Schools' forum
The schools' forum acts as a consultative body on some issues and a decision-making body on others. Find out who is on the Schools Forum and upcoming meetings dates.
About the Schools Forum
It is made up of representatives from:
- schools and academies
- non-school organisations such as nursery and 16-19 education providers
The forum is consulted about areas including:
- changes to the local funding formula (the local authority makes the final decision)
- proposed changes to the operation of the minimum funding guarantee
- changes to or new contracts affecting schools, such as school meals
- arrangements for pupils with special educational needs, in pupil referral units and in early years provision
The forum decides:
- how much funding may be retained by the local authority within the dedicated schools grant (eg for providing an admissions service or providing additional funding for growing schools)
- any proposed carry forward of deficits on central spend from one year to the next
- proposals to de-delegate funding from maintained primary and secondary schools (eg for staff supply cover, insurance, behaviour support)
- changes to the scheme of financial management
Schools representation
The forum includes representatives from:
- maintained nursery schools
- maintained primary schools
- maintained secondary schools
- maintained special schools
- maintained pupil referral units
- mainstream academies (including free schools)
- special academies (including free schools)
- alternative provision academies (including free schools)
- post-16 education providers
The number of representatives from each type of school should reflect how many pupils they represent.
Schools Forum meetings
Schools Forum meeting dates for the remainder of the academic year 2023/24 are:
- Thursday 25 May, 2pm to 4pm
- Thursday 13 July, 2pm to 4pm
Documents and reports
We regularly publish all documents and reports from Schools Forum meetings, available for up to two years.
Schools Forum vacancies
There are currently two vacancies for primary head teachers and two vacancies for secondary academy senior leadership representatives.
Primary head teacher vacancies
Primary head teachers have been asked for nominations by Monday 9 October 2023. If there are more applications than vacancies, there will be an election. The nominations cannot come from:
- Canonbury
- Islington Futures Federation – Vittoria
- Edventure Collaborative Federation – Montem and Drayton Park
- Federation of St Luke’s and Moreland
- Federation of Rotherfield and Newington Green
- Prior Weston
- Thornhill
These settings are already represented on the forum.
Secondary academy senior leadership representatives
The heads or directors of secondary academies have been asked to select two representatives from head teacher, vice-headteacher, principal, vice-principal, governor, trustee or finance or school business manager and to advise the clerk of their choices by 9 October 2023.
The next meeting of Schools Forum will take place on Thursday 9 November, 2-4pm, at Room GA, 222 Upper Street, London N1 1XR.
For more information please contact the Clerk to Schools Forum by email: jane.wright@islington.gov.uk.
Responsibilities of schools and their representatives
Representatives should communicate effectively with their schools, to ask for their views and opinions and to give feedback on forum meetings. However, they must represent the interests of their sector as a whole, and not of their own individual school.
School staff and governors should make sure that the representatives they choose are competent to act as their advocates. They should also ensure that they are aware of schools forum business and make their views known about decisions affecting schools’ finance.
Responsibilities of local authorities
Local authorities must publish all schools' forum papers in advance of each meeting. Any recommendations should be clear and local authority responsible officers should attend meetings to provide further information and advice. Local authority officers should not dominate the meeting. All schools forum meetings must be open to the public. Observers do not have an automatic right to speak at meetings, but the chair may allow contributions where appropriate.
Contact information
For more information about the Schools Forum, please contact Jane Wright on Jane.Wright@islington.gov.uk or governor.services@islington.gov.uk.