A NEW £2.5 million Knutsford school is set to offer students a unique contextualised learning experience.

Knutsford Academy’s Studio School will give students a particular focus on developing employability skills while retaining a strong academic curriculum from September 2014.

The school offers young people five different ‘pathways’ to choose from, including a personalised curriculum, work placements and internships with partners such as Manchester City, Barclays Bank, EON Reality, Prozone, Manchester Airport, Deloitte, Apadmi, Fishawak and Harvey Nichols.

“The real feature for us is an academic plus experience for students who will be able to get a combination of GCSE and A Levels while having a chance to develop key skills that employers are telling us they need in the workplace,” said Sue Adamson, project manager for the Studio School.

“Whether they go to university or straight into the workplace, work placements are an integral part of delivering a programme that has contextualised learning and a curriculum that has been developed with the employers.

“We are extremely excited, there are not many studio schools across the country, and we are delighted to be able to open one of these in Knutsford.

“Knutsford Academy has a successful history of delivering an innovative curriculum to ensure the employability of students and this is something to add to that history.

“We are delighted by the number of employers that, both globally and locally, wanted to work with us and this is a great opportunity for students.”

Pathways include computing, broadcast media, design, performance and sport and leisure, the latter has seen the school forming partnerships with Manchester City, Preston North End and Prozone, a company which specialises in football analysis.

“The school will provide a new way of learning,” said head of the football academy Mark Worthington.

“The focus is on academic learning in the context of real life business projects.

“We are delighted to have developed close links with Preston North End, Hyde and Abbey Hey where our students will be given the opportunity to develop their sporting skills as well as gaining academic qualifications.”