Studio schools pencilled in

OLDHAM’S ambition to create a new “studio school” for struggling or expelled pupils moved a step closer last night after Government backed the proposals.

Schools Minister Jim Knight said seven councils, including Oldham, had put forward proposals to create the new institutions which would cater for 300 pupils.

Studio schools are designed to help children of all abilities who are not reaching their full potential in the traditional school environment.

They work with pupils aged 14-19 and focus on work-related learning and teach teenagers how to run their own businesses, at the same time as combining work experience with learning qualifications in an environment closer to a workplace than a classroom.

The new schools will offer a range of qualifications and high quality learning through an enterprise-based curriculum for the pupils — many of who will have been excluded from mainstream school — in an attempt to keep them in education.

Oldham councillor Kay Knox, Cabinet member for children, young people and families, said: “We put Oldham forward to explore the possibility of a studio school in the borough, because we felt it could bring significant advantages to our students. The studio school would be in addition to the major transformation of secondary education which we are planning through the Building Schools for the Future programme.”

Council chiefs say the project would put Oldham at the cutting edge of innovation in education and bring significant benefits to pupils in the area.

Mr Knight said he hoped to announce which of the seven areas would be in the first wave of projects in the summer with the first school up and running in September, next year.

Studio schools have been adapted from an American model and ministers believe a pilot scheme in Luton has been a success.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, said: “Studio schools will offer a range of qualifications through an enterprise-based curriculum and will work in partnership with local businesses to help pupils develop general employability skills.”