Star Academies and Eton College have today announced a plan to bid to open three academic sixth form free schools in Oldham.
The school is one of three they are planning to open in the country, the others being in the West Midlands and on Teeside
The new post-16 colleges are being designed to help give young people who have done well in their GCSEs the opportunity to achieve the A-levels they need to go to Oxbridge and other elite universities.
The partners intend to bid in the next wave of the Department for Education’s Free School Programme, a process expected to get underway in the next few months, with a view to the colleges welcoming their first students as soon as 2025. Political leaders in Oldham, Dudley and Middlesbrough are fully supportive – and are assisting the development of the proposals.
If these bids are successful, the new colleges will be part of Star Academies, which runs both primary and secondary schools in communities which face significant challenges, including in the North and West Midlands. It is, by many measures, one of the best-performing multi-academy trusts in the country. The colleges will be overseen by a joint partnership board of representatives of Eton and Star Academies, which is chaired by Peter McKee a Star trustee and Eton’s Vice-Provost.
These co-educational colleges would include access to some of Eton’s best teachers, its clubs and its speaker events. Eton will also help students prepare for university applications and interviews and every year students will be invited to take part in a summer residential at Eton itself. The colleges’ small size will allow them to target a very specific academic education and will ensure that they do not disrupt the existing pattern of local post-16 education.
The curriculum is a tried and tested model, based on that of the London Academy of Excellence, a school that is sending 33 students from Newham, one of the capital’s most deprived boroughs, to Oxbridge this year. All students will start by taking four A-level courses, with a proportion dropping down to three once they are established at the school.
The admissions policies – designed in conjunction with University College London’s Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities – will be developed to specifically target young people who would most benefit on an ongoing basis. Each college is expected to admit 240 students per year.
Eton is committed to making an ongoing financial commitment to all three colleges in perpetuity, to ensure the development and provision of a deep and extensive curriculum offer guaranteed to be provided in the long term.
Political leaders in Oldham, Dudley and Middlesbrough councils are hugely enthusiastic in their support for these bids, recognising the contribution the new colleges could make to the young people in the area.
These towns were selected following a major research and consultation exercise that identified where there was most need for a college that could stretch high achieving young people in their sixth form years.
Councillor Arooj Shah, Leader of Oldham Council, said: “My first and foremost responsibility is to fight for Oldham and draw in support and investment from every corner. I’ll work across political and ideological divides to make that happen.
“For a young person growing up in Oldham, this is really exciting news, and comes after a lot of hard work behind the scenes with Eton, and with Star, to make this fantastic idea a reality.
“Eton and Star both have an outstanding reputation in providing the very best education – and that’s why I’m delighted that we can bring this incredible opportunity here to Oldham.
“This new sixth form will open up world-class academic opportunities for Oldham’s young people– providing an unrivalled educational experience that will enable every child, wherever they live and whatever their background, to fulfil their potential.
“Together with the outstanding Sixth Form College, school sixth forms and Oldham College, we are a family which recognises we have a generational responsibility to invest in young people so they realise their full potential.
“This project will improve opportunities and education outcomes for not just the families who live here now, but for generations to come.”
