UCL Academy Learning to make a difference together
2013 – the year that UCL Academy opened at its permanent site at Adelaide Road
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applicants for every place at the academy in its first year
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AS/A levels including three STEM subjects
Introduction Thank you for your interest in and support for UCL Academy. Sponsored by UCL, the UCL Academy opened in September 2012 with 180 students in Foundation and 125 students in Level 3. It will reach its full capacity of 1,150 students by the autumn of 2016. UCL is one of the top universities in the UK and one of the top 25 universities in the world. It has extensive, world-class facilities and employs some of the world’s leading academics. Sponsorship of an academy allows UCL to make those facilities and that expertise available on a formal basis to students: as a means of extending the traditional curriculum, providing access to new ways of learning and exposing them to university life from a young age. This booklet is intended to give you an insight into the academy, but you may wish to build on this by asking staff and students questions during your visit.
Mrs G Davies, Principal
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Our ethos and values We want the UCL Academy to fire the imagination of its students and to support them to develop in ways that stand them in good stead for their future lives and responsibilities as individuals, employees and citizens. The UCL Academy has four key priorities; high academic and personal standards for students and a commitment to developing individual potential; specialisms in mathematics and science; languages at the heart of the curriculum; and a mission to provide an education for global citizenship.
Learning Mandarin All staff and students at the academy study Mandarin. As a community of learners, students and teachers learn together. Focusing on both the language itself and the cultural history, the study of Mandarin by all contributes to the development of the internationally-minded young people we are helping to develop.
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academic levels through which students work according to stage, not age, after their foundation year
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We believe that the UCL Academy should be an exciting, stimulating place to learn, with a curriculum that focuses on problem solving, skills development and ‘real world’ issues and ideas. Our students have the opportunity to undertake extensive project work and to participate in community activities as well as internships and international exchanges. The school uses its curriculum and the school ethos to shape students’ understanding of their social responsibilities, the nature of moral and social leadership and what it means to be a ‘global citizen’. Through the academy’s approach, students will learn to be critical and creative thinkers; ambitious, but also idealistic and committed to ethical behaviour; and sensitive to cultural difference.
Pastoral care In order to ensure that students feel they belong within the academy, each student will be both part of a household and of a mentor group – a group of around 10–15 students, led by a member of staff. These mentor groups will encourage individuals to build support networks with older and younger students, to be guided by the same member of staff across their school career and to take responsibility for their own learning and their place within the school.
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A cutting-edge estate Designed by architects Penoyre & Prasad, UCL Academy’s new home at Adelaide Road in Swiss Cottage, north London has been designed and purpose-built to support the curriculum and pastoral activities that the school offers. In support of the academy’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) specialism, the building includes state-of-the-art science laboratories, and a science demonstration theatre for interactive lectures, experiments and talks by visiting academics from UCL. There are suites of rooms for art, music and drama, including well-equipped performance spaces, as well as an engineering science suite.
Households The academy is designed around five households. These are the ‘home bases’ for the students and each student belongs to the same household for the whole duration of their time at the academy. Named after the constellations Cygnus, Equuleus, Lyra, Orion and Vela, the houses are designed to help foster feelings of belonging, pride and responsibility in the students. Each house has an elected Senator, who will represent the student voice at the academy and drive forward continuous improvement.
The households are integral to the physical fabric of the academy. House spaces provide comfortable, welcoming places for students to eat together and to use for informal study during breaks and before and after school. Indeed, every space in the school belongs to a household, and members of that household are responsible for hosting those facilities for the rest of the school community.
1,150
– the number of student places that the academy will have when it reaches full capacity in 2016
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Central to the design of the academy’s estate are its superstudios – large teaching areas that offer great flexibility for teaching and learning, and the house spaces into which the academy is divided.
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Superstudios On each floor there is a superstudio, a long room with a central tiered amphitheatre-style learning space for more traditional teaching sessions and plenty of space on either side for breakout activities. Generally, a group of around 90 students will gather to hear an introduction to that day’s learning session, and they will then separate into smaller groups around the
Engineering science suite The academy houses an engineering science suite, which includes workshop spaces and technology and science labs for electronics and engineering physics, which are designed to give students the experience of being engineers. The UCL Academy is a pioneer in the teaching of engineering science – a new fusion of the design and technology and physics curricula that is intended to give students an understanding of engineering in industry and at university.
superstudio to work on different areas of the topic in question. The studios have been designed to be flexible: some pupils might sit on beanbags, others on benches and others at tables that have been specially designed to be conducive to group work; and all the furniture, even the tiered seating, is easily moveable. Classroom group learning, project-based and pair work, independent study and discussions
and presentations are just some of the ways of learning that the superstudio can facilitate. There are a total of five superstudios. The Foundation superstudio is exclusively for the use of students in their first year at the academy, while the other superstudios are levels-based, with each used to deliver the full range of subjects that the school teaches at a particular level.
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Floorplan The building has six floors on which the main walkways and corridors are designed to be on the outside of the building. This maximises learning space, ensures that students regularly get fresh air and that learning inside is not disturbed by movement around the building.
Level one
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Level two
Main hall Main entrance
Library
Sports hall
Engineering
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An innovative curriculum UCL Academy’s approach to teaching and learning prioritises high personal and academic standards and champions the development of the individual. In practice, this means offering a curriculum that is challenging yet flexible enough to work well for all students, alongside an enrichment programme that supports the development of the whole person – whether through cultural activity, sport or community service. The academy follows the International Middle Years curriculum, a three-level programme that takes a cooperative, enquiry-based approach. Students work through these levels at their own pace, with different age groups studying together.
Stage not age In their first year, students will be supported to adapt to the unique learning environment and to prepare themselves to take on responsibility for developing their own programme of study in subsequent years. After students have completed their Foundation Level, they will begin to be given choices as to which courses they follow. Students will move through three levels, but will only move up a level once they are ready.
Each year, all students working at Levels 1 and 2 will take courses in mathematics, sciences and at least one modern foreign language. All courses will be completed within a year, with formal external accreditation at the end of the course wherever appropriate.
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Learning sets Collaborative learning is at the heart of the UCL Academy’s approach and, with this in mind, students are organised into sets of six that they work within throughout their school years, enabling them to develop key skills of teamwork, debate and cooperation. It specialises in the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) – subjects that are increasingly relevant and necessary in today’s society, with Level 3 students focusing their studies on STEM disciplines. Languages are at the heart of the curriculum, as befits a school for which education for global citizenship is a core aspiration.
Self-directed curriculum The UCL Academy will recognise diverse forms of achievement. Students will be supported to gain qualifications – but success in art, cultural activities, sport, music and community service will also be celebrated. It will offer a comprehensive programme of self-directed learning opportunities in all of these areas,
facilitated in part through lively inter-household competition, and all students will be required to select a range of these activities as part of their programme of study. There is an expectation that every student will undertake volunteer work in the community at some point during their time at the academy.
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UCL and the UCL Academy The academy’s sponsor, UCL, was founded in 1826 in order to open up university education in England to students regardless of race, class and religion. With 21 Nobel prizewinners, UCL was the first university to teach subjects including English Literature, Law and Engineering systematically. Known as ‘London’s global university’, UCL today is a multidisciplinary powerhouse, with a strong commitment to using its resources and research outputs both to solve major global problems and to benefit the city that sustains it. By working with the UCL Academy, UCL aspires not only to contribute to and support the school, but also to learn from the experience in such a way that it will inform the university’s own approach to teaching and learning.
Learning together UCL and the academy are working together to promote academic excellence at the highest level, and to blur the boundaries between secondary and higher education. As part of this, academy curriculum leaders will attend relevant UCL departmental meetings; annual curriculum planning meetings will take place between curriculum leaders and university staff; and UCL academics will host sessions at the academy. Through these activities, the academy and the university will share ideas and develop the most promising approaches.
From Hairspray to handball: UCL students at the academy UCL student volunteers are working across a range of activities with academy students, hoping to inspire engagement across politics, sport and drama. In sport, UCL Union’s Women’s Netball team are coaching Foundation Level students at the academy’s new sports hall to support peak performance in their interschool competitions. Training sessions for academy students are also underway for handball, a sport in which UCL boasts a European champion. You couldn’t stop the beat at two performances of Hairspray – a musical staged by students from UCL Academy and Regent High School, working with UCL Union Musical Theatre Society, and following a tireless programme of rehearsals. Aspiring medical students in Levels 1 and 3 are learning more about becoming a doctor through Next Top Doctor, a mentoring programme during which UCL medical students work with academy students to explain the medical school application process and give an insight into life as a student doctor. For students who would like to understand international affairs better, UCL’s Model United Nations Society are giving them the chance to explore issues from human rights through to environment and disarmament, via an academic simulation of the UN.
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UCL’s influence on life at the academy is reflected both in the academy’s founding principles and in the day-to-day interactions between the school and university. The UCL aspiration to provide an education for global citizenship and of achieving excellence in teaching and learning are embedded into the academy’s own curriculum and ethos. Over time, interactions such as a lecture or teaching session led by a UCL academic, a group visit by academy students to experience university life at UCL, or a theatre performance directed by UCL student volunteers and acted by academy students, will enact the institutions’ shared values.
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Contact
Swiss Cottage
UCL Academy
The UCL Academy Adelaide Road London NW3 3AQ
Telephone: 0207 449 3080
www.uclacademy.co.uk
Recruitment enquiries: recruitment@uclacademy.co.uk
Visit our website for directions
You can follow us on Twitter @UCL_Academy
General enquiries: enquiries@uclacademy.co.uk Sixth Form admissions enquiries: level3admissions@uclacademy.co.uk
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academy houses to which students belong
– the percentage of time that academy students will spend in the multi-use superstudios
The UCL Academy Adelaide Road London NW3 3AQ www.uclacademy.co.uk