The Governance structure of the Free School is dictated to us by the Department of Education.  There are Members who have the power to appoint Governors. The Secretary of State and the Seckford Foundation have the ability to nominate individuals or charities to become members. In addition there were four signatories to the governing documents that created the charity that are also members.  These are the Seckford Foundation, two Governors of the Seckford Foundation and a member of the original community group.
 
The members have the power to appoint Governors.  We are required by the department to have two parents, the head teacher and a local authority representative as Governors. There is not a maximum to the number of Governors but in practical terms this will be limited to about 15 to make Governor Meetings effective.
 
Parent Governors have to be a parent of a pupil at the school at the time they are elected.  An election is required if the number of applicants to become a parent Governor is greater than the number of vacancies.
 
If staff are appointed as Governors they must not exceed one third of the total number of Governors.