New school pledges to give pupils job skills

PLANS for a new studio school in Goole aimed at tackling youth unemployment will aim stay open 364 days a year if it gets the go ahead from ministers.

Goole High School yesterday confirmed it has submitted plans with Selby College to create a new school funded directly by the Department for Education (DfE).

Studio schools are a new type of education providers for 14 to 19-year-olds which will have no more than 300 pupils and will focus on specific career areas.

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Goole High’s proposed studio school will specialise in ports and logistics, green energy and business enterprise which it regards as the biggest areas of employment locally.

The Humber Local Enterprise Partnership, Associated British Ports and the Press Association are among the organisations which have backed the plan so far.

If the plan is approved the school could open in 2013. There is currently one studio school open in Yorkshire - in Huddersfield which specialises in creative media. It was opened as a pilot project in 2010.

Bradford College and Hull College have both submitted succesful bids for new studio schools which will open this September.

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Pupils will also be expected to study English, maths and two sciences at GCSE with the rest of their qualifications reflecting the employment route they are following. The school’s year will be divided into three equal periods which last seventeen weeks and it will be open to students from 9am to 5pm, 364 days a year.

Goole High’s head teacher Danuta Tomasz said: “After an intense few months collating the details and evidence together, the application for the studio school in Goole was submitted electronically and by hand to the DfE

“We’re really hopeful for a positive outcome and all the indicators suggest that we have a very strong application.”

Studio schools are run and funded like academies which are independent from local councils.

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