What we are looking for in a Trustee
Essentially we are looking for individuals who care as much as we do about making a difference to the
young people of Nottingham to become part of our Stone Soup family. We are looking for trailblazers who
will support our innovative and creative Principal to push our academy forward through the impact that they
will have. Trustees who can open doors for the academy and get the message out there that education can
be different, that it can be exciting and that it can change the lives of both our young people and their
families for the better.

Stone Soup Academy Trustee Job Description
Academy trustees are volunteers. The Charity Commission defines trustees as the people responsible for governing a charity
and directing how it is managed and run.
The purpose of the board of trustees is to provide:
> Strategic leadership of the academy trust
• Your role is to help set and embed your trust’s vision and strategy, and use these to monitor how the trust and its schools are
progressing towards your strategic goals
> Accountability and assurance, meaning the board has robust oversight of the operations and performance of the trust, including
education, pupil welfare and finance
• You’ll monitor these areas and hold trust leaders to account for performance and compliance in them
> Engagement
• This means your board has strategic oversight of relationships with the trust’s stakeholders:parents, pupils, staff, local
communities
• You’ll make sure your schools and your trust are communicating with and involving these groups, so that decision-making is
supported by meaningful engagement

Responsibilities
> Develop the trust’s vision and strategy
> Establish a culture of high educational standards, which promotes staff and pupil wellbeing
> Set the trust’s strategic aims and objectives
> Make sure all pupils have access to a broad and balanced curriculum
> Monitor provision for pupils with SEND
> Monitor educational performance of the trust’s academies, using a range of data sources
> Ensure stakeholders (parents, pupils, staff and the local community) are informed and consulted as appropriate
> Approve the budget for the academy trust and, where relevant, for academies within the trust
> Monitor and evaluate the trust’s financial performance
> Approve and review trust policies, and hold staff to account for their implementation

>Ensure the trust is compliant with legal requirements, including that all statutory policies and documents are in place

> Make sure the trust complies with laws that apply to charities and companies, and with its funding agreement
> Carry out the appointment and performance management of the principal/chief executive
> Be a source of challenge and support to the principal/chief executive
> Monitor and evaluate the trust’s staffing structure(s)
> Monitor health and safety in the academy/across the trust
> In a multi-academy trust, work with those involved in local academy governance, supporting and holding them to account

Skills and experience
Essential:
> Critical listening and ability to ask effective questions
> Strategic thinking
> Excellent communication
> Problem-solving and analysis

Desirable:
> Understanding of data
> Finance and/or accounting knowledge
> HR experience
> Knowledge of education
> Leadership and management skills
> Risk management skills
> Legal expertise, particularly knowledge of charity law
> Marketing and communications skills
If you’re using this role description as part of your recruitment, adapt the ‘Desirable’ list above to focus on the skills your board needs.

Benefits to you
New skills you’ll gain:
> Strategic planning
> Experience on a board
> Holding senior leaders to account and ability to provide challenge
> Finance, and maintaining oversight of potentially multi-million pound budgets
> Analysing data
> Human resources and performance management
> Project management
> Marketing
> Communication and teamwork
> Decision making
> Problem solving

Time commitment
The time commitment for the trustee role will vary. However, all trustees must attend at least 3 meetings of the full board per year. The term
of office is 4 years.
Usually trustees sit on a committee focused on an area they have knowledge of, or are particularly interested in – for example, the finance
committee. Committees generally meet up to 3 times a year.

Preparation for meetings includes reading papers and preparing questions for senior leaders.
You will also be expected to undertake any training required to enable you to discharge your role effectively.
Trustees are also expected to visit the academy at least 3 times per year.

Additional information
Academies are both charities and companies limited by guarantee. Academy trustees are therefore both charity trustees and company
directors, and must comply with company and charity law.
If you have any questions about this, or would like to know more about becoming an academy trustee, you can get in touch with the chair
of trustees: Tina Byrom to arrange an informal chat.
Email:Tbyrom@stonesoupacademy.org.uk

A bit about us…
Located in the heart of inner-city Nottingham, Stone Soup Academy stands as an outstanding alternative
provision. With nearly 100 students in our care, each of them has faced exclusion from mainstream
education for a diverse array of reasons. Our students arrive at our doors with their confidence bruised,
feeling rejected, lacking self-esteem, and harbouring mistrust for the adults there to help them. Our mission
is clear. At Stone Soup, we are resolute in our commitment to rewriting this negative narrative, serving as a
beacon of support to help our learners rediscover their self-belief and become part of our family.

Our Purpose…
Our purpose extends beyond the realm of education. We firmly believe that the support we offer our
students not only equips them with qualifications (97% achieved 7+ qualifications including GCSE English
and Maths) but also imparts crucial life skills and the self-belief necessary to get back on track. Our ultimate
aim is to support our students to create unimagined futures.
All of our learners, when they start with us, are allocated a Personal Coach. The personal coach starts their
day by calling each of their key students to ensure they are up and on their way to school. These morning
calls allow us to not only ensure attendance, but allow us to be aware of and deal with any issues before
the students walk through the door. Personal Coaches track the attendance, punctuality and behaviour
scores of all their key students, celebrate their students’ achievements, offering praise where deserved, and
swiftly implementing interventions when necessary. These interventions span from personal discussions to
parent meetings, with a continuous cycle of goal setting in between to closely track and support each
student’s development.

Our Personal Coaches work in close collaboration with our teaching staff to gain insights into their students’
classroom engagement, identifying strengths, areas that require assistance, and the most effective
strategies to provide support. Since Personal Coaches often share the strongest connections with their
students, they serve as a valuable conduit for information sharing among all staff members, ensuring a
cohesive approach to student engagement and facilitating their learning journey. As a result, our entire
team works together to create a bespoke learning environment tailored to each student’s unique needs.
Our Personal Coaches do not just build strong relationships with their students but also extend their
outreach to parents, caregivers, and the referring schools. We maintain weekly communication with
students’ homes, providing updates that allow us to collaborate in the best interests of the child. We
recognize the vital role parents play in ensuring a positive educational experience, and we offer weekly
‘Stone Soup hugs,’ a self-care package delivered by mail to any parents who may benefit from a little
‘pick-me-up’.

We understand that our learners may not have always had the best educational experiences, and often, the
same holds true for their parents and caregivers. This is one of the driving reasons behind our ‘Celebration
Evening,’ our unique take on the traditional parents evening. As our Personal Coaches maintain weekly
contact with students’ homes, they are always up to date with knowledge about their child. During
Celebration Evenings, we provide parents and caregivers with an evening dedicated to celebrating the
positive aspects of their child’s school experience. After perhaps having had previous negative encounters,
it is a heartwarming sight to witness parents leaving with their arms around their smiling child and a tear of
joy in their eyes.

Every morning at 9 am, our students are warmly welcomed at the school’s entrance by our Senior
Leadership Team, with smiles and handshakes to ensure a positive start to their day. From the moment
they step through the black door, the support they receive within the school building is truly exceptional.

Rewards…
We employ a behaviour points system known as ‘Class Dojo,’ but at Stone Soup, we’ve added an exciting
twist: points translate to prizes. Students who arrive on time, accumulate positive points in a day which can
equate to £5 in their ‘Stone Soup bank’. If they leave at the end of Year 11 with 90% attendance, 90%
punctuality, an average behaviour score above 7, and 95% positive Class Dojo points, they will leave with
the sum they’ve accumulated during their time with us. This serves as a valuable lesson, setting them up for
success in the world of work and emphasising the importance of attendance, punctuality, and proper
conduct. Many students use these funds to support their next steps in employment or college, and we’ve
even witnessed some saving it for driving lessons.

Cultural Capital…
At Stone Soup, we are dedicated to providing our students with a range of enriching opportunities that
extend beyond their regular lessons. One day per week, our students have the opportunity to attend a
college course, affording them valuable exposure to a college environment. Additionally, we facilitate work
experiences and organise trips to local universities, helping them envision the opportunities that lie beyond
our academy’s walls. We have one student who not long ago graduated with a first class honours degree
and have students who are currently studying at University now. We firmly believe that this success is a
testament to the support and guidance they received at Stone Soup, which broadened their horizons and
reminded them that they can achieve anything with determination.
At Stone Soup, we embrace a culture of offering students unique and memorable experiences that they
might not otherwise encounter. We’ve organised residential programs, theatre trips to London, theme park
visits, reward meals out, and, more recently, this year we had the pleasure of sponsoring an
all-expenses-paid trip to Barcelona for 8 of our students, in 2023 it was New York!
While these grand experiences are undeniably significant, we also recognise the importance of the little
things. When students are concerned about walking through town, we ensure their safety by accompanying
them to the bus stop or arranging taxis for those with safeguarding needs. We conduct home visits for
students who are facing attendance challenges, send birthday cards to every student on their special day,
and foster positive relationships through events such as staff versus students’ football matches. We post
home Stone Soup handshakes, a little box of treats to students who have stood out during the week and
many receive well done postcards home. We conclude each week by recording video messages from staff,
acknowledging and thanking those students who have really stood out that week. These videos are edited
and shared with everyone during our Monday form gatherings and it is great to see how much they
appreciate this every week.

As a school, we celebrate cultural diversity and meaningful occasions such as the 4th of July and Black
History Month. We also organise themed days, like our recent French Day, where students have the
opportunity to savour cuisines from around the world. Each year, we host an Enterprise Week, providing
students with an immersive experience in the business world and allowing them to explore potential career
paths. Even during the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the school had to close its
doors, we recognised that our students missed us as much as we missed them. So, we conducted home
visits and maintained a meaningful connection with them from a distance, even singing happy birthday to
them from outside their homes, ensuring they felt the much-needed support and camaraderie that they all
missed so much.

Support & Care…
At Stone Soup, we understand that some of our students require extraordinary support and care. In certain
instances, our commitment goes above and beyond the ordinary. One poignant example involves a student
who was entangled in a court process, with a mother struggling to support him. A member of our staff
attended every solicitor and court meeting, serving as his appropriate adult, and stood by him when he
received a sentence of six months in a young offenders’ prison. This same staff member was there on the
morning of his release, taking him out for a hot chocolate before bringing him back to school. This student
not only completed his education with us but also left with a range of qualifications and secured a place at
college. Sadly there are many occasions outside of a normal school day that we have been there
supporting our young people and their families during times of grief, social challenges and mental health
crisis.

There have been occasions when a student’s situation has required exceptional intervention, such as one
of our staff members collecting a student from the police cells when their family was unable to do so. In
another instance, a student struggled to come to school due to self-consciousness about their hair, as their
mother couldn’t afford a haircut. We worked closely with the student and their mother to arrange and
provide a haircut, ensuring they felt comfortable and ready to attend school.
As our students near the end of Year 11, they engage in meaningful discussions with our Head of Careers
to determine their next steps and apply for opportunities in the workplace, college, or apprenticeships. This
support extends beyond the office, as our staff often accompany students to college interviews, offering
support and reassurance throughout the process. This year 97% of our students went onto education, work
and training.

Suits day…
At the end of year 11, to celebrate the students’ achievements and help prepare them for the future, we
host a ‘Suits Day’ On this day we take our students shopping to purchase suits/formal wear, which they get
to keep for any interviews or events they may attend.
To commemorate their journey with us, we hire out a local venue. Students and their parents watch a
heartfelt video montage on the big screen, featuring photos and videos from the students’ time with us and
emotional tributes from all the staff who have had the privilege of working with them. We give each student
a silver salver for completing their Stone Soup journey with us. Awards are exchanged, celebrating both the
students’ accomplishments and their contributions to our school community. To cherish their time at Stone
Soup, we create a personalised yearbook for each student, with a page dedicated to each student where
staff have left personal messages for each and every one.
At Stone Soup, the working day is not confined to the traditional 9-to-3 schedule, Monday to Friday. We
keep in contact over the holidays and call our most vulnerable students to check that they are okay.
Safeguarding is always our priority.

Our commitment to our students transcends time and place. We take pride in cheering on our students,
even in our personal time. When our students achieve awards, partake in performances or enter
competitions, our staff step up to support them during evenings and weekends. Most recently, two of our
staff members travelled to London on a weekend to support a student who had earned a place in the top
ten young songwriters in the UK competition.

Pastoral Sixth Form…
Our dedication to our students doesn’t end when they leave us. We maintain an open door policy for every
student who has ever attended Stone Soup. Our pastoral sixth form invites any former student, regardless
of when they attended, to return for ongoing support. Whether they need assistance with interview
techniques, job applications, UCAS applications, CVs, or simply someone to talk to, our staff are here to
lend an ear to listen or a shoulder to lean on.
Annually, we provide our alumni students with the opportunity to apply for a £500 grant to assist them in
their journey towards work or college. We have supported students with various resources, including bus
passes to help them get to college or work, work uniforms, tools, and CSCS cards. The support we offer
begins the moment a student walks through our door and continues long after they’ve left our academy. We
never turn away a former student who needs our help.
.
At Stone Soup, we firmly believe that the unwavering support we extend to our students plays a pivotal role
in realising our vision of ‘creating unimagined futures’ for each and every one of our Stone Soup family.