We hope you have enjoyed looking around the site, and have found the information you wanted.
We have done what we can to try and explain the vision behind Oasis Academy MediaCityUK, but we understand there may be further information you need or have not fully understood. If you have any further questions please contact us on 0161 736 2637 or e-mail info@oasismediacityuk.org
Q. Where will outdoor sports activities take place?
A. Oasis and Salford City Council are currently looking into suitable sites for grass playing fields close to the Academy. There will also be space for some multi-purpose courts on the site of the Academy
Q. In the section teaching and learning you state that all national curriculum core subjects will be offered. There are only 4 core subjects: English, maths, science and ICT. What guarantees can you give to parents and staff about the breadth of the curriculum?
A. The promise that all NC subjects will be fully covered is also a reassurance that none will be neglected. The long-term vision of the school will potentially include the following areas being offered, to ensure a broad curriculum for students. The list is not exclusive or exhaustive. It is not, however, proposed that formal learning zones are used while the Academy is at the current site. Neither the subjects nor the way they are laid out below relate to the transitional staff structure to be used in the Academy.
RSA Opening Minds is likely to be used to provide additional breadth in Years 7 & 8, and there will also be an Enrichment Programme as an element of the compulsory curriculum. From Year 9 students will have a wider than usual choice of GCSE, BTEC and Diploma courses, all supported and enhanced by the Academy's Media & ICT specialism.
Q. Which aspects of the Media are taught as part of the Academy's specialism in Media and ICT?
A. Aspects of the Media that are specifically taught include, but are not necessarily confined to; photography, use of digital media, animation, multimedia, media arts, media studies, film, radio, TV and journalism. In addition, the Media and ICT specialism will underpin the entire curriculum by providing a very effective and motivational vehicle for the delivery of all subjects and the communication and celebration of students’ learning and achievements.
Q. What provision is made for Gifted and Talented students and is this provision available to students in all areas of the curriculum, rather than merely those who have an aptitude for Media and/or ICT?
A. Students who are gifted and talented in any area of the curriculum will be well supported by personalised learning programmes, learning mentors, cross-age activity and external links. This is facilitated both by the Media & ICT specialism and the opportunities afforded by links with the world wide Oasis family of Academies and other schools.
Q. How committed is the Oasis Academy to a programme of individualised learning?
A. Students are developed as individual and independent learners through programmes that focus on learning to learn and that are underpinned by the extensive opportunities afforded by new technologies. However, the Academy is committed not just to individualised learning but, even more importantly, to personalised learning, through which they gain ownership of and increased engagement with their own personal learning programmes.
Q. Does Oasis Academy MediaCityUK have a programme of extra-curricular activities to enrich the curriculum?
A. There will be a wide range of extra curricular opportunities available not only to Academy students but also to members of the community of all ages, so as to exploit fully all the advantages of the Academy’s state of the art educational facilities.
Q. There was no mention of Maths in the Teaching and Learning? I presume Maths is being delivered? Will we be offering A-Level Maths?
A. All core elements of the national curriculum are being delivered by the Academy, including mathematics. It is the Academy’s intention to offer post-16 courses from 2009, including A Level mathematics.
Q. What is meant by the term Sport and Leisure in the faculty info? Will the school maintain the government recommendation of 2hrs PE for every student per week?
A. As part of Oasis’ desire for students to be physically prepared for life, as well as intellectually, emotionally and socially, the Academy will maintain the PE curriculum, including the recommendation for two hours of PE per student per week.
Q. What is the Oasis policy on sex education? Will all relationships and family units be presented equally within the sex education curriculum?
A. The Sex Education policy meets all National Curiculum and non statutory guidance requirements including the presentation of information on relationships and family units.
Q. Will there be a sixth form?
A. There will be a sixth form at the Academy. Plans are currently being developed for it and further information will be released as soon as possible.
Q. There is an ever demanding drive to prevent our school leavers from becoming NEET, thus entering a positive destination post 16. How does Oasis plan to reduce and prevent NEET? Also In light of the new statutory Information, Advice & Guidance standards, how will this be implemented with the Careers Education programme and how will careers education be delivered in Key Stage 3 & 4.
A. Oasis Academy MediaCityUK will develop sixth form provision shortly, which will support students in engaging with a range of educational opportunities post 16. Encouraging further study and the acquistion of relevant and personalised qualifications will help to address some of the issues related to NEET.
We will be looking to develop personalised careers education within the Academy's new curriculum in the light of the new advice and guidance standards.
Q. How does Oasis plan to fit a 1,100 pupil school onto such a small site?
A. The total area of more than 5 acres should suffice for all the indoor and outdoor facilities required by the Academy including play space, an all weather sports pitch, a landscaped area and car parking, but excluding playing fields.
The site is quite a reasonable size by inner city standards. A site appraisal is currently ongoing. It will provide authoritative and independent confirmation of whether the size of the site is within the specified guidelines.
Q. Can the facilities required for a Full Service Extended Academy be provided in a building of the size proposed?
A. The constraints of the site do not mean a smaller building. The academy will be built to the maximum floor area allowed by DCSF for the total number of students. Much of the Full Service Extended activity will take place outside normal school hours and the accommodation will be designed and configured with built in flexibility to allow this to happen.
Q. Will the building of the adjacent Salford Central Church, which recently became part of Oasis, be used as part of the Oasis Academy MediaCityUK?
A. There is an ongoing feasibility study into the proposed site for the Academy. The building currently occupied by Salford Central Church forms part of that study. If it is decided that it becomes part of the Academy then Salford Central Church would move to a new site nearby, however, no decisions have yet been made.
Q. The design plans for the Academy indicate that part of the site will be taken up by what is referred to as a '6 form building'. Is this building intended for the use of the Academy's proposed 6th form, and if so, why reserve a large part of such a restricted site for a minority of the Academy's student population?
A. The only plans that have been designed so far are indicative plans which were submitted as part of the Outline Planning application to confirm that the site could be used as a site for educational purposes. Those designs are solely indicative and may not bear any relation to the final designs. There is no sixth form building specified in the Design Brief. The only planned accommodation at present set aside for the exclusive use of sixth form students is an internet cafe (70m2).
Q. Where will indoor sports activities take place?
A. Indoor sports activities will take place in a full size (Sport England approved) Sports Hall (594m2). There will also be a separate dance studio (100m2).
Q. Is there a possibility of acquiring the adjacent empty land on the opposite side of King William Street, which is currently being used as a car park, in order to increase the limited size of the site?
A: The land next to the proposed site was considered as additional land for the school. It was decided, however, that the limitations of that land meant that using other land, slightly further away, would be more beneficial to the Academy.
Q. How can I register my child to go to the new Oasis Academy High School on Salford Quays?
A. All 1,100 places at the Academy would be free and available to the local community within an admissions policy which mirrors the Local Authority's admissions arrangements for community schools in the area. Students will be accepted irrespective of ability or faith
We anticipate that the intake for 2009 would be processed by Salford Local Authority in the normal cycle of admissions in the preceeding academic year.
Q. Will the Academy have a 'house' or 'community' system along the lines of those in other schools, inlcuding Oasis' own Academy in Wintringham?
A. Oasis favours breaking down the organisation of students into 'small school' type houses or communities grouped in home bases, but it is up to the Principal to decide the detail of how this is done in the case of each Academy. One of the first things the newly appointed Principal Designate will be asked to discuss with the educational advisers is how this will be done in Salford.
Q. I have heard that the Academy will have links with MediaCity:UK. What form will this take?
A. The Academy aspires to build links with mediacity:uk and especially with the BBC to provide a range of curriculum enrichment opportunities to students of all ages in line with the specialisms of Media & ICT. So far only very general high level discussions have taken place, but the kinds of links could include:
Q. Does the Academy have a student council, giving students a voice in the running of the school?
A. There was a Student Council at Hope High School, which will continue to operate in the new Academy. This group will have a say in Academy matters, both in the run up to the opening of the Academy in September 2008 over issues such as the new uniform, and in the future.
Q. What kind of community services does Oasis plan to provide at its Salford hub?
A. Oasis is committed to providing a Full Service Extended academy, allowing the community to use and benefit from the Academy as much as possible. Oasis is in discussion with local community organisations and Salford City Council about local needs and, therefore, the community services to be provided.
Q. Will Oasis recognise and negotiate with Trades' Unions both before and after the Academy opens?
A. Oasis puts a high premium on establishing and maintaining effective employee relations at all its Academies. It endorses ACAS' proposed approach of regular communication, consultation and negotiation with all staff and their recognised trade unions. Where trades unions are recognised in the schools which are converted to Academies, then these recognition agreements will become an integral part of the Terms and Conditions of staff in the Academies. We work closely with trades unions both at a national and local level.
Q: How will the Christian ethos of the Academy affect its daily life?
A: It will permeate every aspect of its life, in that the heartbeat of the school will be about inclusion, respect, open and healthy relationships, integrity, honesty, believing the best of people, wanting to bring hope and transformation and raising people’s aspirations, to name but a few.
Q: On your Oasis UK website there is an article about Salford Central Church and in it there is a reference to Oasis Academy MediaCityUK. When was this name decided and by whom?
A: Oasis Community Learning has been in discussions with the local council regarding the name for the Academy. It was felt that there will be huge benefits to the Academy – which has a specialism of Media and ICT - to be linked to the BBC’s new mediacity:uk in Salford Quays. The development will attract new media and creative industries, and will rival other new media cities emerging around the world. The opportunities for the Academy to be linked to such a development are huge, and will greatly benefit students. The Academy will therefore be named Oasis Academy MediaCityUK.
Academies are all-ability schools serving local communities and working in partnership with the DCSF, Local Authority, local businesses, other schools and other local stakeholders.
As of September 2009 there will be 11 Oasis Academies; two in NE Lincolnshire (Immingham and Wintringham), two in Southampton (Lord’s Hill and Mayfield), two in Bristol (Brightstowe and Bristol), two in Croydon (Coulsdon and Shirley Park), one in Salford (MediaCityUK) and two in Enfield (Hadley and Enfield). Further details can be found on the Our Academies page.
The DFE meets the capital and running costs for an Academy in full, as a part of an overall strategy to raise standards beyond the improvements already made by the predecessor school. Once up and running Academies receive equivalent funding to other secondary schools in the same area.
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