Atlantic Academy Portland, formerly known as the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy, is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

all-through school All-through schools educate young people throughout multiple stages of their education, generally throughout childhood and adolescence. Definition The term "all-through" can be legitimately applied to establishments in many different circumstan ...

and

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 ...

for children aged 3 to 19. The school is located on two sites on the

Isle of Portland An isle is an island, land surrounded by water. The term is very common in British English. However, there is no clear agreement on what makes an island an isle or its difference, so they are considered synonyms. Isle may refer to: Geography * Is ...

in the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

History

The Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy was formed in September 2012 from the merger of Brackenbury Infant School, Grove Infant School, Southwell County Primary School, Underhill Community Junior School and Royal Manor Arts College. As an academy, the school was originally sponsored by The Aldridge Foundation and

Dorset County Council Dorset County Council (DCC) was the county council for the county of Dorset in England. It provided the upper tier of local government, below which were district councils, and town and parish councils. The county council had 46 elected council ...

. A new campus, Osprey Quay Campus, opened in 2014. It was followed by the opening of the main campus site, Maritime House, in September 2016. In September 2016, Aldridge Education multi-academy trust took over the responsibility for all Aldridge Schools from the Aldridge Foundation. In October it was announced that the Academy would not be joining the multi-academy trust and that Aldridge were standing down as sponsor. Dorset County Council remains a sponsor. In November 2016, the school was inspected by Ofsted and declared inadequate. IPACA became Atlantic Academy Portland in September 2017, managed by Aspirations Academies Trust.

Academics

Aspirations Academies Trust is a

multi-academy trust Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or school trust is an academy trust that operates more than one academy school. Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local autho ...

supporting 16 academies in

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire ...

and

Feltham Feltham () is a town in West London, England, from Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it became part of the London Borough of Hounslow in 1965. The parliamentary constituency of Feltham and Heston has been held by Labour Party MPs ...

in West London. The school they inherited was 'inadequate'; they aimed to create an academy where the students believed in themselves and were actively engaged in their own learning and saw a connection between the learning tasks and their ambitions for the future. They needed to create a challenging curriculum and disruption free learning. It is an ‘all through’ Academy, with all years housed within the same school building. An early change was to reduce the schools capacity, the PAN or school number in jargon, from 1580 to 1220, to have year groups of 60 in Primary and 120 in Secondary, where previously it was 60 and 150. This reduces overcrowding while allowing all pupils to be on a single site.

Curriculum

As an all-through school, with youngsters from reception class to upper sixth- there needs to be a unified teaching approach in all key stages, from Key Stage R to

Key Stage 5 Key Stage 5 is a label used to describe the two years of education for students aged 16–18, or at sixth form, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, aligning with previous Key Stages as labelled for the National Curriculum. Key Stage 5 is also ...

. The Aspirations Academies Trust is developing a common curricular approach the will be used in each of its academies, albeit reflecting the local community and the particular needs of its students, It will contain : *The Early Years curriculum requirements, *The

National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with Federated stat ...

in Key Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4. *‘No Limits: Education for success in the 21st century’-a trust wide KS2 and KS3 teaching scheme *The

EBacc The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) is a school performance indicator in England linked to the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) results. It measures students' attainment by calculating an average score from specified subject grades. ...

academic programme at KS4 *The trust

CEIL In mathematics and computer science, the floor function is the function that takes as input a real number , and gives as output the greatest integer less than or equal to , denoted or . Similarly, the ceiling function maps to the least int ...

programme at Post 16

Current subjects

Learning in Key Stage Two is linked to a central topic, such as an Energy and Sustainability or ‘The Middle East’. The topic mapping has been specially designed to support the needs of the pupils. At Key Stage 3, year 8 and 9 students study English, Maths, Science, French, Music, Art, Drama, RE, Geography, History, Design Technology ; Computer Science and Business Enterprise and PE. In Year 7 the students study the new No Limits Curriculum: which will include English, Maths, Science, French, Music, Art, Drama, Geography, History, Design Technology and PE. At Key Stage 4 students study a mixture 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 ...

and BTECs. All pupils study English, English Literature, Maths, and Science. They are allowed four options, two of which must be

subjects, and two chosen from Art, business Studies, Drama, Music, Food, Product Design and Philosophy. The Ebacc subjects are History, Geography, French and Computer Science.

References

{{authority control Primary schools in Dorset Secondary schools in Dorset Academies in Dorset Educational institutions established in 2012 2012 establishments in England