding agreement is entered into with the Secretary of State. The consultation is about listening to the views of interested parties and ensuring their questions are answered. There is no specific time for how long consultation should continue for, but this should be long enough to allow interested groups to have a fair chance to respond and ask questions.

Consultation for conversion to academy status will be conducted virtually. We have worked to find a solution that will enable consultation to go ahead and the process will be as follows: 

1. A letter to all parents opening the consultation period (this letter)  
2. Please use the form online at: https://forms.gle/KJgem3zK7cHhr75fA to ask any questions not included in the FAQ’s already on the website . We will include answers to frequently asked questions on the school’s website on a dedicated page called “Academy Consultation” under the “Parents” page. That will include answers to frequently asked questions which will be updated regularly. 
3. There is a separate form for you to tell us whether you support the proposal at :  https://forms.gle/ewqnfyRaQaP4qu8H7
4. If you would like to talk to someone about the proposal and how it affects your child, please give your name and phone number and we will contact you; otherwise answers will be published periodically within FAQ documents on each school’s website.

The formal consultation period opens today 19 April 2022 and will remain open until 3 May 2022.

Following the consultation period, the Governing Body will consider all of the feedback and views received during the consultation and will then make the final decision on whether to complete the process. We will write to parens and staff to inform you of our decision. 

If we proceed, you and your child are unlikely to see any change in your day to day experience of school.The students will not notice any immediate difference. They will be in the same school in the same classrooms

Leaders, teachers and support staff will remain and have their terms and conditions protected as part of the conversion process; the school will continue to have a governing body; all children on roll at the school will continue; times of the school day, term dates and the school’s admissions policy will stay the same.

We will continue to strive for an outstanding education for all our children. However, in time the children may notice changes and improvements in the way that they learn, resulting from the greater training opportunities given to teaching staff to innovate and improve the pupil experience.

• Closer collaborative working between strong schools so that staff can build upon sharing their expertise in order to raise standards for children even further.  
• Securing best value for money on products and services therefore achieving greater economies of scale, so that we can spend as much as possible in classrooms.  
• Opportunities for the trust to apply and benefit from grants and bids that schools do not have access to under local authority control.  
• Greater collaborative working with a wide range of schools across other trusts and opportunities for other schools to join in order to build capacity even further.

We honour the individual characteristics of our schools.  With effect from September 2023, subject to consultation, the following changes are suggested

• The blazer will remain the same with a new ‘iron on’ logo
• The skirt, an optional item, will be tartan, with a navy accent
• The tie and PE kit will remain the same, with the new logo added
• The logo will be co-designed and could include the EPCS lion and the KGA crown

The suggested name, with effect from September 2022, is King’s Academy Easthampstead Park

Multi-academy trusts are charities that have responsibility for running a number of academies. They cannot, as charities, be run for financial profit and any surplus monies must be reinvested in the trust.

By working in partnership with each other, the schools within a trust can share staff, curriculum expertise, and effective teaching practices, and work together to deliver the best outcomes for pupils.

While other types of school partnerships can be effective, the key difference with academy trusts is that there is shared accountability for standards across the trust; all schools within the trust support each other and the trust is accountable for them all.

Joining a multi-academy trust remains a positive choice for schools. They enable the strongest leaders to take responsibility for supporting more schools, develop great teachers, and allow schools to focus on what really matters – teaching, learning, and a curriculum that is based on what works.

Multi-academy trusts have the capacity to provide high-quality training and evidence-based curriculum support for already great teachers, freeing them to focus on what they do best – teaching.

This freedom does not mean academies are not regulated. The department’s National and Regional Schools Commissioners and their teams, together with the Education and Skills Funding Agency, provide robust educational and financial oversight of all academy trusts.

Individual academies are still subject to Ofsted inspections and ratings in exactly the same way as council-run schools.

In fact, academies are subject to greater accountability than council-run sch

The regulations that place requirements on maintained schools do not directly apply to academies. General employment law applies to academies in the same way as to other organizations. Teachers must be suitably qualified. 

The Academy Trust has responsibility for setting pay and conditions. We will employ all staff on national terms and conditions so there is no change for staff. All teachers employed at an academy have access to the Teachers Pensions Scheme and all other employees at an academy have access to the Local Government Pension Scheme

Academies are required to have a broad and balanced curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental, and physical development of pupils and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of later life. The curriculum must include English, Maths, and Science; Religious Education; and Relationships education and Health education. Academies are required to take part in the same pupil assessment arrangements and to report on the achievement and attainment of pupils in the same way as all other state-funded schools. 

The academy trust will receive General Annual Grant from the Secretary of State calculated as the equivalent to that which would be received by a maintained school taking account of the number of pupils at the academy. Capital funding is also available, channelled through the Academy Trust. Every academy trust must abide by the requirements of and have regard to the guidance in the Academies Financial Handbook.

Academies should be fully inclusive local schools and in common with all other schools have a clear legal duty to do their best to meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Academies are required to provide education for pupils wholly or mainly drawn from the area in which the academy is situated. Academies must have admission arrangements that clearly set out how children will be admitted, including the criteria that will be applied if there are more applications than available places. Academies are required to provide education for pupils of different abilities (i.e. they may not select pupils by ability).

 Academies continue to be subject to Ofsted inspections.