We usually recommend that a school holds at least two full governing body meetings during the process. The first meeting is held to note the actions required to achieve the conversion and agree on the establishment of a working group who will usually take a lead in approving the draft conversion documentation which will be sent to the DfE and/or local authority for approval. This will normally be held once the academy order has been received. The second meeting will be held approximately a month before the proposed conversion date. At this meeting, the governors will make the final decision as to whether it is in the interests of the school to convert to academy status. A group of schools converting to multi academy status may also want to hold ‘shadow board’ meetings prior to the incorporation of the academy trust. The shadow board is made up of representatives from each school who have delegated powers from their governing bodies to make decisions on how the academy trust should be run once it is established.