It has been an exciting couple of weeks for the Brian Clarke Academy.

We have been hiring

I have spent my time heavily involved in recruiting the founding members of teaching staff who will be joining the school.

Recruiting the right staff at all levels is absolutely crucial to delivering on our outstanding curriculum and pastoral provision. Our recruitment processes are extremely rigorous, and I have been joined by experts from across the Trust schools to support in making these appointments. A huge thank you to staff and pupils at St Anne’s Academy, The Blue Coat School, Mayfield Primary school and East Crompton St George’s for making all the recruitment possible.

During recruitment, I have been looking for people who really understand what exceptional provision looks like in their subject domain; people who are absolutely committed to the mission of Ambition, Community and Excellence for our young people and those who are excited about the journey we are on to building an outstanding school for the community of Oldham.

We have been overwhelmed with applications to the posts that have been advertised and I am looking forward to sharing the identities of those appointed in the very near future and also continuing this process as we start to also recruit into those vitally important support staff roles too – the backbone of any school!

Our admissions team are in the process of finalising the offers for Brian Clarke with the Local Authority. We have been heavily oversubscribed for the 240 places receiving nearly 600 applications.

A reminder of important dates

• Offer Day for Brian Clarke is Wednesday 23rd February 2022 (check your emails from 9am).
• Parents/carers will receive their Local Authority offer on Tuesday 1st March 2022.
• Following that date, parents have until 3pm on Wednesday 9th March 2022 to confirm whether they accept the offer of a place at Brian Clarke.

Transition Day

What’s been really exciting is confirming the arrangements around transition. The transition day for Brian Clarke for our founding cohort of Year 7 pupils will take place on Thursday the 30th June at the Blue Coat School. A transition evening for parents/carers will also take place at Blue Coat school for families who have accepted a place for their child to attend Brian Clarke the week before the transition day. Parents/carers will receive all the relevant information in relation to transition as those dates approach. Our team of staff are also very much looking forward to beginning the process of visiting our founding group of Year 7s towards the end of May once SATs have been completed.