Policies

Consultation on admission arrangements for 2027/28 (2026 determination year)

The consultation period will run from 31 October 2025 until 14 December 2025; during this time, members of our community are invited to express their views and any concerns about the proposed changes to the admission arrangements.

In accordance with the DfE’s 2021 statutory ‘School Admissions Code’ guidance, as an admissions authority we must consult on our admission arrangements at least once every seven years, and when changes are made, other than rolling forward dates and deadlines for the admissions process.  You can see the proposed admissions policy online at www.stbenets.org including a list of the proposed changes.

In accordance with the DfE’s 2021 statutory ‘School Admissions Code’ guidance, as an academy we must also consult if we wish to reduce the PAN (Planned or Published Admission Number) of an academy. The PAN is the maximum admission number for the academy. A list of proposed PAN reductions in St Benet’s MAT academies is included with this letter and can be viewed online at www.stbenets.org .

In accordance with statutory DfE guidance, the consultation will run for six weeks and, as an interested party at a St Benet’s MAT academy, we are keen to hear your views on the proposed changes; therefore, we invite you to participate in the consultation if you have any concerns regarding the matter.

All responses to the consultation should be made in writing and submitted before midnight on 14 December 2025 to Hannah Monk, Head of Governance on hannah.monk@donesc.org

Please note that written responses should outline your personal details, including your name, address and relationship to the school.

At the end of the consultation period, the Trust will consider the responses. The outcome of the consultation will be published on the Trust website as soon as possible following a decision being reached by the Trust. Hard copies will be made available on request to all respondents of the consultation.

Trust Policies 

The procedure for Trust policies is that the Board’s Committees review and approve the draft policies at their meetings each term in line with an annual schedule of policy review. Most policies are reviewed every three years. As soon as the Trustees have approved a policy it should be applied in all of the Trust’s schools and therefore will be communicated to the schools at the earliest opportunity so that it can be applied if the need arises.

The Governance office will advise when new policies are approved and uploaded to the website and an editable version of the policy will be circulated to academy offices and Headteachers for use. The academy should personalise the red text of the core policy for their academy setting. The Local Governance Committee (LGC) will then receive and note the policy at an LGC meeting.  No other changes should be made to Trust policies. A PDF version of the policy should then be uploaded to the Academy’s website when applicable (see below).

Not all policies need to be displayed on Academy websites, they just need to be available for staff to use and refer to and to provide to parents if requested. However there are some that are required to be included on Academy websites by the DfE and some that are required by the Trust. Altogether the policies that need to be included on the Academy websites are:

1. Safeguarding Policy (Trust)
2. Data Protection Policy and privacy notices for parents (Trust)
3. Health and Safety Policy (Trust)
4. ICT and Internet Acceptable Use Policy (Trust)
5. Administration of Medicines Policy (Trust)
6. Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions Policy (Trust)
7. Behaviour Policy (Academy)
8. Attendance Policy (Academy)
9. Careers Information & Guidance (Academy (Secondary Academies only))
10. Charging and Remissions Policy (Trust)
11. Complaints policy/procedure (Trust)
12. Equality and Diversity Statutory Duties and Objectives (Trust)
13. Speak Up Policy (Trust) – fulfils requirement to have clear whistleblowing procedures in place
14. Remote Learning Policy (Academy)
15. Uniform Policy (Academy)
16. Relationships, Sex and Health Education Policy (Trust)

It is left to the discretion of the Headteacher whether other policies are displayed on the Academy website.

If staff or Governors have any comments or suggestions for improvement, then please feed these through to governance@donesc.org so that they can be considered by the Trust Board. This will usually be when the policy undergoes the next formal review but may be sooner in appropriate circumstances.

Gender Pay Gap Reports:

Gender Pay Gap report March 2025

Requirement to Publish Equality & Diversity Information Annually:

St Benet’s Equality Objectives 2024-2028

Equality Objectives Review (Published June 2024)

As a Trust, we will publish an annual update on the website, starting in Spring 2022 (when pupil’s 2021 outcomes are confirmed and the Trust’s returns to the annual School Workforce Census have been made).

This update will include:

• Pupil information: Trust-level data about the composition of our pupil population and their outcomes, in relation to gender, Special Educational Needs (SEN) and disability, race/ethnicity and those with English as an Additional Language (EAL), Children who are/have been Looked After (CLA) and pupils who are eligible for Free School Meals (FSM), or who more broadly qualify for the Pupil Premium. We will include national averages wherever possible as comparators. Other protected characteristics are either not relevant to primary pupils or data is only available at school level where publishing that data would risk compromising individual’s personal information.
• Workforce information: Trust-level information about the composition of our workforce in relation to gender, age, disability and race/ethnicity.

N.B.  Currently, we are not able to publish information in relation to other protected characteristics as we do not have reliable data at Trust level and publishing information at school level would risk compromising individual’s personal information. We will also publish information on gender and pay.

Trade Union Facility Time:

TU Facility time 2024-25 – St Benet’s MAT:

TU Facility time April 24 – Mar 25 – St Benet’s

St Benet’s MAT contact details:

Registered and postal address: Orchard House, Hall Lane, East Tuddenham, Norfolk NR20 3LR
Main office tel: 01603 550147

There are a number of policies which include the Trust’s contact details, these will be updated as the policies are reviewed in line with the review cycle. Please use the contact details noted above where needed.