Falcon Education Academies Trust

Introduction to the partnership of Falcon Education Academies Trust and Oulton Academy

Falcon commenced informal support of Oulton Academy (then Royds School) in November 2020, and officially became sponsor to the school on 1 April 2021, at which point the school converted to be an academy within the Trust. Falcon was chosen to sponsor the school due to the number of challenges it had historically faced.

The Trust is committed to providing high level, quality support and investment to the school, with the ultimate aim of ensuring that the school becomes the school of choice in the local community and gives students the highest standard of education.

Upon beginning to support the school, the Trust undertook a detailed due diligence exercise to identify areas most in need of transformation, from which a bespoke plan of support has been developed.

Support for the school

To date, the school has benefited from a range of support incorporating development of strong leadership and management, along with improvement in the quality of teaching and learning. Additionally, professional development of staff is an ongoing facet of our support, with Subject Directors across core subjects providing coaching and resources to ensure quality and consistency within teaching. The Trust has also undertaken a review of the curriculum to be able to provide the best offer for all students and at the same time, has reviewed financial management to ensure money is spent in the best possible way and is always focussed on students.

Investment in the school

Falcon have already supported the school to transform the quality of IT within classrooms improving the learning environment for all students with the installation of 300 new student computers and 95 staff laptops over Summer 2021. A refresh of classroom whiteboards was then completed in April 2022, which saw the installation of state of the art 75” Promethean Interactive Panels to further enhance the teaching and learning experience.

We appreciate that the school building is of inferior quality and we are currently working with the DfE to reach agreement on investment for a rebuild of facilities. This process began with Falcon undertaking its own surveys and enlisting the help of external consultants to produce a number of costed proposals/designs which were submitted to the DfE. From this point, the DfE are undertaking their own feasibility study which is a detailed 21 week programme, to determine the most appropriate options for the future rebuild. The feasibility study should be completed Summer 2022 enabling reports to go to the DfE in the Autumn Term and we hope to be able to make an announcement shortly thereafter on the final decision.

Change of Name

Falcon is committed to working with staff, students, parents and the local community in the time that it supports its schools. One particular example demonstrating this is the work which was undertaken to select a new school name for the academy.

In Summer 2021, consultation took place with staff and parents, and it was agreed that the school would change its name from Royds Academy to Oulton Academy in 2022. Following on from this, the students were directly involved in the design of the new academy logo and a small group worked more closely with the website designers to finalise the design.

As a Trust we are pleased to be collaboratively involved in working with the school, investing in education and changing outcomes. Various partners have contributed to that collaboration; Delta Academies Trust, The Gorse Academies Trust, Outwood Grange Academies Trust and Trinity Multi Academy Trust.

Click here to find out more about Falcon Education Academies TrustAddress:

Falcon Education Academies Trust

Pennington Lane

Oulton

Leeds

LS26 8EX

Registered number 12134421

0113543 2673