HL Deb 21 July 1998 vol 592 c727

.—(1) A local education authority may resolve that any two or more community, voluntary aided, voluntary controlled and community special schools maintained by them shall be grouped for the purposes of this Chapter.

(2) Where any schools are grouped under this section, they shall—

  1. (a) be treated for the purposes of this Chapter as a single school; and
  2. (b) have a single governing body constituted under a single instrument of government.

(3) A group shall be treated for the purposes of this Chapter—

  1. (a) as a voluntary aided school, if it contains at least one voluntary aided school;
  2. (b) as a voluntary controlled school, if it contains at least one voluntary controlled school and paragraph (a) does not apply;
  3. (c) as a community special school, if it consists only of community special schools; and
  4. (d) as a community school, if none of paragraphs (a) to (c) applies.

(4) In this Chapter— group" means two or more schools grouped under this section; and grouped school" means a school which forms a part of a group.

(5) Any reference in any enactment to the governing body or governors of a school shall be construed, in relation to any grouped school, as a reference to the governing body or governors of the group.").

The Commons disagreed to this amendment for the following reason—

43A Because each of the schools concerned should have its own dedicated governing body to oversee standards at the school.