The Academy is a charitable company limited by guarantee and an exempt charity. The charitable company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association are the primary Trustee documents of the Academy Trust. The Trustees of The Knights Templar School are also directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law. The charitable company operates as The Knights Templar School.

Details of the Trustees who served during the year, and to the date these accounts are approved are included in the Reference and administrative details on page 1.  

Each member of the charitable company undertakes to contribute to the assets of the charitable company in the event of it being wound up while they are a member, or within one year after they cease to be a member, such amount as may be required, not exceeding £10, for the debts and liabilities contracted before they ceased to be a member.

Trustees benefit from indemnity insurance to cover the liability of the Trustees which by virtue of any rule of law would otherwise attach to them in respect of any negligence, default or breach of trust or breach of duty of which they may be guilty in relation to the Academy. Details are provided in note 12 to the financial statements.

Trustees are appointed in accordance with Article 50 of the Academy's Articles of Association. The Trustee Board of the Academy at the time of its foundation on 1^st April 2011 was the same Trustee Board of the former Knights Templar School, a Hertfordshire County Council secondary school.

The Trustee Board includes the Headteacher. The Trustees are appointed by the Trustee Board following invitation, where the school deems that person to have skills and experience that would be helpful to the school. Trustees hold an initial four-year term of office. Parent Trustees are elected by the school's parents and also serve four-year terms of office.

The Trustee Board has a total capacity of five Members and eleven Trustees. New Trustees undergo an induction training programme offered by Hertfordshire County Council. All Trustees are offered periodic training courses dependent on their requirements and areas of specialisation within the various sub-committees.

The school's day-to-day management is overseen by the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) made up of the Headteacher, two Deputy Headteachers, six Assistant Headteachers and the School Business Manager. The SLT meets weekly during term-time to discuss and make decisions on current affairs of the school. These invariably involve matters relating to teaching and learning, staffing issues, pastoral care, behaviour, community, finance, premises management and health & safety.

The school has four Trustee sub-committees which meet once every term: Standards & Curriculum, Students, Audit & Risk and Finance & Strategy. Each committee has its own separate terms of reference and looks at main issues and areas of policy within its own remit.

The chairs of each of the four sub-committees plus the Chair of Trustees, Vice Chair, Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher and School Business Manager form the Finance & Strategy Committee. This is the main financial decision-making committee and is the approving authority for all transactions and contracts in excess of £20,000. The committee meets once every term after each of the sub-committees have met and before the full Trustee Board committee meetings, which take place towards the end of each term.

The Trustee Board is the ultimate decision-making authority of the Academy, focusing on strategic matters, issues of policy and overall implementation of the School Improvement Plan.

The School Business Manager holds the role of Finance Director of the academy and the Headteacher is the Accounting Officer.