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Guidance

Church academies: model documents

Model documents to help church schools converting to academies, plus supporting documents.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Education
Published:
18 April 2013
Last updated:
8 October 2026
Show all updates

  1. Added information to the details section for Catholic and Church of England academy trusts, including links to further guidance and support from relevant religious authorities.

  2. Replaced 'Church of England academies model articles of association: minority version' and 'Church of England academies model articles of association: majority version' with 'Church of England academies: model articles of association'. 'Mixed multi-academy trusts' has been removed as it is now out of date.

  3. Added 'PFI academy principal agreement: schools with a religious character' and 'PFI academy school agreement: schools with a religious character'.

  4. Replaced the document 'Catholic academies model articles of association' with latest version.

  5. Replaced Church of England model articles of association with new versions.

  6. Updated clause 8 of 'Church of England academies: supplemental agreement' and 'Catholic academies: supplemental agreement'. Also updated clause 23F of 'Church of England academies: supplemental agreement'.

  7. Removed 'Church of England and Catholic single academy model supplemental agreement' and 'Church of England and Catholic multi-academy model supplemental agreement'. Added 'Church of England academies: supplemental agreement' and 'Catholic academies: supplemental agreement'.

  8. Removed suspension clauses from 'Catholic academy articles of association: model 3 (February 2015)'.

  9. Added 'Catholic academy articles of association: model 3' document.

  10. Updated single and multi supplemental agreements.

  11. Added 'Mixed multi-academy trusts' document to page.

  12. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Church of England academies: model articles of association

MS Word Document, 195 KB

Church of England academies: model lease

MS Word Document, 260 KB

Church of England academies: supplemental agreement

MS Word Document, 115 KB

Catholic academies model articles of association

MS Word Document, 84.2 KB

Catholic academies: supplemental agreement

MS Word Document, 97.1 KB

Model letter of consent from trustees/diocese to governing body on academy conversion

MS Word Document, 28 KB

PFI academy principal agreement: schools with a religious character

MS Word Document, 82.3 KB

PFI academy school agreement: schools with a religious character

MS Word Document, 96.7 KB

Details

The draft model articles of association, agreed with the Catholic Education Service and the National Society for the Church of England, are for church schools wishing to become an academy.

The model articles are broadly similar, but there are differences in the way the governance arrangements at membership and governing body level have been reflected.

Academy trusts with Catholic or Church of England academies should have regard to the guidance and model documents issued by their relevant religious authority. Further information, support and advice are available from the Catholic Education Service and the National Society for the Church of England.

‘Church of England academies: model articles of association’ should be used by:

  • academy trusts with Church of England academies that are in the process of being established
  • existing academy trusts updating their articles

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