Your Questions Answered

The Academy provides places for:

Year 10 and 11 students

 The students we support may experience the following:

• Those who have not been able to follow a traditional secondary curriculum and need to undertake this as a pathway to further education or training.
• At risk of being permanently excluded or several fixed term suspensions.
• Students who have been out of education for a period of time for a variety of reasons.

We are a fully inclusive school and welcome students with special educational needs and disabilities, including those with emotional and environmental barriers to learning. We have the systems, structures and specialists in place to support these students to achieve.

Only Schools, Academies and Local Authorities can apply for places. Parents and carers can also ask their child’s existing school, Academy or Local Authority to apply for a place at Harris Aspire.

Harris Aspire will be staffed by members of the Harris Federation, with outstanding teachers and Federation consultants working with us to support our students. Our aim is for 100% of lessons to be good or outstanding.

In addition to our teaching and leadership team, we will also use a collection of specialists who have proven themselves to be outstanding in their work with other Harris Academies.

These include educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, health services and a variety of different counsellors, mentors, life-coach and advisors.

Once accepted at Harris Aspire, students will be assessed carefully, not only for their current level of ability but also for their potential attainment as well as any barriers to learning.

We know that many of our students will require a curriculum that will accelerate achievement and aim to ensure that when they have completed their year at Aspire they will be working in line with their peers. We will also be looking for any particular talents in any area that can be supported to develop further.

Students will be taught in small groups maximum 15 to allow for accelerated learning and outstanding progress. There will also be 1:1 tuition for some students who require extra support, as well as small group withdrawals.

Our students will be expected to look smart and presentable. Year 10 and 11 are expected to attend the academy in smart business wear. Full details are available on our uniform page.

Mobile phones and any internet enabled devices are not allowed on site. They are collected in the morning at reception and secured in lockers. They can be collected at the end of the day by students. There are no exceptions to this rule. Students found with a phone on site will have the device confiscated and if they persistently refuse to hand it in, the device may have to be confiscated until a parent meeting has taken place and targets set.

Yes. Gifted students will be identified when they arrive.

This will be an important part of the screening process as there is likely to be a history of underachievement which may mask a student’s ability to achieve very highly. These students will be challenged within the curriculum and given a variety of other opportunities for enrichment.

Yes. When a year group reaches its maximum capacity, the Academy operates a referrals list managed by our team at Aspire and consider students referred by commissioning sites or local authorities. Places are allocated from this list in accordance with our published admissions criteria and not on a “first come, first served” basis.

If a place becomes available, the next eligible child will be contacted by the Academy and invited to attend a meeting with representatives from the commissioning sites or the local authority. Please note that being on the referrals list does not guarantee a place; however, we will keep the Commissioning School of any changes as they occur.

Yes. Where there may be exceptional circumstances we are happy to look into supporting necessities such as travel arrangements and uniform. Please call the office for more details.