Tommyfield Outdoor Market approved for use as new Eton-backed school

Outside Tommyfield Market in Oldham town centre.

The Department of Education has rubberstamped a ‘Heads of Terms’ agreement, which proposes giving away the land currently used by Tommyfield Market’s outdoor traders.

The stallholders are due to move to a new space on George Street later this year. If a full contract is signed, their former site – an almost 240-year-old trading ground named after the 18th century pig-breeder who owned it, Thomas Whitaker – could be bulldozed to make way for the unique new school. 

The Sixth Form would support ‘bright but underpriveleged’ kids from the area into top universities, according to council bosses. It would be managed by education trust Star Academies and financially backed by a £1m kickstarter from Eton College, the £60k-a-year school that educated Boris Johnson, Prince William and Tom Hiddleston.

Coun Arooj Shah, Leader of Oldham Council, said:  “This is fantastic news for Oldham and, most importantly, for the children and young people who will benefit from this opportunity.”

And Simon Henderson, Headmaster of Eton College, and Sir Hamid Patel CBE, Chief Executive of Star Academies, added in a statement:  “We are delighted to sign Heads of Terms for the Tommyfield market site and are thrilled that the new Eton Star College will be so central to Oldham’s regeneration.

“The college will offer young people from Oldham and surrounding areas a new alternative for their post-16 education, and one optimised for the specific needs of disadvantaged young people with academic talent. Its defining mission will be for many of our students to secure places at the world’s very best universities.”

While the government has formally approved the terms, this does not mean the land has officially changed hands yet. Both parties will still need to come to a formal agreement about the sale or lease of the land.

But the government approval does mean that the site does not need to be offered at public market or sold via a procurement exercise, which is the usual policy for disposing of council-owned land.

Once the full contract is signed and if planning permission is granted, construction on the school can begin.

The project has previously come under fire by local economic and education experts. These have included fears the town centre land could be used in ways that are of higher economic benefit to the town, and fears the new school will simply ‘cherry-pick’ good students from the surrounding colleges, which could affect their ability to fund and offer as many A-Level courses.

The Eton and Star heads have previously claimed they intend to ‘work with’ schools in the area.