Resources
Governance: Growing your MAT guidance
Establishing a strong governance structure in the pre-opening period is essential to the continued success of your MAT and of your free school. During pre-opening, you will need to submit a complete governance plan to the DfE for approval. If you run one or more academies already, this plan will need to include details of how you will manage the growth of your MAT. NSN has produced a guide on things you must consider when developing your governance as your MAT grows and as your free school opens.
Your group may benefit from more tailored advice from our governance associates, you may wish to consider the NSN Essentials Advisory Services or our Project Management Partnership. These services provide access to illustrations, exemplars and expert guidance developed to support school governance and the effective growth of MATs.
DownloadStudent marketing and admissions: Marketing and communications guidance
A key task of the pre-opening period is recruiting your first cohort of pupils. Pupil recruitment affects almost every other aspect of your project: they determine your financial viability, your curriculum planning, and staff recruitment. Your group will need to work hard to ensure that you market your school effectively and accurately and NSN has produced some guidance about how you might do this.
During pre-opening, you will also need to develop an admissions policy and finalise your admissions arrangements. The DfE has produced several documents on various aspects of free school admissions and NSN has produced a comprehensive guide.
Ultimately, what works best will depend on your local circumstances and along with advice tailored to your needs, a range of best practice case studies, exemplars and tools are available through the NSN Essentials Advisory Service and Project Management Partnership.
DownloadStudent marketing and admissions: Admissions guidance
A key task of the pre-opening period is recruiting your first cohort of pupils. Pupil recruitment affects almost every other aspect of your project: they determine your financial viability, your curriculum planning, and staff recruitment. Your group will need to work hard to ensure that you market your school effectively and accurately and NSN has produced some guidance about how you might do this.
During pre-opening, you will also need to develop an admissions policy and finalise your admissions arrangements. The DfE has produced several documents on various aspects of free school admissions and NSN has produced a comprehensive guide.
Ultimately, what works best will depend on your local circumstances and along with advice tailored to your needs, a range of best practice case studies, exemplars and tools are available through the NSN Essentials Advisory Service and Project Management Partnership.
DownloadFinance and procurement: Procurement guidance
As you enter the pre-opening period, you will receive a Project Development Grant (PDG) from the DfE designed to cover all non-capital costs associated with setting up your free school. You need to consider carefully how you will spend your money as efficiently as possible and to ensure the best value for money. Drawing on our associates’ expertise and previous free schools’ experience, we have put together a budgeting tool which will help you decide how to allocate your money according to different work streams. We have also put together some guidance around following public procurement regulations when spending your PDG.
The Essentials Advisory Service and the project management partnership take into account the fact that finance will have implications for the effectiveness of Delivery across all other work streams. The resources and tools that have been developed for these services have been designed to support schools to extract maximum value through careful financial planning.
DownloadStaffing and education plans: Recruiting your free school Principal guidance
During the pre-opening period, your group will need to turn the education plan you outlined in your application into reality: by recruiting a principal designate, finding other staff members and drawing up detailed education policies. As well as this, you will need to submit a strong education brief to the DfE, produce a range of statutory policies for the school and prepare for Ofsted inspections both before and after your school opens.
Having the right principal in place is critical to the early success of a free school and this appointment will shape the outcome of the other tasks associated with this work stream and others. The NSN guide to finding your principal designate will help your group focus on the skills you are looking for and how to run your recruitment to find the best possible person. We also have free guidance to download around recruiting other members of staff, preparing your education brief and preparing for Ofsted inspections (pre-registration and full).
For policy exemplars, more detailed guidance and support around your educational vision and plan, you should consider accessing NSN’s Essentials Advisory Service and the Project Management Partnership.
DownloadStaffing and education plans: Staff recruitment guidance
During the pre-opening period, your group will need to turn the education plan you outlined in your application into reality: by recruiting a principal designate, finding other staff members and drawing up detailed education policies. As well as this, you will need to submit a strong Education Brief to the DfE, produce a range of statutory policies for the school and prepare for Ofsted inspections both before and after your school opens.
Having the right staff in place is critical to the early success of a free school and will be a large task during pre-opening. The NSN guide to recruiting staff will help your group focus on the skills you are looking for and how to run your recruitment to find the best possible team for your free school. We also have free guidance to download around recruiting your principal designate, preparing your Education Brief and preparing for Ofsted inspections (pre-registration and full).
For policy exemplars, more detailed guidance and support around your educational vision and plan, you should consider accessing NSN’s Essentials Advisory Service and the Project Management Partnership.
DownloadStaffing and education plans: Ofsted guidance
During the pre-opening period, your group will need to turn the education plan you outlined in your application into reality: by recruiting a principal designate, finding other staff members and drawing up detailed education policies. As well as this, you will need to submit a strong Education Brief to the DfE, produce a range of statutory policies for the school and prepare for Ofsted inspections both before and after your school opens.
The NSN guide to Ofsted will follow the core areas of an Ofsted inspection and highlight positive case studies from Outstanding free schools.
For policy exemplars, more detailed guidance and support around your educational vision and plan, you should consider accessing NSN’s Essentials Advisory Service and the Project Management Partnership.
DownloadSites and buildings: FSC site resource - Approval to handover
In collaboration with NSN, the FSC have developed the following resources to ensure that free school groups understand the meaning of Heads of Terms, a key pre-opening milestone; the timescales involved in securing a free school site; and how to interact with the different roles within the FSC. Approval to Handover is a chart that outlines the various stages and timescales involved in securing a free school site and building from the point an application is approved into pre-opening to the handover of a site to the academy trust.
NSN has designed the Site Advisory Service to assist groups in navigating the very complex issues associated with translating an educational vision into a school building that meets the needs of pupils and staff. This service includes very detailed resources that complement and supplement the support provided by the DfE and FSC.
DownloadSites and buildings: FSC site resource - Free schools capital project team
In collaboration with NSN, FSC have developed the following resources to ensure that free school groups understanding the meaning of Heads of Terms, a key pre-opening milestone; the timescales involved in securing a free school site; and how to interact with the different roles within FSC. Free Schools Capital Project Team is an organogram of the ESFA’s Free Schools Capital Project Team, detailing roles and responsibilities, to illustrate the escalation route that free schools should employ in the event of difficulties arising during the completion of the capital project. The resource lists issues that could arise during each stage of the development of a site and provides appropriate points of contact
NSN has designed the Site Advisory Service to assist groups in navigating the very complex issues associated with translating an educational vision into a school building that meets the needs of pupils and staff. This service includes very detailed resources that complement and supplement the support provided by the DfE and FSC.
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