Join an Academy Community Council and use your experience, ideas, and connections to help strengthen education, create opportunities for pupils, and bring schools and communities closer together.
You do not need to be an education expert to make a difference
Education is strengthened when schools and communities understand one another and work together.
Every school has people around it with useful experience, different perspectives, valuable relationships, and a desire to help. You may be a parent or carer, work for a community or partner organisation, run a business, volunteer in the community, be a former pupil, or simply care deeply about education.
You do not need to work in education or have previous governance experience. What matters is that you are open-minded, committed, willing to listen, and interested in making a positive contribution to the whole school community.
What is an Academy Community Council?
Every Forward Education Trust school has an Academy Community Council, or ACC. It brings parents, carers, and community members together with the Headteacher and the wider Trust to help the school build stronger relationships, understand its community, and turn useful ideas into practical action.
ACCs are committees of the Trust Board, with a focused advisory and engagement role. Formal decision-making remains with the Trust Board and Executive Leaders. ACC members contribute through insight, connections, purposeful discussion, school visits, and agreed actions.
Each ACC creates a simple annual community impact plan, shaped by the school’s priorities and the opportunities identified by its members.
What do ACC members do?
Enhance the school experience
Help the school identify ways to enrich opportunities and add value to the experience of pupils, families, and staff.
Champion equality, diversity, inclusion, and belonging
Bring different perspectives and help the school reflect and serve the whole community.
Build strong community connections
Create links with people, employers, charities, services, groups, and organisations that could open opportunities or strengthen support.
Share valuable insight with Trust leaders
Help the Trust Board understand what is distinctive about the school, including its context, challenges, strengths, and opportunities.
Positively contribute to wellbeing
Support conversations and practical ideas that promote the wellbeing of pupils and staff.
Who are we looking for?
We are looking for people who:
- care about education and the opportunities available to children and young people;
- can consider the needs of the whole school community, rather than one personal interest;
- bring lived experience, useful skills, fresh ideas, or valuable connections;
- are positive, dependable, and willing to contribute;
- can listen to different perspectives and work constructively with others;
- want to create a positive legacy for current and future pupils.
Parents and carers are an important part of every ACC, but you do not need to have a child at the school to join. A genuine commitment to education and the community is a valuable connection in its own right.
What is the commitment?
ACC membership is designed to be focused, purposeful, and manageable.
Members are expected to:
- attend three formal meetings each year, normally one per term;
- visit the school once each term for an agreed purpose;
- engage with relevant school events, activities, or actions where practical;
- complete required induction and learning, including safeguarding, data protection, and cyber security;
- serve a four-year term following formal appointment;
- follow the Trust’s code of conduct, safeguarding expectations, and confidentiality requirements.
Meetings use streamlined information and an agreed actions log rather than unnecessary paperwork. Schools will consider the timing and format of meetings carefully, with face-to-face meetings encouraged wherever practical.
What support will I receive?
You will not be expected to arrive with specialist knowledge.
New members receive induction, required learning, and support from the school and Trust. Each ACC works closely with its Headteacher and has a linked Trustee who helps connect the council’s insight with the Trust Board.
The Chair of each ACC also works in partnership with the Headteacher and linked Trustee to shape meetings, support members, and keep agreed actions moving forward.
What an ACC is not
An ACC is not:
- a replacement for the school leadership team;
- a forum for individual complaints or personal cases;
- a group that manages the Headteacher or school staff;
- simply a fundraising committee or PTA;
- built around repeated audits, policy approvals, or unnecessary paperwork.
It is a practical way for people to champion education, strengthen relationships, and help useful ideas move forward.
Register your interest
You can register your interest at any time. Some schools may be recruiting immediately, while others will keep in touch with suitable people as future opportunities arise.
Choose a school below to learn more about its Academy Community Council, or complete the Trust expression-of-interest form and tell us where you would like to contribute.
Each Forward Education Trust school is different, and every Academy Community Council will reflect the needs, strengths, and community around that school.
Select a school to learn more about its priorities, meeting arrangements, and current opportunities.
Brays School
Chair: Jane Davenport
The Bridge School
Chair: Colin Turner
Hallmoor School
Chair: Kate Canty
High Point Academy
Chair: Carl Longmore
Leycroft Academy
Chair: Vikash Joshi
The Heights Academy
Chair: Everton Burke
Your experience could help shape what happens next
You do not need to work in education to make a difference to it. Register your interest and start a conversation about how you could contribute.