St Augustine head to lead new RC school

Mike McGhee: “Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a fabulous new community of faith and learning.”

ST AUGUSTINE’S head teacher Mike McGhee will lead borough’s new Catholic high school.

He had been appointed designate head teacher of the school which will merge the Werneth secondary and Our Lady’s, Royton.

The news comes as councillors agreed to bring forward its opening by a year to September 1, 2011.

It will operate on the existing sites before moving into a new building in Broadway, Chadderton, two years later.

Mr McGhee is only the second head teacher of St Augustine’s.

Married with three children, he worked in the physics department at Christie Hospital before qualifying as a teacher.

He joined St Augustine’s as deputy head teacher 10 years ago and became head in 2008 aged 44.

He said: “I consider it a great honour and privilege to be entrusted with the responsibility of leading the two schools as we continue the hard work of preparing for the new school.

“We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a fabulous new community of faith and learning that will be outstanding in every way.

“The two existing schools have a wealth of talent in the staff and young people that is laying firm foundations for the new school.

“This term has already seen a great response from children in Years 3 to 6 to the plans and designs for the new school which augurs well for the future.

“Pupils in all Oldham primary and secondary Catholic schools are contributing in a variety of ways, most significantly in choosing the school name which will be announced shortly.”

Canon Eugene Dolan, a member of the new school’s shadow board of governors, said: “Mike is probably better equipped for the job than anyone else in the country as far as I am concerned. He has proved himself massively in a very short amount of time.

“Mike loves it here and he has already done a lot of work with the two schools to prepare for whoever was to run the new school.

“I will be surprised if he is not a very good appointment. He is young and he has got the enthusiasm.”

The new RC high school was threatened when the Government axed the country’s multi-billion pound Building School for the Future project, scrapping several secondary rebuilding projects in Oldham.

But it was given the go-ahead after a review along with three academies and the refurbishment of North Chadderton School.

The Bishop of Salford, the Rt Rev Bishop Terence Brain, welcomed the decision to bring forward the opening.

He said: “This new plan had the advantage of enabling a speedy appointment of a head teacher for the new school.

“This decision will also give the new governors and head teacher the opportunity to create a genuine single school community, a single curriculum and — most importantly — a single ethos.”