The School Day
The working day at Space Studio is unlike most other schools, and is modelled around modern working practices. The day runs from 8:40 until 4:40, with three 2 hour lessons, and a single 1 hour lesson each day. During this time students are given a generous amount of “Independent Study” time during which they have the opportunity to complete all the homework set by their teachers meaning that outside of exam times many students find they do not need to take much work home.
Technology
We encourage the use of technology for learning activities and each student in the school is allocated a personal Chromebook to complete their work on. At times, mobile phones are also used for learning. We make extensive use of Google’s online programmes and resources, modelling the way that such collaborative documents are now used in the workplace.
Trips
We arrange many more trips than most schools, averaging more than two trips per week for the majority of the academic year. In the first term of this school year, our students attended trips to the Houses of Parliament, Sky, and the Royal Aeronautical Society amongst others.
Applied Transdisciplinary Learning
One of the main focal points of the style of education we deliver is the cross-curricular projects our Year 12 students complete throughout the year. Each term, there will be a separate ten week project designed to stretch our students’ knowledge and, drawing from the Aspirations Academies Trust’s “Employability and Future Skills”, develop the soft skills modern employers look for in their workforce. Recent projects include:
- The design of a board game, including research into game theory, probability, product design, and the socio-economic history of the development of games, and resulting in the production and marketing of a finished game
- The redevelopment of a local brown-field site where students produce a scale mode of their proposal for the site after research into the history of the local area, the demographic of the local population and the development of similar sites across London.
- The final project each year results in students achieving an Industrial Cadet Award through the Engineering Education Scheme.
UCAS, Apprenticeship, Careers and Work Experience
One of our highest priorities at Space Studio is to ensure our students progress from school to their desired destination, whether this be university, an apprenticeship, or employment. To help achieve this, we offer a range of advice and guidance from our experienced careers staff, and visiting speakers from universities and industry. During Year 13, our students have four hours per week timetabled for UCAS and apprenticeship support, which becomes additional independent study time once applications have been completed. We have developed an extensive programme of work experience opportunities available to students in Year 12 and year 13 ranging from private companies such as British Airways, British Petroleum, and Cisco Systems, to public sector placements such as at Wandsworth Prison.
Rolling Exam Timetable
Our approach to mock exams is also different to many schools, with regular exam sessions timetabled throughout the year. We believe this spreads out the pressure of preparing for exams, avoiding the hectic schedule of an annual “mock week” whilst providing constant feedback to our students to help them improve.
Mentoring
All our Year 12 students have the opportunity to mentor a Y10 student over the course of the academic year. We have found this an excellent opportunity for our Sixth Form students to develop their interpersonal, communication, and organisation skills whilst consolidating their learning in the A’ Level or BTEC subjects they are studying. As Einstein is quoted: “If you can’t explain it simply, you do not understand it well enough”.