Accreditations & Awards

Our vision is rooted in a moral commitment to provide students from all backgrounds with an exceptional education which combines academic, cultural, social, spiritual and moral development. We believe that respecting and valuing individual differences and the appreciation of, and promotion of, cultural diversity is crucial if every child is to thrive.
 
We are committed to breaking down barriers and cultural divides, instilling values of acceptance and mutual respect that children and young people will carry with them throughout their lives, helping us to realise our vision of ‘A Fantastic Future For All’.
 
We are extremely proud to announce that as of January 2021 we are fully certified as a Rainbow Flag Award School, having successfully completed submissions in all six areas of the award:

• Skilled Teachers                                               
• Supportive Governors and Parents    
• Effective Policies
• Inclusive Curriculum
• Pastoral Support
• Student Voice

The Rainbow Flag Award is a national quality assurance framework for schools. The award focuses on positive LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, plus other related identities) inclusion and visibility. It encourages a whole organisational approach to LGBT+ inclusion, as well as developing strategies to effectively challenge and combat LGBTphobic bullying.

The Rainbow Flag Award gives us a framework to better support LGBT+ inclusion across all of our provision, improving the lives of pupils, staff and families, and is fundamental to the MEA Way of Safe, Respectful, Ready and Kind.

A lot of hard work, enthusiasm and passion has gone into achieving this award and we are really proud to have been given Gold status.  The One Education Reading Award illustrates the commitment and knowledge MEA has been in building a successful reading curriculum and developing a reading culture.

Feedback from the reviewer was complimentary to both our robust intervention programme, 

Your bespoke approach to supporting all individuals is so impressive and showcases your dedication to improving reading outcomes for every child. I can only imagine the work and training as well as the organisation that goes into delivering this offer.

but also recognised the commitment that all staff have made at MEA to improving reading outcomes for all,

Another strength is the application of a whole-school approach to reading across the disciplines with a real focus on strengthening vocabulary and pupils being the 'boss' of their reading skills. This is apparent across all subjects with support from all staff.

Finally, the culture of reading for pleasure and all of the hard work our fabulous librarian, Amy Brookes, has put in this year is to be commended. The students have such rich opportunities which come about through strong networking, organisation and dedication to getting all children reading, 

I am so impressed with the work of your librarian. The opportunities and experiences as well as the resources and tasks, clubs and author visits that are in place are astounding!

The provision we now offer at MEA has been recognised with the One Education programme with the hope for us to become a 'Beacon School'

The spirit of MEA is captured in this one line of feedback - 

You are truly an example of what going above and beyond looks like, and this can only come from a very special team.

As an Empathy Lab School we believe that empathy is a learnable skill, rather than a character trait. As part of this belief, we embed opportunities for students to develop their knowledge, understanding and experience of empathy across our curriculum. ​​

Our students’ knowledge and understanding of empathy is developed in a range of ways, including in Fantastic Futures lessons, our character curriculum, in our MEA Reads and SMSC sessions and in our literacy interventions.​

Empathy and Year 7 Transition and Beyond

Developing students’ knowledge and understanding of empathy has been placed at the heart of the Year 7 transition programme. Time has been allocated to the explicit teaching of empathy, with transition sessions focused on empathy and belonging. This foundational knowledge and understanding is then developed across our academic and personal development curriculum, including in tutor time and assemblies, ensuring empathy learning is embedded across our curriculum.​

The Read for Empathy Collection

We are developing reading for empathy in the Fantastic Futures curriculum across KS3.​

Each term, across KS3, a book from the Read for Empathy Collection will be read by students in their Fantastic Futures lessons. The books have been chosen to compliment the themes and ideas being delivered in Fantastic Futures lessons. This means we dedicate 15minutes per week to Reading for empathy in Fantastic Futures lessons and provide a scaffold for students to explore empathy through reading and the emotions wheel, in a way which is linked to their Fantastic Futures knowledge.​

Manchester Enterprise Academy gained Holocaust Beacon School status in 2021, in recognition of our relentless work to engage our students to reflect and understand, meaningfully the complexity of the Holocaust.  We continue to work closely with University College London, as one of just a small number of schools which have the Beacon School quality mark. 

Our holocaust education promotes and teaches students to challenge misconceptions in society, allows our students to develop their own values regarding human rights, prejudice and justice and to develop an understanding of the impact of the Holocaust on the lives of individuals.

In our history classrooms we ensure that students develop a deep and nuance understanding of history, engage critically and are given the opportunity to explore the very real impact of history on people.  Our work as a beacon school extends beyond a re-design of our Year 9 curriculum and has impacted how we teach a range of sensitive and diverse histories across the department.   ​

Our work as a Beacon School however reaches far beyond our history classrooms. Our Beacon School quality mark status recognises the impact of our work to create a community of belonging, our emphasis on kindness and our broader approach in challenging extremism and harmful 'Us vs Them' narratives. Our broader Community of Belonging programme ensures that every day students learn about and reflect on the importance of belonging.

At the heart of what we explore with our staff, our students and community is that the Holocaust was a catastrophe not only for its millions of victims but for ourselves too. We must confront the uncomfortable truths of the past and present, if we are to inspire and empower our young people to build a future where prejudice, discrimination and extremism are challenged wherever they are found. We are proud that we empower everyone in our community to challenge unkindness and that we devote a significant amount of curriculum time and staff CPD to building a true community of belonging. Our work as a beacon school is in complete harmony with the MEA Way; we are a beacon school because we believe that ‘A Fantastic Future for All’ extends beyond academic achievement in which all of our students grow socially, culturally and spiritually and are equipped to thrive in modern Britain and the world they live in. We are delighted that our continued drive to provide our students with a robust education around the Holocaust, create a community of belonging and champion our values of respect and kindness was recognised by University College London in their ten-year anniversary showcase. MEA was chosen to showcase the work of Beacon Schools because of our whole school approach to belonging, challenging extremism and the work we all do every day to promote kindness, inclusion and diversity.

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As a Voice 21 Oracy School, oracy strategies have been embedded across the curriculum, these oracy teaching and learning strategies support students to develop their oracy skills across a range of curriculum subjects, in a range of contexts. This focuses on the Voice 21 oracy framework, which supports students to develop their oracy along the following strands:​

• Social and emotional

• Cognitive​

• Linguistic ​

• Physical​​

The MEA ignite curriculum has been designed for KS3 students to further develop their oracy skills in explicit oracy-based lessons.​​

The ignite curriculum is designed to link to our character curriculum and Fantastic Futures curriculum topics, and provides an opportunity for students to discuss things that matter, that are relevant, to them and their local community​.​

Through ignite, students also have the opportunity to speak in front of a live audience, where their voices will be heard, and valued.​

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