DARWEN Aldridge Community Academy has been held up as a beacon of success in a new national report about the future of education.

Rod Aldridge, chairman of the Aldridge Foundation which sponsors DACA, has issued a 19-page document on his beliefs that entrepreneurship should influence the national curriculum.

The report will be sent to the Prime Minister, the education secretary as well as leading business leaders and educationalists.

It highlights how DACA is helping the local community by securing a £1.2million NESTA grant for community projects and raising aspirations with the Darwen Creates team, which involves mentoring by local business people and development of business ideas in class and in dedicated ‘business incubation units’.

In its second year of opening, DACA recorded a 26 per cent point improvement in the number of students achieving five or more A* to C grade GCSEs.

The key recommendations of the report are to encourage an entrepreneurial mindset at the heart of teacher training, that the National Curriculum should embed entrepreneurship at the centre of school life, and that the Government should convene a national forum of educationalists and employers.

The report states: “We put entrepreneurship at the heart of all our academies, not because we want all students to set up businesses, but because the mindset can change the way young people think about education, and the challenges and opportunities the world offers.”

Click on the link below to read the full report.