Governance in the Academies Age: Issues, opportunities and challenges

As a senior leader, policy influencer or policymaker in education you are invited to take part in the above summit, which will bring together sixty senior educational figures with an interest in school governance: principals and head teachers, school governors, policy influencers and policymakers in the sphere of school governance.

The Government’s recent White Paper and subsequent announcements are likely to lead to significant changes in how we ‘see and do’ school governance. As part of its response the RSA has commissioned educationalist and RSA Fellow Dr. Tony Breslin to lead a scoping study on the future of school governance, provisionally entitled Governance in the Academies Age: issues, opportunities and challenges, which will be published in summer 2016.

Partners represented on the study’s Expert Group include the Association of School and College Leaders, the Catholic Education Service, the Centre for Public Scrutiny, the Elliot Foundation, the Local Government Association, the National Governors’ Association and RSA Academies.

At the summit we will share our outline recommendations and ask you to assess and evaluate them. We will also be seeking to agree on a set of key principles that should underpin school governance, whatever its exact form and setting.

Rather than presenting you with a finished document, we will be finalising our report after the summit; therefore, this represents a chance to help shape what we believe will be an important publication, one which may act as a precursor to - and set out the key issues for - a subsequent National Commission on School Governance, one that might investigate the issues, opportunities and challenges that we identify in greater depth.