Gentoo

Gentoo (formerly Sunderland Housing Group) is the sixth largest employer in Sunderland. It is a not-for-profit organisation that uses its business efficiency and surplus generating activities to re-invest in local communities. Its approach to regeneration includes local community consultation and involvement alongside social investment. The Group has a dedicated social investment team that works with partners, including local schools, to create opportunities in education, employment and enterprise.

With the building of the new Academy, Gentoo is supporting the Chief Executive in leading on curriculum development and transforming the life chances of learners by raising aspirations, creating appropriate vocational pathways and offering models of regeneration and achievement for the local community.

As Lead Sponsor, Gentoo has committed to:

• working with the Academy Chief Executive to provide strategic leadership for the Academy;
• having a direct impact on raising attainment and aspirations within the Academy and, through its active participation in city-wide collaboration, across all secondary schools within the city;
• working in partnership to provide collaborative models of innovative curriculum design and skills development;
• making a city-wide contribution through the Education Leadership Board in addition to leadership within the Academy and with the local community;
• challenging current orthodoxies in the education system; and
• leading on vocational developments within the Academy and through city-wide collaborative partnerships, to provide models of enterprise for young people that will raise aspirations and strengthen economic and ‘real world’ awareness and competitiveness.

Sunderland City Council

Sunderland Council, the Academy’s co-sponsor, has a fundamental commitment to ensuring that all schools and colleges in the City provide equal access to high quality education for all students of all abilities. In consultation with the DCSF, the City has developed the ‘Sunderland Model’ for their academies programme the vision for which is to enable genuine partnership and collaboration between all schools. The new Academy will become a partner within this collaborative network and will adhere to the key principles of the Sunderland Model, namely: the Local Authority Admissions policies;

• full accessibility to students with special educational needs and the policy for increased inclusion in all mainstream schools;
• the Local Authority Behaviour and Exclusions policies;
• full support of the authority’s post-16 strategy for joint sixth form centres; and
• collaborative 14-19 partnerships including shared skills centres
• where appropriate, collaborate fully with all other local authority partnership initiatives.

Private Donor – Mr Bob Murray

Mr Murray CBE, a very successful local businessman and former Chairman of Sunderland Association Football Club, has made a personal donation to the Academy and takes an active role in its development.