Future’s bright for our schools

Oldham Council has launched a competition to find a private sector partner to provide three new secondary schools and major rebuilds of others.

The competition, advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union, closes in June, 2010.

The first phase of the £170 million Building Schools for the Future programme will see a new Roman Catholic high school built on the site of the former Radclyffe Lower School on Broadway.

There will also be a remodelling of North Chadderton secondary school on the upper school site at Chadderton Hall Road.

And a new unit for children with autism will be built on the Failsworth School site.

Phase two of the programme will see significant remodelling at Hathershaw, Blue Coat and Crompton House schools and the building of the New Bridge Learning Centre for children with learning difficulties aged over 16.

By the end of 2014, all secondary schools in Oldham will either be new, including Saddleworth, or significantly refurbished, like Royton and Crompton.

Oldham’s two new academies at the Orb Mill and Brook Mill sites are not part of this package and will be in a separate contract.

Councillor Kay Knox, Cabinet member for children, young people and families, said: “We have reached a crucial point in the transformation of Oldham’s secondary schools where we will really start to see our ideas become reality.

“We will be building on what pupils, their parents and teachers have already told us they want from their new schools, and using the fantastic facilities of these new buildings as a springboard to help transform standards and bring communities together.”