As an academy serving a significantly deprived area of Oldham (East Manchester), we decided that to raise aspiration amongst our students, especially through STEM projects. We have worked with the Manchester United Foundation, Manchester Met University and local business partners to explore the opportunities that exist for students and concluded that more practical activities were needed in school.

The curriculum has been adapted for 2022-23 to incorporate a weekly double lesson each week for Years 7-9 which we have titled 'enrichment'. During this time, we have arranged a range of activities including F1 challenge, Lego robotics and practical DT all of which will give our students extra experiences, build problem-solving skills and essentially develop their inquisitive minds. Each group will undertake a 12-14 week programme whilst some of the participants will remain as mentors for the other groups.

The academy developed a comprehensive Covid plan at the start of the pandemic which allowed us to deliver all lessons remotely and through MS Teams, allow access to all of our resources to students. Live lessons also ensured that students remained engaged in their learning. Should the need arise, we will be able to deliver the STEM (Lego) activities remotely as well.

The additional seed funding would help secure additional Lego kits and potentially additional staff training.