As part of the recommendations from 'The Academy Handbook', it states that it highly recommends that a governing body/trust has an external review every three years. As part of our own review past COVID, we commissioned an external review of the trust by the National Governance Association. This review took place between September 2022 and February 2023. This rigorous process involved all trustees, our clerk and members of the senior leadership team. this was a very powerful process and enabled us to work with our NGA consultant to identify our strengths and next steps of strategic development. Below are links to the Evalu8 self evaluation document completed as part of the review, the initial findings from the self evaluation and the external review report.

Final Acknowledgement from the NGA Consultant

'It has been a pleasure to conduct this review and thanks must go to everyone at the trust for their time, enthusiasm and commitment to the process. The willingness to provide information, listen to all advice and suggestions, actively engage in discussions and be open to change has already resulted in considerable progress in strengthening the foundations of effective governance. It is hoped that the outcomes of this review and the additional facilitated session on vision and strategy, will contribute to ensuring sustainable, effective, informed decision making and planning related to further strengthening and future proofing governance structures and processes that will enable the trust to achieve its ambitions and continue its journey of continual improvement.'