Academy will be world class, says new head

Principal designate, Colette Burgess

THE academy which will replace Grange School will be world class. That’s the pledge of Colette Burgess who will head the school which will open in the existing buildings in Rochdale Road next year.

It will then move into new, state-of-the-art facilities in Royton in 2012-13 as part of Oldham’s £230 million Building Schools for the Future overhaul.

Ms Burgess (42) is deputy head teacher at Wardle High School, Rochdale, where she also teaches science.

She has been appointed principal designate of the new academy, one of three being built in Oldham. Her first responsibility will be to work with existing staff to prepare for the opening and she told the Evening Chronicle: “It is a massively exciting opportunity.

“Everything that is going on in Oldham about supporting communities to live together, to work together, to go to school together . . . the planning for the academies is so closely linked to the vision Oldham Council has for the borough.

“I just cannot see see how it cannot be an outstanding, world-class school within a short amount of time. The new academy will transform how we educate young people.

“It will be an exciting place to learn with an innovative and varied curriculum designed to nurture and motivate students, raise aspirations and deliver achievement for all.”

Ms Burgess is a biochemistry graduate who worked for Unilever and an American firm in Pennsylvania, as well as lecturing part-time at Manchester Metropolitan University.

She took two years out after the birth of her son, now aged 15, before switching to teaching and said: “On day one at my first teaching practice I thought, ‘Why haven’t I been doing this all my life?’ It was a revelation to me, I just loved it.”

Ms Burgess taught at inner city schools in Manchester before moving to Wardle High in 2006 when it was in special measurers. It has recently been judged as good with outstanding features.

The Edutrust Academies Charitable Trust (EACT) will run the new academy and Ms Burgess was the unanimous choice of an interview panel made up of EACT, council and government representatives as well as pupils.

Councillor Kay Knox, cabinet member for children, young people and families, said: “We have in Colette Burgess an excellent principal designate with the expertise and experience to lead the development of an outstanding academy.

Ms Burgess completes Oldham’s academy principal line-up. John Alder, head at Kaskenmoor, will lead the academy which will replace his school and South Chadderton while Jackie Nellis, head at Carlton Bolling College, Bradford, has been given the top job at the academy which will replace Breeze Hill and Counthill schools.