£600,000 for new Catholic school

A NEW £1 million Roman Catholic primary school for east Oldham is a step nearer after councillors agreed to contribute more than half the costs.

The school will be created by closing Our Lady’s in Turf Pit Lane, Moorside, and by remodelling Sacred Heart School in Whetstone Hill Road, Derker.

The plans are top priority for the Salford Roman Catholic Diocese, and formal consultations will start shortly.

Both schools have reduced demand for places and funding problems.

Sacred Heart has only half of its 210 places filled, but has a larger site and its own school playing fields, while Our Lady’s has 8 per cent surplus places but can only fit 105 pupils into the building, has no school hall and is a restricted site.

Councillors have also heard that Sacred Heart serves a highly deprived area, among the worst 10 per cent in England.

They have agreed to contribute £600,000 from the council’s capital programme for primary schools towards the new school.

In a report, Veronica Jackson, executive director for people, communities and society, said: “A huge amount of pressure is being placed on the two schools because of the tight budgets they have to operate within as a result of the small pupil populations at each school.

“The establishment of a single, viable school would ensure a more efficient use of resources and would facilitate a move to a single age class.”

The new school would be one form entry, with a nursery, and would allow teachers to widen the curriculum, improve information technology skills, have new classrooms, a group room and space for one-to-one tuition, and cut down disruption from changes such as setting tables for school meals.

There would also be high quality outdoor learning space.

The proposals were first revealed in January last year, and are part of the plans to deal with the Hodge Clough, Watersheddings and Derker area schools, where eight primaries collectively have over 30 per cent excess places.