Christian Charity answers Government calls for new Academies

Oasis, a Christian agency has been given approval to sponsor a City Academy after the charity put forward its plans to the Government.

Last week the Government announced that 200 new academies would be developed over the next 5 years in targeted areas where schools are in poor conditions. For each academy, an independent organisation will donate £2m and the government will put in £200m to build it. The school would then be run by the donor outside local authority control, but the school would remain within national regulations.

In response to this, today the Christian charity - Oasis Trust announced that it aims to establish one of the new academy schools, and will begin to raise the £2m required by running the London Marathon.

The Academy will aim to provide a wider choice to parents in the local community by adopting an inclusive admissions policy, and accepting students regardless of their faith or academic ability. As such it goes against many traditional church schools which give preference to children of parents who attend the church linked to the school, and have been criticised as "unchristian" in their approach.

The founding director of Oasis, Rev Steve Chalke said that he plans to open the school in north London in September 2007, and as one of only a small number of faith-based City Academies, the Oasis City Academy will specialise in providing young people with academic teaching and vocational training in the field of business and enterprise.

Mr Chalke, however, stated that the school will not teach the creationist view of the world, and dismissed it as "rubbish".

Creationism has been taught alongside scientific explanations of how the world came into being at other Christian-sponsored organisations, but Chalke said: "No. We will develop an open and honest curriculum and we will not impose our views on anyone. My personal belief is that... those who wish to read into Genesis chapter one that God made the world in six days... are not being honest and scholarly. It won't be taught in the school because I think it's rubbish. It's a bizarre thing to claim the Bible suggests that. Genesis is saying that behind creation is a good God."

Oasis already operates dozens of education, health and social welfare projects in England and around the world, and Chalke said that the vision for the academy is one that provides not only teaching for 11 to 18-year-olds in an area with a shortage of school places, but health and social care too.

The trust, which generally works from donations, released a statement saying that it can use some of its own funds to meet the £2m investment. "I'm going to run the marathon next year," said Mr Chalke. "The world record for fundraising from a marathon run is £1m for a single runner. I'm going to break the record."

He continued by saying that the organisation "wasn't interested" in running an independent school. "We want to operate very closely alongside the other schools and the local council and we've arranged the steering group to ensure that the leader of the council can always be there if he wants. We want the curriculum to be developed by the whole group.

"One of the problems we confront is that it's easy to start a brand new shiny school with money pumped into it which then turns other schools in the area into second or third choice... All they do is create a sink school. I fundamentally disagree with creating an oasis for some people, which create a desert for others."

Oasis is now in the process of consulting with local residents and other interested groups, such as local churches, about the proposals for the City Academy, which is currently at the feasibility stage of development.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for Oasis to demonstrate that at the heart of the Christian faith is the imperative to serve others. Our goal is to ensure that the Oasis City Academy is an example of innovation and excellence. We are excited to be working with central government and Enfield Council on this ground-breaking educational project” said Chalke.