WORKING IN ORMISTON ACADEMIES – AN NUT GUIDE (SEPTEMBER 2011)

This guidance document gives a brief overview of employment in Ormiston Academies Trust operated Academies. It sets out information about:

  • Ormiston and its Academy programme
  • The national trade union recognition agreement
  • Pay and conditions of service
  • Employment policies and procedures

The Ormiston Academies Trust operates common pay and conditions for employees and central negotiating machinery, within which the Union negotiates alongside the other recognised teaching and support staff unions. Arrangements have been established within the NUT for consultation and communication with NUT divisions, Academy representatives and members.

Detailed information about pay and conditions of service in Academies can be found in the NUT document Teachers’ Pay and Conditions in Academies: Guidance for NUT Members at

ABOUT ORMISTON

The Ormiston Trust is a registered charity that was established in 1969. It became an Academy sponsor in 2006. The Ormiston Education Trust was founded in 2006 to support the Ormiston Trust Academies strategy. As well as sponsoring Academies it also provides school improvement services, HR and ICT facilities.

Ormiston’s website is

ORMISTON ACADEMIES TRUST

At the time of writing Ormiston has 17 open Academies and has plans to open a further one. They are:

  • Sandwell
  • GeorgeSalterCollegiateAcademy (open Sept 2007)
  • ShirelandCollegiateAcademy (open Sept 2007)
  • OrmistonSandwellCommunityAcademy (open Sept 2009)
  • Thurrock
  • GatewayAcademy (open Sept 2006)
  • OrmistonParkAcademy (open Sept 2009)
  • Walsall - ShelfieldCommunityAcademy (open Jan 2009)
  • Peterborough - OrmistonBushfieldsAcademy (open Sept 2009)
  • Halton - OrmistonBolingbrokeAcademy (open Sept 2010)
  • Norfolk
  • OrmistonVictoryAcademy (openSept 2010)
  • OrmistonVentureAcademy (open Sept 2010)
  • Stoke on Trent
  • Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews (open Sept 2010)
  • OrmistonHorizonAcademy (open Sept 2011)
  • Birmingham - BirminghamOrmistonAcademy (open Sept 2011)
  • Derbyshire
  • OrmistonEnterpriseAcademy (open Sept 2011)
  • OrmistonIlkestonAcademy (open Aug 2011)
  • Essex – OrmistonRiversAcademy (open Sept 2011)
  • NE Lincolnshire – OrmistonMaritimeAcademy (open Aug 2011)
  • Nottinghamshire – The DukeriesCollege (due to open Sept 2012)

NATIONAL RECOGNITION AGREEMENT

A national recognition agreement in respect of Ormiston Academies Trust will shortly be agreed and will take effect from September 2011. The agreement will be signed by Ormiston Academies Trust, the teacher unions - ATL, NASUWT and the NUT - and support staff unions, the GMB, Unison and Unite.

The national agreement is based very largely on the TUC model.The agreement provides for national determination of arrangements for pay, conditions of service and working time across Ormiston Academies. It also provides for time off with pay and facilities time for trade union representatives.

The agreement’s provisions for facilities for trade union representatives and membersincludes the entitlement to reasonable time off with pay for representatives, normally during normal Academy operating hours and other facilities such as accommodationfor meetings with members, reasonable free use of telephone, email and photocopier facilities, storage space, notice boards and space on the Academy intranet.

The recognition agreement may be found in the pay and conditions>academies section at

PAY AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

In General

All Academies are able to set their own pay, conditions and working time arrangements for newly appointed teachers joining the Academy. In some Academies, pay and conditions arrangements for such teachers are similar or identical to those for teachers in local authority maintained state schools. In others, teachers’ pay and conditions can be very different.

Teachers transferred from predecessor schoolsreplaced by an Academy are covered by the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE). The TUPE regulations provide that, where an Academy replaces an existing school(s), teachers’ previous pay and conditions entitlements transfer. These include statutory provisions on pay, professional duties and working time and national and local agreements on teachers’ conditions of service, redundancy payments and recognition of the NUT as a trade union. Where the Academy is a new institution, however, all teachers are in the first category of newly appointed teacher and no teachers are protected by TUPE.

Ormiston Trust Academies

Ormiston has agreed with the teacher unions that it will apply STPCD and Burgundy Book arrangements for all its teachers – including newly appointed teachers - across its network of Academies.

In line with its agreement to apply the STPCD to its teachers, however, teachers’ pay - for those on Ormiston contracts and those who remain on TUPE arrangements – will not have increased in September 2011 due to the Coalition Government’s two-year public sector pay freeze for school teachers and others for the years 2011 and 2012.

EMPLOYMENT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT) is the employer of staff in all Ormiston Academies except three which either predate the establishment of OAT or which are jointly sponsored. These are Gateway, Shelfield and Bolingbroke, where the Academy trust is/will be the employer. Again, however, the same agreement and model contract should apply, although they will need to be agreed formally with each Academy Trust.

When the national recognition has been signed and ratified by the trade unions and Ormiston, the unions will seek to enter into discussions with Ormiston on a range of employment policies and procedures. It seems likely that Ormiston will want to have its own employment procedures in due course.

The trade unions are also looking at an Ormiston model employment contract for teachers with a view to ensuring that it reflects the intention to apply national pay and conditions of service for teachers who work in Ormiston Academies. It is our intention that that should be a single uniform model contract used in all Ormiston Academies and not subject to local amendment.

NUT SSEE Dept.

September 2011

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