The list below answers some of the questions we are often asked at the early stages of conversations with schools.
If your question is not answered here, please feel free to book an informal meeting to find out more about us.
No. Absolutely not. The single most important decision for schools joining and the trust welcoming schools; is cultural fit. We would welcome any school that shares our vision, values and ambition for pupils, staff, schools and community.
Yes. Federations differ in structure, size and levels of shared staffing. However, what is incredibly positive are they are schools that have already seen the benefit of collaborating and sharing; this is the essence of what a trust is.
Across Kent and Sussex, there are schools within trusts that operate under shared headship (executive heads), as well as many local authority schools. In other words, being part of Tenax does not dictate the leadership structure; the specific context does. While all of our schools currently have a single head, three years ago, two schools shared a head. One of the trust’s greatest strengths is the ability to focus on succession planning and talent management across multiple schools.
There are many and some will depend on a school’s context and priorities. The most obvious ones are:
Yes. A school’s identity is really important to us.
They absolutely come with you; they are not jettisoned. Our church and community schools hold these dear. It is what has shaped them prior to joining Tenax and still does. Indeed, SIAMS inspection fully ‘tests’ this. This unique character also extends to those elements most visible to local communities; uniform, logo and your school’s name.
What we have is a set of values and a vision for the trust that will compliment yours and you will have seen yourselves in before ‘choosing’ us.
No staff do not re-apply for jobs. Staff are protected by the TUPE process. Their job, pay and conditions e.g. continuous service are fully protected.
No. We have some staff who have applied for a job that is in more than one school or who were promoted to work across more than one school, but we do not move staff on ad hoc basis.
We do also offer opportunities for trust lead roles who supporting other schools. These posts must be applied for, with headteacher support.
The short and simple answer is we hope they remain, doing much of what they have always done. Local governors become a subcommittee of the trust board. They meet three times a year, receive Headteacher reports, undertake school visits and ensure the schools vision and values are lived. So, in essence much stays the same. Financial management sits with the Board of Trustees because it ultimately has to.
Many aspects of operations and compliance must be the same because we need to use the same systems and adhere to the same policies to function as one legal entity.
For example, management information systems and finance systems will align. We are moving to the same system to record and report concerns regarding pupils/students well-being.
One area that often sparks debate is what happens within the classrooms. Currently, we have significant variation—such as six different phonics schemes. We also have some accidental alignment, with almost all schools choosing the same off-the-shelf product for a particular curriculum area.
We are looking carefully now at where more alignment makes sense. Teacher workload and retention, tightening finances and the current government review of curriculum and assessment; means we are looking at where collaboration makes more sense than what we currently do. We want to be transparent about this crucial turning point, as schools within the trust will be working together to shape our direction over the next 3-5 years.
Sometimes we are asked to talk to schools about being an academy generally. The Confederation of School Trusts (CST) has some very helpful guidance for any school not yet in a trust.
The government has withdrawn all financial support to schools converting to become an academy. There used to be a 25k grant to contribute to costs, and the loss of this is a challenge for schools and trusts. Joining a trust does incur costs, particularly the legal fees.
Our board take the pragmatic position, that on joining Tenax, your financial position becomes ‘ours’ and thus who pays for what is somewhat of a red herring. As a result, Tenax covers the costs associated with joining the family of schools.
There are in essence two ways to fund central/shared services within a trust; a ‘top slice’ or ‘pooling’. There are merits in both and potential challenges. We run a ‘top slice’ model.
Every trust includes different things in that top slice, which is linked to their chosen operating model. For example, a trust could provide all IT support within a top slice, schools could pay ‘extra’ for trust IT support, or the trust may not have IT provision so each school must pay for its own managed service provider. In short, it is complex and very hard to do a meaningful like for like. There is also the added complication of ‘re-charges’ with some trusts; for example, a central service contract, where schools each pay a % of that contract.
From September 2025 our top slice will be circa 5%, which is well below the national average for a trust of our size. Tenax, like every trust is constantly evolving our operating models. The assurance here, is that the financial health of your school becomes mission critical the financial success of the trust. We must make services both effective and viable, for every school.
