How to effectively on-board new academies

Get tips on how to smoothly on-board new academies into your trust. Understand what to prioritise before a school joins your trust, and how to help the LGB on every step of the journey.

Last reviewed on 7 June 2024
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 40812
Contents
  1. Keep the process flexible
  2. Before the conversion process starts
  3. 6 months before conversion
  4. After conversion

Our thanks to our associate education experts, Cathy Brown, Laura Corcoran, Sara Scott and Jill Wakefield for their help with this article.

This article is aimed at whoever leads the central governance team in your trust. This individual may be called a ‘governance lead’, ‘governance co-ordinator’, ‘governance manager’, ‘head of governance’ or something different.

Keep the process flexible

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach – every academy is different, and you might be faced with delays as you go along. 

You might find that not everything in this article works for you. Feel free to pick and choose elements of this article to help you personalise your onboarding process for each academy.

Your trust leaders will handle the operational side of things There'll be quite a lot going on behind the scenes, which you may not be involved in. Your trust leaders and trust improvement partners will be involved in various meetings and