Commentary on Sections Governing bodies: constitution and dissolution Section 39: Discontinuance of federated school: governing body not to be dissolved
198.Section 39 amends paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 to EA 2002, which provides for the dissolution of the governing body of a maintained school on its discontinuance. Currently paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 dissolves a federated governing body on the occasion of one of the schools in the federation being discontinued. Section 38 prevents dissolution from happening in circumstances where two or more schools will remain in the federation after the school concerned has discontinued.
199.This will enable a school to close or convert to an Academy, without having to first undertake a statutory procedure to leave the federation in order to avoid dissolving the federated governing body.
200.A federated governing body is a single governing body for two or more maintained schools, as provided for in sections 24 and 25 of EA 2002.