Aston University Engineering Academy is a

university technical college A university technical college (UTC) is a type of specialist secondary school in England that is led by a sponsor university and has close ties to local business and industry. These university and industry partners support the curriculum developm ...

(UTC) that opened in September 2012 in the

Gosta Green Gosta Green is an area in the city of Birmingham, England. It lies at the edge of the city centre, northeast of Birmingham New Street station. University Gosta Green is the home of the Aston University campus. The campus is also adjacent to ...

area of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Aston University Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston''. for post-nominals) is a public research university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first ...

is the lead academic sponsor of the UTC, along with the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network. Business partners of Aston University Engineering Academy include E.ON,

Goodrich Corporation The Goodrich Corporation, formerly the B.F. Goodrich Company, was an American manufacturing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in Akron, Ohio in 1870 as Goodrich, Tew & Co. by Benjamin Goodrich, the company name was cha ...

, National Grid plc, PTC and the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

. The new purpose-built school building of the UTC is located at the edge of the Aston University campus.

Admissions

Aston University Engineering Academy has an initial intake of students aged 14 and 16 (academic years 10 and 12) in 2012, but will expand to accommodate students aged 14 to 19 over the following two years. The schools catchment area covers the entirety of the Birmingham metropolitan borough.

Description

Aston University Engineering Academy takes pupils from Year 10. It specialises in engineering and associated work-related learning. At key stage 4, pupils undertake a vocational curriculum alongside an academic GCSE curriculum. At key stage 5, most pupils undertake a BTEC extended diploma and a single A level. The school did not meet the government's current floor standard, the minimum standard for pupils’ progress at the end of key stage 4, when the school was inspected in 2018. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under th
Open Government Licence v3.0
© Crown copyright Aston University Engineering Academy specialises in different aspects of

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

. Pupils aged 14 to 16 study a core selected number of

GCSEs The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

along with either a Higher Diploma in Engineering or

BTEC First Diploma The BTEC First Diploma is a vocational qualification taken in England and Wales and Northern Ireland by young people aged 14 and over and by adults. The qualification is organised and awarded by the Edexcel Foundation within the BTEC brand. Quali ...

in Engineering. For

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

education, students can choose between four study programmes: * An Advanced Diploma in Engineering and an additional

A Level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational au ...

BTEC National Diploma The BTEC (Business and Technology Education Council) Level 3 diploma is a Further Education qualification and vocational qualification taken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The qualification is organised and awarded by Pearson within the ...

in Engineering and an additional A Level * Mathematics and Science A levels programme *

Apprenticeships Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

The school has struggled to find and retain teacher. It needs teachers who have deep specialist knowledge in areas where there is a national teacher shortage, to work with youngsters who have in the main had a disrupted past. Some youngsters still have some catching up to do following the previous turbulence. Teaching is not yet consistently strong enough to counter the historical issues and the turbulence encountered by the students. The students are in the main cooperative and proud of their school.

The building

The academy building is a new-build scheme, built on the site of a former manufacturing facility demolished many years before. It backs onto the

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter ...

and is opposite Faraday Wharf, and within easy walking distance of the sponsors Aston University campus. The scheme formed part of Birmingham's

Building Schools for the Future Building Schools for the Future (BSF) was the name given to the British government's investment programme in secondary school buildings in England in the 2000s. The programme was ambitious in its costs, timescales and objectives, with politicia ...

programme before it was cancelled, and as such was built by

Lend Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

. The Architect was

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (also known as FCBStudios) is a British architectural design firm, established in 1978, with offices in Bath, London, Manchester, Belfast and Edinburgh. The firm is known for its pioneering work in sustainable desig ...

, with civil and structural consultants Cox Turner Morse, and building services consultants Cundall. The academy comprises approximately 6,500m² of accommodation over 3 floors (excluding basements). Unusually, due to changes in ground level from front to back of the site, the main entrance is at first floor level, with the reception area opening out into a triple-height atrium and staircase at the heart of the building. Site constraints, and the proximity to the inner ring road of Dartmouth Middleway, required the building to be very compact and needed to insulate the occupants from external traffic noise and poor air quality. Consequently, the building has a high performance sealed facade and glazing system, and required a heavily serviced solution to provide the necessary heating, ventilation and comfort cooling for the occupants. To offset potentially high energy consumption and running costs, the services design incorporates a full fresh air ventilation system with ''

free cooling Free cooling is an economical method of using low external air temperatures to assist in chilling water, which can then be used for industrial processes, or air conditioning systems. The chilled water can either be used immediately or be stored f ...

'' and energy recovery, a basement thermal labyrinth, a small

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elec ...

engine, energy efficient lighting systems, and 50kWp of

photovoltaic panel Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially u ...

s. The canal elevation is more sheltered and provides for hard landscaped dining and community areas for students. The design achieved a

RIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

West Midland Regional Award 2013

References

External links

* {{Authority control Secondary schools in Birmingham, West Midlands University Technical Colleges Aston University Educational institutions established in 2012 2012 establishments in England