Joining Falcon as an Academy

The schools we work with are carefully matched to us due to a variety of factors. They all have challenges that need to resolved. Some schools may have issues around academic standards; others may have issues relating to finance or poor buildings. Sadly, however, these legacy issues mean that – although these schools may already be improving under their own steam – there is too much risk for a standard operating trust to take them on. Falcon therefore provides a temporary home for these schools, during which they become stronger and establish firm foundations, so that they are well-placed to then join another academy trust which becomes its permanent home and within which it can continue its improvement journey.

On being matched by the Department for Education to be sponsored by Falcon Education Academies Trust, Falcon will work closely with the school, its governors, senior leaders and staff, to ensure a smooth transition into our organisation.

Whilst we endeavour to move schools into Falcon as quickly as possible so that they can begin to directly benefit from our support immediately, sometimes a longer lead-in time may be needed. In these cases, we will work with our partners to provide support to the school before it transfers to Falcon. Otherwise, upon joining us, we will guide staff through any necessary organisational changes in addition to starting work on the bespoke plan collaboratively developed to support the school

Each school joining Falcon benefits from the support of the Central Team, of our partners, and of school-to school support where appropriate, with expertise from across the education sector, whether in teaching quality, curriculum development, finance expertise, governance, buildings and estates, or other areas.

On joining the trust, schools are asked to amend their local governance arrangements to fit with the over-arching governance arrangements of Falcon, its scheme of delegated authority (SoDA) and financial scheme of delegation.

Our aims are to:

  • Assess each of our schools’ strengths and weaknesses – drawing on the former and addressing the latter
  • Appoint experts to the school who are best-placed to achieve the positive change required
  • Develop bespoke improvement plans
  • Work collaboratively with the respective schools to put the improvement plans into action and achieve rapid, sustained improvement
  • Agree with the Department for Education what the next stage of the school’s journey should be, such as joining another academy trust as its permanent home

Over-archingly, our objective is to make sure that students at the schools which join us are able to enjoy a high-quality education which enables them to fulfil their potential.

Want to learn more about academies?

If you are unsure about the role of an academy trust, the Confederation of School Trusts has put together a handy myth-busting report into academies to help people learn more and to enable them to better understand how academies work. You can read this by clicking on the button below:

Myth-Busting