Education Act 1944

15 Classification of voluntary schools as controlled schools, aided schools, or special agreement schools.

(1) Voluntary schools shall be of three categories, that is to say, controlled schools, aided schools, and special agreement schools, and in schools of those several categories the management of the school, the secular instruction and religious education, and the appointment and dismissal of teachers, shall be regulated in accordance with the provisions hereinafter contained relating to those matters in controlled schools aided schools and special agreement schools respectively.

(2) Upon application being duly made to him with respect to any voluntary school, the Minister may by order direct that the school shall be a controlled school an aided school or a special agreement school, and where he is satisfied that the managers or governors of the school will be able and willing, with the assistance of the maintenance contribution payable by the Minister under this Act, to defray the expenses which would fall to be borne by them under paragraph (a) of the next following subsection, the order shall direct that the school shall be an aided school, or, in the case of a school with respect to which a special agreement has been made under the Third Schedule to this Act, a special agreement school :

Provided that, subject to the provisions of this section, any application for an order directing that a school shall be an aided school or a special agreement school must be made, in the case of a school which became a voluntary school by virtue of subsection (3) of section nine of this Act not later than six months after the date on which the managers or governors of the school received notice of the approval of the development plan for the area, and in any other case not later than the submission to the Minister of the proposals that the school should be maintained by the local education authority as a voluntary school; and, subject to the transitional provisions of this Act as to the management and maintenance of voluntary schools, a voluntary school with respect to which no order is in force under this section directing that it shall be an aided school or a special agreement school shall be a controlled school.

(3) The managers or governors of a controlled school shall not be responsible for any of the expenses of maintaining the school, but the following provisions shall have effect with respect to the maintenance of aided schools and special agreement schools:

(a) the following expenses shall be payable by the managers or governors of the school, that is to say, the expenses of discharging any liability incurred by them or on their behalf or by or on behalf of any former managers or governors of the school or any trustees thereof for the purposes of establishing or carrying on the school, any expenses incurred in effecting such alterations to the school buildings as may be required by the local education authority for the purpose of securing that the school premises should conform to the prescribed standards, and any expenses incurred in effecting repairs to the school premises not being repairs which are excluded from their responsibility by the following paragraph:

(b) the managers or governors of the school shall not be responsible for repairs to the school playground or playing fields or to the interior of any buildings forming part of the school premises or for repairs necessary in consequence of the use of the premises, in pursuance of any direction or requirement of the authority, for purposes other than those of the school.

(4) If at any time the managers or governors of an aided school or a special agreement school are unable or unwilling to carry out their obligations under paragraph (a) of the last foregoing subsection, it shall be their duty to apply to the Minister for an order revoking the order by virtue of which the school is an aided school or a special agreement school, and upon such an application being made to him the Minister shall revoke the order.

(5) If at any time the Minister is satisfied that the grant made in respect of a special agreement school in pursuance of the special agreement made with respect to the school under this Act has been repaid to the local education authority by which the school is maintained, the Minister shall, upon application being made to him for that purpose by the managers or governors of the school, by order revoke the order by virtue of which the school is a special agreement school and, if satisfied that the managers or governors of the school will be able and willing, with the assistance of the maintenance contribution payable by the Minister under this Act, to defray the expenses which would fall to be borne by them under paragraph (a) of subsection (3) of this section, shall by order direct that the school shall be an aided school.

(6) In this section the expression " school buildings ", in relation to any school, does not include any buildings required only for affording facilities for enabling the local education authority to carry out their functions with respect to medical inspection or treatment or for affording faculties for providing milk, meals or other refreshment for pupils in attendance at the school.