NSAT Governance

Our highly valued, engaged and committed governance community sits at the heart of our Trust Partnership.

As a multi-academy trust, Northern Star Academies Trust (NSAT) is a charitable company limited by guarantee. This means that NSAT is a single legal entity, but it has several academies within its family of schools.

Currently, NSAT has nine academies in its Trust Partnership. These are situated across North and West Yorkshire and serve diverse and vibrant communities. To learn more about each of the academies within the NSAT family, you can follow the links on the right-hand menu. This page provides an overview of how the Trust is governed.

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Members, Trustees and Governors

The Trust has established three key layers of governance: 

1. Members
2. Trustees
3. Local Governors 

You can view the detailed governance structure here.

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Members

Members are the guardians of the governance of our Trust Partnership. They need to be assured that effective governance practice is taking place. To do so, they keep in touch with the work of the Board of Trustees by meeting at least twice per year (including the Trust’s AGM), and receiving regular updates after each Board meeting. Our Members receive the Trust’s annual report and accounts, an annual governance report, and they are able to appoint and remove Trustees.

You can see who NSAT’s Members are by clicking this link.

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Trustees

As NSAT is a charitable company, the Board of Trustees are regarded as directors in company law, and Trustees in charity law. Reflecting the charitable objects at the core of the Trust’s work, members of NSAT’s Board are referred to as our Trustees. They meet as a minimum six times per year.

The Board of Trustees is responsible for three core strategic governance functions:

1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
2. Holding the CEO and Headteachers to account for the educational performance of each school and its pupils, and for the performance management of staff
3. Overseeing the financial performance of each school and the Trust overall, and making sure that the Trust’s money is well spent

In September 2020, the Board launched a new five-year strategy, including the NSAT Vision and Promise. Through that Strategy, the Board has established key priorities for the Trust: pupil and staff wellbeing, flexible working, environmental sustainability, our Green Curriculum Promise, and EdTech. You can read about the exciting work taking place in each of these areas on this page.

You can also see who NSAT’s current Board members are by clicking this link. Between them they bring together knowledge, expertise and skills linked to the Trust’s core areas of work: education, inclusion, environmental sustainability, governance and finance.

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Local Governors

Although the NSAT Board of Trustees is accountable for all of the academies within the Trust Partnership, it highly values the work undertaken by local governors in supporting, and challenging, our academies and senior leadership teams to deliver high quality and inclusive education. Therefore, each academy has a Local Governing Body (LGB) that meets on a half-termly basis.

To find out who the governors are, please see the ‘governance’ areas on each academy website.

The different responsibilities overseen by Members, Trustees and Local Governors are set out in the NSAT Scheme of Delegation, which is reviewed on an annual basis.

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Get in Touch

To contact any of NSAT’s Members, Trustees or Governors, please email: governance@nsat.org.uk 
To send correspondence to the Chair of Trustees, please either send a letter addressed to:

Chair of Trustees
c/o Jessica Eaton, Director of Corporate Affairs
Northern Star Academies Trust Business Centre
77, Gargrave Road
Skipton
North Yorkshire
BD23 1QN

or by email to: governance@nsat.org.uk