Free school site revealed

EARMARKED . . . the site of the former Breeze Hill School

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A NEW free school, accommodating up to 1,500 pupils, could be built at the former Breeze Hill site, it was announced yesterday.

The news comes after Oldham Council's Cabinet met to note that multi-academy Trust Oasis Community Learning, which runs 48 academies in the country, including Oasis Academy Oldham and Oasis Academy Limeside, had been successful in their application to create a new secondary school in Oldham.

The new free school is expected to be a 10-form entry school, catering for 1,500 pupils when full. It follows a need for more secondary school places in Oldham following rising birth rates, new housing developments and more families moving to the borough.

It is one of 131 new schools proposed across the country under wave 12 of the free school programme announced in April, 2017.

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) agreed to fund, procure a site and manage the construction project to build the new school within the borough and, at last night's meeting, Cabinet agreed to prioritise part of the site formerly occupied by Breeze Hill School at Roxbury Avenue. Oldham Council leader Jean Stretton said: "We are aware of the recent success of the Oasis Academy Trust in securing a new free school for Oldham and have been working with them to allocate a site for its development.

"We have been considering suitable sites, taking a number of factors into account.

"These include the availability of the site, long-term regeneration plans and the feedback of our elected members.

"The preferred site would be the eastern portion of the site formerly occupied by Breezehill School.

"Demand for school places is high in this area of Oldham. A new school on this site would help us to ensure more children get a place at their preferred choice of secondary school.

"As a consequence, Cabinet agreed this evening to prioritise the agreed site at the former Breezehill School.

"There will now be a public consultation so we can hear and consider any concerns raised by local residents."

The proposed site for the new Oasis free school has remained vacant since 2012.

The former Breezehill and Counthill schools merged together in 2010 to form Waterhead Academy, with the school eventually moving to a new school site in Hollins Road in 2012.

Phoenix Free School, a school where pupils would be taught by former military personnel, had hoped to open at the former Breezehill site, however Oldham Council was given permission to dispose of the former school, with buildings being demolished in 2013.

The Government pulled the plug on Phoenix the following year after fearing it "would not be able to meet the rigorous criteria set for free schools".

Free schools were launched as a new form of school, outside local authority control, by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition in 2010. They are intended to create additional school places, however are free of national curriculum limits but are required to meet standard performance measures and are subject to Ofsted inspections.

Oasis Community Learning state that they have a track record of improving schools, with 75 per cent judged "good" or "outstanding" by Ofsted.

Oasis regional director Rachel Jones stated when the new free school was first announced that the new secondary will provide " exceptional education at the heart of the community, where each young person is given the opportunities that they deserve to make great progress."

Oldham's existing free schools however have both been forced to close this year.

Another free school in the borough, Collective Spirit, on Butterworth Lane, will close this month after it was slammed by education inspectors for failing pupils with appalling standards.

Ofsted inspectors placed the school in "special measures" after finding every aspect of the school to be "inadequate".

It will be the second free school in Oldham to close this year alongside The GM University Technical College.