Governance

Deeplish Primary Academy is part of Focus-Trust, a charitable primary schools trust based in the North West of England.

Every school in Focus-Trust is the legal responsibility of the Trust Board. This board focuses on statutory duties and delegates most day-to-day governance responsibilities to each school’s individual Local Governing Body (LGB). This means that Governors are able to concentrate on the things that really matter – educational strategy, school outcomes and aspiration.

Focus-Trust is non-denominational and does not make any profit from running its schools. Focus-Trust’s relationship with the Secretary of State is set out in the Master Funding Agreement. There are also supplemental funding agreements for each individual school in the Trust, including Deeplish.

The Focus-Trust Master Funding Agreement and Deeplish’s Supplementary Funding Agreement are available on the Trust website – here.

Other key statutory information, including the Focus-Trust Annual Report and Financial Statements, Articles of Association and Scheme of Delegation can be found on the Focus-Trust website - here.

The Academy has a governing body. The key responsibilities of the governing body are to:

Ensuring the quality of educational provision
Evaluate pupil outcomes
Challenge and monitor performance
Take decisions about personnel management
Manage financial, physical and human resources
Raise concerns with the Chief Executive of the Focus-Trust in a timely manner

Scheme of Delegation

The underlying principles for this Scheme of Delegation are:

That all academies, ultimately, are in a partnership of equals irrespective of their length of membership
Focus-Trust is an exempt charity and remains true to its aims and objectives.

Focus-Trust is mindful that their function is to ensure that all statutory obligations are met

Focus-Trust believes that involving governors, staff, parents and children is the best means of ensuring engagement and involvement with the local community.
Focus-Trust Board’s intention is to reflect the various governance arrangements across the trust and apply a differentiated approach to individual academies within the scheme of delegation dependent on performance and capacity.

Link to the scheme of delegation: https://www.focus-trust.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Focus-Trust-Scheme-of-Delegation-February-2022-1.pdf

Become a Governor

Governors play an important role in our aim to create great schools at the heart of our communities.

We want our Governing Bodies to be inclusive and reflective of the local communities we serve. We welcome governors from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences and with a broad range of skills and knowledge. There are no set qualifications for becoming a governor and you will receive all the training and support needed to fulfil the role. We ask for a commitment to attend six meetings a year plus a few school visits and to abide by our Governor Code of Conduct, based on the seven principles of public life.

If you are passionate about making a difference for children and want to play a part in creating great schools at the heart of the local community then we want to hear from you.

If you are interested in becoming a governor for Deeplish please contact deeplish@focus-trust.co.uk

Our Governors are:

David Roberts – Chair of Governors

David is the current Chair of Governors at Old Trafford Primary School and until his recent retirement he was the Deputy Headteacher of Middleton Technology College.

Liz Riley – Vice Chair of Governors

Liz is currently an Assistant Principal at Freehold Primary Academy.

Tuseef Ahmed

Tuseef works for Greater Manchester Police.

Nagina Bostan

Nagina is a teacher at Deeplish and is the maths leader.

Shamsa Noreen

Shamsa is a staff governor. She was a parent of a child at Deeplish. She has also worked at Deeplish for several years.

Charlene Day

Charlene works as a Business Support Accountant for Focus-Trust.

Imrana Rehman

Imrana is a Parent Governor and has had experience of working in schools within the Finance and SEND sector.

Uzma Umar

Uzma is a Parent Governor. She is a qualified anaesthesiologist.

Hannah Rowe

Hannah is an associate member of the governing body. She is also the Vice Principal of Deeplish.

Ewan McPherson

Is an ex officio member of the governing body in his role as Principal of Deeplish.

Our Clerk is Ali Hussain

You can contact the Governing Body, Chair of Governors or the Clerk to the LGB by emailing the academy, deeplish@focus-trust.co.uk or by writing to them using the Academy address.