Free school given the green light

FAILING . . . Collective Spirit in Chadderton

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A CONTROVERSIAL free school has been given the go-ahead by Oldham Council bosses.

Despite concerns raised over Oldham's existing free school, plans for another have been passed to meet the demand for more secondary places.

Three other schools will also be expanded under proposals which were voted through unanimously at a cabinet meeting last night.

Changes will be implemented to create 300 spaces for Year 7 pupils, ahead of next September's intake, and 700 spaces by 2021, in attempts to cope with the rising birth rate, new housing developments and an increased number of families moving to the borough.

Oldham's largest teaching union previously attacked the proposed free school, claiming that the borough's existing one - Collective Spirit, Chadderton - is failing pupils.

Oldham Council will be given £38.2m in government funding over the next two years to pay for additional school places.

Cabinet member for education and early years Councillor Amanda Chadderton said: "The population of Oldham is growing significantly.

"In the past five years we have seen a bulge in the primary sector and have invested a lot of money in this field.

"As you would expect, children get older and the focus turns to secondary expansion.

"I'm asking that cabinet agrees for the director of education Caroline Sutton to develop proposals for a brand new secondary school.

"We will need at least one new secondary school in this borough over the next five years.

"This is a particularly sensitive subject but there is no other way to do this.

"Through an academy, we would have to part-fund this which we can no longer afford.

"We hope as an authority we can influence which kind of sponsor we would like.

"This is in the infancy stage. We are not going to see a free school pop up in the next six months but we must get moving."

The new free school will cater for 1,500 pupils and will be run by groups such as charities or businesses meaning the council will not have to pay start-up costs.

However, the report stressed: "The council will seek to ensure that any free school will be able to demonstrate its capacity to provide good or outstanding provision and work closely with the local authority and the wider school community."

Cabinet members agreed to the expansion of Crompton House, Oldham Academy North and Oasis Academy to create the additional school spaces.

Building work will commence at Crompton House, Oldham's third most oversubscribed school, in spring to create space for 120 extra students each year.

Similarly, work will start at Oldham Academy North in Royton to make room for an additional 60 pupils.

Oasis Academy in Hollins will also take a further 60 pupils though building work is not needed at the site because it previously cut its numbers by the same amount.

Tony Harrison, joint Oldham branch secretary of the National Union of Teachers, previously said: "We have seen the chaos caused by the existing free school in Oldham and we would want to avoid that at all costs."