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.
DownloadProject Management: Project planning tool (2018 opening)
Having strong project management is critical in ensuring all tasks in pre-opening are completed efficiently to allow your free school to open. Your project manager needs to have a strong understanding of the various risks and tasks that your project will involve. An introduction to these is available from our opening tools. Based on vast experience and developed in line with the DfE’s pre-opening guidance, these tools will help you consider your project management tasks and schedules when preparing to open your free school.
If you are interested in working with NSN to deliver some or all of your project management, please contact open@newschoolsnetwork.org for more information on the Project Management Partnership.
Download
Project Management: Project planning tool (2019 opening)
Having strong project management is critical in ensuring all tasks in pre-opening are completed efficiently to allow your free school to open. Your project manager needs to have a strong understanding of the various risks and tasks that your project will involve. An introduction to these is available from our opening tools. Based on vast experience and developed in line with the DfE’s pre-opening guidance, these tools will help you consider your project management tasks and schedules when preparing to open your free school.
If you are interested in working with NSN to deliver some or all of your project management, please contact open@newschoolsnetwork.org for more information on the Project Management Partnership.
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.
DownloadFinance and procurement: Pre-opening budget 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 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 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.
Download