Visit to Oasis MediaCityUK in Manchester

In May of this year I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the new Oasis academy in Salford.

The academy opened in September 2008 replacing Hope High School. The academy is still on the site of Hope High, but will soon be moving to brand new facilities in Salford Quays, and will become part of Media City UK, an exciting new development which incorporates the new BBC site.

Hope High School was about to be placed in special measures by Ofsted when Oasis Community Learning took it over. They developed a plan to improve the school which was approved by Ofsted, and special measures were avoided.

I was invited to meet the Principal, Patrick Ottley-O’Connor at lunchtime and he showed me around the school and introduced me to other teaching staff. Patrick was recruited by Oasis to be the head for MediaCityUK, having previously worked with another school that was in difficulties and having successfully turned it round.

The school has less than 500 students, and is in an area with two too many secondary schools. Because of the improvements Oasis have made in the school, they have been told the school will not be considered for closure. The school has gone from no one from the local community using the site after school hours, to over 1000 people a week using it, and is becoming a hub for the local community. A nearby primary school is also about to become an Oasis academy, the local Connexions service now runs from the school site, and the local NHS also make use of the facilities. It is easy to see how this mirrors the current Kings site. The school works hard to remove barriers to learning for those pupils with troubled or challenging home lives, aiming to provide a safe and stable environment for them, as well as working with the local social services department where necessary.

The school has helped to raise expectations in the local community, and there is a general feeling among the students that they can and will achieve. Local football teams and businesses have all visited the school to provide training, and the local university is now interested in becoming involved with
the academy. There is a real sense that the academy is always looking for opportunities to raise the standing of the school in the local community, and has the freedom to pursue these opportunities.

Patrick told me that in year seven rather than following the traditional curriculum, they concentrate on teaching the students how to learn. This covers all the subject areas but not as separate subjects. They have found this approach lays a solid foundation for future years in the school, and has been borne out by the improvement in student results.

The academy recently entered the ‘Oasis challenge for excellence and improvement’ competing against other Oasis academies with nominations in every category. They came away with the most awards of any academy in the group, and some VERY proud students and teachers!

I also met the deputy head and one of the IT teachers. They both agreed that becoming part of Oasis had enabled them to feel more involved in the decision making for the students learning. There is less top down instruction, and staff feel able to make suggestions and for them to be supported in implementing them. They both agreed that the transfer from local authority to Oasis was smooth and they had had no concerns about it. They were also keen to point out that Oasis only use 4-5% of the school budget to provide central services such as HR and payroll, as opposed to the local authority which top slices 9-10% for the same services. For a school the size of Kings this would mean £150,000 extra money available for the school!

My overall impression of the school was of a dynamic, forward thinking school that really cared about its students and the local community. It was really exciting to see how the school actively interacts with the community, and makes full use of the freedom to decide what is best for it rather than being shackled by local authority control.

Steve Lapthorn Vice Chair CAM