Oasis Charitable Trust

Oasis Charitable Trust (known as Oasis) is a UK-based Christian registered charity. It was founded by the Reverend Steve Chalke in September 1985. Chalke had been assistant minister at Tonbridge Baptist Church, Kent, for four years. He left this job with the aim of setting up a hostel for homeless young people. Oasis now has over 5,000 staff in the UK as well as thousands more volunteers.

Oasis Charitable Trust
Formation1985 (1985)
FounderSteve Chalke
Founded atUnited Kingdom
TypeCharitable organization
Legal status
  • Registered Charity
  • Company Limited by Guarantee
Area served
Services
Websitewww.oasisuk.org
www.oasisglobal.org
Charity Commission. Oasis Charitable Trust, registered charity no. 1026487.

Since its foundation Oasis has also developed into a family of charities now working on four continents (11 countries) around the world, with the goal of delivering housing, education, training, youthwork and healthcare. Oasis is now a significant voluntary sector provider, delivering services for local authorities and national governments, as well as self funded initiatives.[1]

Oasis currently works in 51 local neighbourhoods – 35 of which are in the UK.

Oasis Church Waterloo

In 2003, under Steve Chalke's leadership, Oasis, having become responsible for the buildings of Christ Church and Upton Chapel, in Waterloo, central London, worked with the existing members there to form what was initially known as Church.co.uk. Since then it has been renamed as Oasis Church, Waterloo.

Christ Church and Upton Chapel was founded as Surrey Chapel in 1783, and was to provide a major influence in the start of the Ragged School Movement – which provided schools for local children from poor homes – and also supported the birth of the Shaftesbury Society, the YMCA and the Bible Society. In the 1800s it was also influential in the anti-slavery movement; William Wilberforce and friends made its building a venue for many of their anti-slavery meetings, and its spire, built in 1867, is named the Lincoln Tower, donated in memory of Abraham Lincoln who was both inspired and supported by in his work to achieve the emancipation of the slaves of North America through the network of friends based in London.

Since 2003 a wide range of community services focussed on the half-mile radius around the building, have been developed including a children’s centre, a primary school, a secondary school, various adult education opportunities, a foodbank, a debt advice centre, a community farm, a coffee shop, as well as becoming responsible for the local public library and launching various other youth projects and programmes.[2]

Further Oasis churches have developed running alongside the communities of Oasis Academies in Salford, Oldham, Brightstowe, Bristol, Enfield, Southampton (Lord's Hill & Mayfield), Immingham and Wintringham.[3]

The Oasis church network has five values which are at the heart of their work: inclusion, interdependence, intimacy, involvement and influence.[4]

Stop The Traffik

Stop The Traffik is one of the Oasis subsidiary charities. It is a global coalition working in nearly 100 countries and in partnership with multiple other charitable organisations, businesses and anti-trafficking agencies with the goal of disrupting and preventing human trafficking.[5]

Oasis Community Housing

Oasis Community Housing delivers bespoke and effective services for vulnerably housed and homeless people, in the North East as well as in South London. Annually it supports over 1000 people with housing needs.[6]

The Oasis Foundation

The Foundation focuses on commissioning and disseminating research, on informing and influencing social policy but, most importantly, on promoting and supporting the role of local churches in public service delivery as an integrated part of their purpose.[7]

Oasis Community Learning

Oasis Community Learning[8] is a multi-academy trust and one of Oasis Trust's subsidiary charities. It has an UID of 4076 [9] It acts as an umbrella group to govern the Oasis Academies which are schools classed as academies. The first three Oasis academies in Enfield Lock, Grimsby and Immingham, opened in September 2007, with six more, two in Bristol, two in Southampton, two in Croydon and one in Salford, opening in September 2008. Since then, Oasis has grown to be one of the country's largest Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) and is currently responsible for 53 schools around England; a mix of primary, secondary and all-through academies.[10] [11]

Three quarters of the trust’s academies operate in the UK’s most deprived areas, with most rated by Ofsted as failing at the time they were taken over. The trust have guided forty schools out of special measures. 19 per cent of the 52 Oasis academies classified as failing, that is eight have been told they 'require improvement' and two are deemed 'inadequate'.[12]

Chalke says "Turning round a school is sometimes a quick fix, it really, truly is. And sometimes it’s a really long, hard, hard job". There are two or three persistently troubled schools, with a 50 year history of problems and the trust works with the DFE and Ofsted to address them, according to Chalke. [12]

Oasis has a long term strategy for enhancing the performance of its schools. Firstly it has devised a standard curriculum, that each school can safely adopt knowing it will deliver the National Curriculum. Secondly it has invested in staff training so they are focused on improving the outcomes for the students, and thirdly, through its Horizons scheme it is providing each member of staff and student with a tablet. [13]

Primary
  • Oasis Academy Aspinal, Gorton, Manchester
  • Oasis Academy Bank Leaze, Bristol
  • Oasis Academy Blakenhale Infants, Garretts Green, Birmingham
  • Oasis Academy Blakenhale Junior, Garretts Green, Birmingham
  • Oasis Academy Boulton, Soho, Birmingham
  • Oasis Academy Broadoak, Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside
  • Oasis Academy Byron, Coulsdon, London
  • Oasis Academy Connaught, Knowle, Bristol
  • Oasis Academy Firvale, Sheffield
  • Oasis Academy Foundry, Soho, Birmingham
  • Oasis Academy Harpur Mount, Harpurhey, Manchester
  • Oasis Academy Henderson Avenue, Scunthorpe
  • Oasis Academy Hobmoor, Yardley, Birmingham
  • Oasis Academy Johanna, Lower Marsh, London
  • Oasis Academy Limeside, Limeside, Oldham
  • Oasis Academy Long Cross, Bristol
  • Oasis Academy Marksbury Road, Bristol
  • Oasis Academy New Oak, Bristol
  • Oasis Academy Nunsthorpe, Grimsby
  • Oasis Academy Parkwood, Scunthorpe
  • Oasis Academy Pinewood, Collier Row, London
  • Oasis Academy Putney, London
  • Oasis Academy Ryelands, South Norwood, London
  • Oasis Academy Short Heath, Erdington, Birmingham
  • Oasis Academy Skinner Street, Gillingham
  • Oasis Academy Warndon, Worcester
  • Oasis Academy Watermead, Sheffield
  • Oasis Academy Woodview, Edgbaston, Birmingham

Secondary

Under construction

All-through

Ethos and the 9 habits

Each academy in the Oasis Community Learning group adopts the Oasis ethos and students and staff are encouraged to align themselves to these values. They are open about these being rooted in protestant Christian teaching, but encourage students to celebrate the richness of their own faiths.[14]

It aims to

  • be inclusive
  • to treat people equally while respecting differences
  • be committed to healthy, open relationships
  • show hope that things can change and be transformed
  • persevere and to keep going [14]

The Oasis 9 Habits are the bespoke and unique approach to character development. These are promoted within the school, and provide the pupils with a benchmark for behaviour.

  • compassionate, patient, humble
  • joyful, honest, hopeful
  • considerate, forgiving and self-controlled[14]

Oasis Horizons

Horizons is a scheme to upskill each adult and child in the Oasis Community Learning group by loaning them a Apple iPad tablet so they can access enhanced on-line learning both together in class and at home.[15] Oasis explains that this

  • addresses the inequality agenda
  • allows Oasis to develop a more exciting curriculum taking advantage of hundreds of online apps
  • allows staff to work more efficiency, reducing the time needed to perform routine tasks
  • allows students and families to access resources at home involving families to be more involved in the students education.
  • prepares students for the next stage in their careers or in employment. [16]

Oasis Restore

Oasis is taking over the management of the Medway Secure Training Centre (Medway Childrens Prison) from G4S and HM Prisons Service. It will reopen in March 2021. [11] The focus will be on rehabilitation not retaliation, the youngsters will be called students not prisonners or inmates. To the youngster the only day that matters is the day they leave. Through education and a co-curriculum, Oasis hopes to develop a pathway for them towards that day that they can follow when they leave. There will be room for 64 youngsters aged between 12 and 17 who may be staying from a few days to several years.[12]

References
  1. "Home - Oasis Global Site". www.oasisglobal.org.
  2. "Home". Oasis Hub Waterloo. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-04-01. Retrieved 2010-01-09.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Vision, goals and values - Oasis Waterloo Hub". www.oasiswaterloo.org.
  5. "STOP THE TRAFFIK - People shouldn't be bought and sold". STOP THE TRAFFIK. Archived from the original on 2016-12-26. Retrieved 2016-12-28.
  6. "Oasis Community Housing - Hope not homelessness". Oasis Community Housing. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  7. "Oasis Foundation". oasis.foundation.
  8. Charity Commission. Oasis Community Learning, registered charity no. 1109288.
  9. "OASIS COMMUNITY LEARNING - GOV.UK". get-information-schools.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2014-10-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. "Oasis: The Evangelical Christians opening a children's prison – Corporate Watch". corporatewatch.org. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  12. "Oasis leader on his vision for country's first secure school". Schools Week. 5 July 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  13. "Oasis Horizons - Oasis Academy Leesbrook". www.oasisacademyleesbrook.org. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  14. "Oasis Ethos and Habits - Oasis Academy Leesbrook". www.oasisacademyleesbrook.org. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  15. "Oasis Horizons -". www.oasisacademysilvertown.org. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  16. "Frequently Asked Questions -". www.oasisacademysilvertown.org. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
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