School federation (England and Wales)

Tennyson High School in Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire (pictured above) federated with Monks' Dyke Technology College in 2010.[1] In 2012 they merged to form Monks' Dyke Tennyson College.[2]
"Federated school (England and Wales)" redirects here. For federated schools in other countries, see Affiliated school.

A school federation[a] is a group of schools in England and Wales which, as defined in the Education Act 2002, operate under a statutory shared governing body (a hard federation or hard governance federation), or whose governing bodies form a shared committee with collaborative terms of governance (a soft federation,[3] collaboration[4] or collegiate[5]). Soft federations with a statutory committee can be called soft governance federations.[6] Schools in a federation are known as federated schools.[7][8]

A number of federations in England have become multi-academy trusts, groups of academy schools operating under a shared governing body through a different legal framework to hard federations. Many of these continue to call themselves federations, such as the Harris Federation, and some have remained federations in the non-academy school sector, such as the Primary Advantage Federation.[9] Academies and academy trusts were originally unable to join or form statutory federations, but this restriction was removed by the Education Act 2011.[10]

  1. ^ "Complete proposal to Discontinue Tennyson High School, Mablethorpe (related to the proposal to expand Monks' Dyke Technology College, Louth)" (PDF). Lincolnshire County Council. 29 February 2012. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Federations | FAQs". Department for Children, Schools and Families. Archived from the original on 12 May 2010. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  4. ^ Middlewood, David; Abbott, Ian; Robinson, Sue (22 February 2018). Collaborative School Leadership: Managing a Group of Schools. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 68. ISBN 9781350009165.
  5. ^ Kelly, Jim (16 December 2003). "Stay loose". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  6. ^ "Federations Continuum" (PDF). Department for Education and Skills. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 February 2007. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :7 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Federated Schools: Common features of effective federation" (PDF). Estyn. July 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  9. ^ This article contains OGL licensed text This article incorporates text published under the British Open Government Licence: "The governance of federations" (PDF). National College for Teaching and Leadership. August 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  10. ^ Griffiths, Craig (2012). Academies under the Academies Act 2010. Practical Law Public Sector.


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