New Oasis Academies to raise the Bar in Education

The first three Oasis Academies will open their doors on Friday, the start of a new chapter of the Government's Academies programme for communities in Enfield in North London, and Grimsby and Immingham in north east Lincolnshire.

Oasis said the vision behind the new academies was "to create an interdependent 'family' of schools that will both provide outstanding education and act as hubs for their surrounding communities".

The charity has worked in the voluntary sector for 22 years, delivering educational, health and housing services. It is also a multi-academy sponsor, with at least ten new academies scheduled to open over the next few years.

The beginning of the new 'family' will be marked on Friday when students from all three schools will travel to London to meet each other. They will also visit Lord Adonis, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools and Learners, at the Department for Children, Schools and Families, to present him with the three contrasting academy badges in a frame.

Steve Chalke MBE, the chair of Oasis Community Learning, said the Oasis Academies would bring a distinctively different approach to education and to their communities:
"As over the next few years, we develop academies across the country, we will build a group of schools whose best interests are served by each other's success.

"Far from the all-too-common, ruthlessly competitive nature of relationships between secondary schools, our academies will genuinely work for each other's success through sharing and learning from one another's skills, insights and strengths. Put simply, the whole will be even greater than the sum of the parts."

Chalke said that the academy principals would take part in monthly forums to share experience and expertise, while staff will have an intranet to share lesson plans and best practice.

"As everyone contributes and supports each other, so our quality will grow. Locally each Academy will have its own character, but the unity across our diversity will strengthen what we can deliver in every location we work in," he said.

The Oasis Academies also aim to provide a rich and balanced educational environment, catering for all aspects of individual student development, including educational, physical, moral and spiritual.

In the long-term, Oasis is looking to expand the range of facilities on offer at the academies for their wider communities, including adult learning, youth mentoring, healthy living centres, GP surgeries and sports facilities.

Lord Adonis said Oasis would be an asset to the City Academies programme: "I have every confidence that Oasis Academies will continue this movement of raising standards and narrowing the attainment gap.

"In addition, the Oasis ethos of valuing all people will play a vital role in raising aspirations and helping students to reach their full potential, as well as providing excellent opportunities for their wider communities," he said.

Oasis was set up by Steve Chalke in 1985, with the vision to build a hospital, hostel and school for the poor. It is now a significant voluntary sector provider, delivering educational, health and housing services for local authorities, UK and foreign governments, as well as self-funded initiatives providing opportunity and choice around the world. Oasis works from ten country bases across four continents.