Principal praises college’s mission

YOU ain’t seen nothin’ yet! That was the message from principal Nick Brown as he charted 17 years of success at Oldham Sixth Form College.

And he told guests at the college’s annual celebration evening that the performance of its students would turn Oldham into a high achieving, diverse and peaceful borough.

More than 80 students were presented with awards at last night’s event and around 300 received certificates.

Guests included Chief Supt Caroline Ball, head of Oldham Police, and deputy council leader Jackie Stanton.

Mr Brown said sixth-form provision in Oldham was the third worst in the country before the college opened in 1992.

Since then the college has regularly been judged outstanding by the education watchdog Ofsted and is in the top 10 per cent nationally for students’ progress.

It has 2,250 students — 1,500 more than it originally hoped — and a large waiting list, attracting hundreds of students from neighbouring boroughs.

“It would be quite simple for the college to regularly head the national league tables; it would merely have to adjust its entry requirements,” said Mr Brown.

“However, its purpose is to cultivate the latent potential of young people in this part of Greater Manchester.

“Consistently high achievement is not a flash in the pan or the hallmark of a white elephant as its detractors described it in 1992.”

Mr Brown said that the college was leading the nation in a science renaissance. Its planned science centre is on track to open at least 18 months early and Cambridge University is looking to it for advice for its own science centre.

He added: “In 2008-09 we stated that our new mission was to become an inclusive college with the results of a selective school; in other words to become something like an inclusive Manchester Grammar.

“We aimed to explode the myth that to be described as inclusive is a euphemism for average achievement and the myth that a selective mission is in any way difficult.

“There is no reason why a college with a social conscience should not be academically outstanding, for that is what we are.”