Enriching our students' lives
Cultural capital lies at the heart of our intentions for our students.
Aldridge schools all have 100 activities - reflecting the local context and desires for their students – that they offer to everyone before they leave.
These are clearly displayed in their schools, owned by the whole community and tracked to ensure everyone benefits.
Our sister organisation, the Aldridge Foundation charity, raises funds and creates partnerships to enable our academies to be able to provide additional enrichment programmes and interactions with commercial and social organisations. These include university residential schools, adventure training experiences and international sports tours and cultural visits.
For example, last summer students from across our schools were given the chance to learn about enterprise and entrepreneurship courtesy of the Aldridge Foundation’s Summer School, supported by professional services firm Smith & Williamson and Natwest. In 2019 five Aldridge students also had the chance to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime, four-week expedition to Iceland and a group of students from the Darwen Aldridge Community Academy travelled to Kampala, Uganda, to help teach the children of the Acholi tribe.
These are programmes designed to widen the experiences of our students and to enable them to undertake wider work with their communities, thus contributing to the economic development of the areas in which they live and our schools operate.
