Surprise exit for academies boss

FLASHBACK to November last year as Sir Bruce Liddington (right) and Oldham Academy North principal Colette Burgess signed a steel girder from the new building.

THE head of the academies chain which runs Oldham Academy North has unexpectedly left his job.

Sir Bruce Liddington was said to be the best paid person in school education, with a reported £280,816 salary as director-general of E-ACT.

A spokesman refused to comment on speculation that the organisation’s board believed the former head teacher was attempting to expand the chain too quickly.

He said he was unable to comment on Sir Bruce’s departure at this stage.

E-ACT runs 17 academies in England, including Oldham Academy North, and has others in development.

Sir Bruce rose to prominence after turning around the failing Northampton School for Boys. He became a key adviser to the school’s academies programme and the school commissioner for England before joining E-ACT in February, 2009

Oldham Academy North replaced Grange School, Oldham, in September, 2010, and will move into a multi-million pound building in Broadway, Royton, in April, 2013.

Sir Bruce took part in a ceremony at the site in November, joining principal Colette Burgess and pupils to sign a steel girder which will be part of the building.

He said the academy would be the jewel in E-ACT’s crown, adding: “It is rare you get an opportunity to move a school from where it is dominated by pupils from just one part of the community to an area where it will be genuinely mixed, genuinely comprehensive, genuinely accessible to all.”

The organisation was founded by millionaire peer Lord Bhatia who was suspended from Parliament for eight months in 2010 for wrongly claiming thousands of pounds in expenses.

He quit as E-ACT chairman in 2009 after its board was found to have misspent around £70,000.