New school's partnership working at the heart of the community

One of the newest schools in Oxfordshire is working hard to ensure it is very much at the heart of the community it serves.

Aureus School will open its doors for the first time next week and it is already working with a number of partners to offer a range of activities from martial arts to performing arts to help learners achieve.

The first Didcot mixed secondary school, a member of the multi-academy GLF Trust, will welcome its first Year 7 students for an orientation half day on Friday, September 8 before the school officially begins its term on Monday, September 11.

It has been designated a Science,Technology, Engineering and Maths school (STEM) but the school vision is to incorporate the Arts at the Heart of the STEAM specialism and have already pledged that Aureus will have an artist in residence, art gallery, art therapy room and creativity days.

Executive Head teacher Hannah Wilson said it was important to staff, parents and students that from day one Aureus would be a focal point for the community and offered much more than just a traditional school environment.

“Our mission is simple: we strive to educate the whole student so that each individual in our community may grow, learn and flourish.

“Our holistic approach at Aureus includes values-led leadership, values-based education and a wellbeing programme that will develop mindfulness strategies. Aureus is not an exam factory, it is a space where our whole community will be supported,” she said.

The new building will also be used by the Matt Fiddes Martial Arts Academy for classes on a regular basis. The group was founded in 1997 and also owns performing arts schools, dance and a street education programme.

There will be free session on Mondays for the Year 7s from 3.40pm to 4.30pm while between 5pm and 9pm on Fridays there will be classes for tots, families and a female-only class.

“We pride ourselves on our family values and take children from as young as 3 years old. Kids and parents can train together and we find that this helps to strengthen family bonds.  
 
We are really looking forward to our partnership with Aureus as our core values are very similar and we like to build a relationship within the schools that we work with and the community around them,” said Shannan Harrison, of the Didcot Martial Arts academy.

The Didcot Art Room helps children and young people and has nine studios across the country working in mainstream education and it will have a site at Aureus School. The charity was established 15 years ago and uses art as a therapeutic tool for thousands of children.

Aureus Secondary School is a strategic partner in the Oxfordshire Teaching Schools Alliance, OTSA which is working in areas including teacher training, research and development and school-to-school support.

Charity partnerships include activity with ActionAid, an international charity working in more than 45 countries to change lives of the world’s poorest women and girls. Women Leading in Education across Oxfordshire are fundraising to build a library in Mozambique.  The school will also be working in partnership with the Driver Youth Trust which is a charity working with young people who have literacy difficulties, particularly dyslexia.

The school offers its facilities for lease, outside of school hours, including a sports hall, dance studio, drama studio and dining hall and can be followed on Twitter @AureusSchool contacted on  0123 531 3713.