King's Oak Academy

Specialism

The maths and computing specialism has a tangible impact throughout King’s Oak Academy. You can immediately recognise the impact through the 12 computer suites that are allocated to various teams around the site.  Many teams have additional specialist hardware to support their programmes of study and provide students with up-to-date experience of hardware and software used in the world of work.  However, the effect is deeper than this;  all teams have their own area within our Virtual Learning Environment that can be accessed by students and staff during the working day and remotely from home promoting personalised, independent learning.  There has always been a drive since gaining the specialism status to develop staff pedagogy through the academic and associate staff teams leading training and research as well as utilising targeted funding.

King’s Oak Academy prides itself in providing learning opportunities for its local community through its specialism.  The academy has close links with its partner primary, secondary and special schools.  It has run various study experiences for all key stages through various programmes within the specialism and across the curriculum.

One example is the close work with Warmley Park Special School carried out over a number of years.  The specialism has jointly funded research projects with the charity 5x5x5=creativity, where a resident artist has worked with students from Warmley Park supported by our Post 16 students.  Their findings were presented by all parties  at the charity’s annual national conference last July at Bath Spa University.

King’s Oak Academy also offers courses to the local adult community.  It has been running the very successful ECDL computer course for over three years with many people gaining their qualifications that are relevant to supporting their vocational pathways.  The academy is also offering maths courses this year.