Studio Schools

Studio Schools have been designed to help 14-19 year olds better prepare for the world of work. They draw on extensive experience from the UK and around the world and bring together a number of proven elements in a new kind of school that will provide young people with qualifications and a full range of skills - while also engaging them in working in, and running, businesses and social enterprises directly serving customers.

Studio Schools will be small schools of around 300 students. They will teach the national curriculum through interdisciplinary, enterprise-themed projects, but will have a very different style and ethos to most existing schools, with a much stronger emphasis on practical work and enterprise. Every student will have a personal coach; there will be mixed age teams; and the schools will have many of the features of a workplace (like booking holidays). Studio Schools do not aim to replace other secondary schools - but to complement them by providing an alternative approach suitable for young people looking for a more entrepreneurial option or alienated by traditional pedagogy.

Elements of the Studio School model are the subject of a field trial with Barnfield College and Barnfield Academy West in Luton in collaboration with The Innovation Unit. The field trial began in September 2007 with 23 14-year olds and will eventually be scaled up to a full Studio School. The Young Foundation has plans to develop up to six new schools with partners from Tyneside in the North to the East End of London. We are working with: Luton, Blackpool, Kirklees, Oldham, Newham, Lambeth and South Tyneside.