We have been listening carefully to prospective parent and student feedback.

After our latest Open Evening, we sent out a feedback form to parents to gain a better understanding of what they thought of Brian Clarke Academy so far. We received so many warm and wonderful comments.

There were some questions asked about our early start to life before our new school building on Bloom St, Oldham is completed.

Based on this feedback, we have created a video addressing everything we were asked which included questions such as location, temporary building, facilities and catering.

We hope that the video serves as a great insight into our first few months located at Blue Coat School.

Applicantions are still open

A reminder that applications for Brian Clarke are still open and will close on the 10th December. If you would like to add us to your list of school choices then applying for our academy won’t affect your Local Authority submission. We are a bonus choice for you this year only. Apply now

It starts with you.

It’s been a really insightful and heartwarming few weeks as we continue to build and shape Brian Clarke.  

I have had the pleasure of being invited into a number of primary and secondary schools. I’ve met Headteachers and parents face to face to answer any questions they have about the new school. I’ve also been able to talk to lots of year 6s about Brian Clarke – our hopes and aspirations for their futures.  

A huge thank you to St Hildas, Stanley Road, Burnley Brow and Buckstones primary. Getting a sense of the impact of the pandemic on primary and how the various schools are ‘recovering’ is really helping with understanding the complexities of the longer term challenges and how we use this knowledge to build our responsive curriculum and pastoral systems at Brian Clarke 

Its also been lovely to explore developing the ethos of the school with school leaders and representatives from Oldham and beyond. Our children will be learning in a multi-faith, multicultural and multi-talented community (a microcosm of the borough) – this provides amazing opportunities for our young people to develop an understanding of one another. Thank you again to Oasis Leesbrook, St James Church of England in Bolton and the Reverend Jean Hurlston at Ashton Sixth Form College who have so generously shared their insights and experiences. 

I recently attended a wonderful Kickstart event that brought together business leaders from across Oldham in the common mission to support our young people into employment. 

And…..we’ve also been finalising the detail of the school uniform, PE kits and competitive team wears!  

Hence, it’s been a very busy couple of weeks since my last update but I have been truly amazed by how generous people have been with their time in supporting the development of Brian Clarke and their absolute commitment to the young people and community of Oldham. 

Please watch out for our next video coming soon which will give you an insight in terms of our temporary accommodation whilst we are on the Blue Coat site for our initial opening. 

We are pleased and excited to announce that we have been granted planning permission for our new, temporary school building situated on the site of The Blue Coat School.

This will ensure The Brian Clarke CE Academy will open on schedule for Year 7 in September 2022. A move to our permanent home will then take place in the spring of 2023.

The accommodation will include all the necessary classrooms, science laboratories and IT infrastructure that will be required for the short stay on the Egerton Road site. The modular construction will be comprised of brand new, purpose-built units, often used by schools as a permanent solution but in this case, will only be on-site and in use for a short period of time.

The temporary solution is required due to delays in the original new school approval process brought about by the Covid19 pandemic and has the full support of Oldham Council leadership, ensuring that the borough has the much needed 240 new school places on time.

The Headteacher designate for the school Allison Ash said:

“We are so pleased that planning permission for our new temporary school building school has been granted, hot on the heels of the planning permission for our permanent home. As the former Deputy Head at The Blue Coat School, it will be a real “home away from home” for me when we open here in September 2022! We have taken the upmost care in the planning of the temporary site to ensure that Brian Clarke CE Academy students get a brilliant start to their school lives.”

You can view the design and site plans and download a copy of the full architect “design and access statement” for the new, permanent school building by visiting the Our Building page here.

After a successful open evening at Blue Coat, it was evident that some parents had missed our first virtual open event that was conducted in July. Please see here a recap of that event containing lots of useful information surrounding The Brian Clarke Church of England Academy.

It’s been a great start to the academic year for Brian Clarke and lots to update on.

We have had the warmest of welcomes into Mayfield Primary School by Headteacher Mark Couper-Barton and his staff. Mayfield will be our home for this year and we couldn’t be happier. Being based in a primary school allows us to gain tremendous insight into life at KS1 and 2, continue to see children and their teachers in the classroom and perhaps most importantly enjoy the wonderful school dinners!

Welcome Vicky

Towards the end of the last academic year we welcomed Vicky Lawton to the team as my Personal Assistant. Vicky has already been out visiting local primary schools and getting to meet with and speak to pupils and their parents.

Open Evening

We also had a fantastic face to face open evening held at our sister school Blue Coat school attended by over 250 families. It was lovely to finally be able to meet families face to face to discuss and showcase the opportunities Brian Clarke will provide for the young people of Oldham.

I was really touched by the number of people that took the time at the end of my talk to ask questions about the school and also discuss how excited they were.

Over the next few weeks we are continuing to engage with our local primary schools and although it’s not our open day, we will have a presence at Blue Coat school on the Saturday 2nd of October. If you have not yet had chance to attend one of our open events please do come and see us with any questions.

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As always, please follow us on our social media channels. We want to learn where our audience is and how we can best serve you up to date content. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for our latest news and videos.

It’s been a busy end of term for the new Brian Clarke Academy which opens the doors to year 7 in September 2022. 

I have spent the last few weeks of my days as Deputy at Blue Coat visiting local primary schools to tell them about Brian Clarke and its offer for the children of Oldham. It was really exciting to be able to share our mission and vision and meet some year 5s and answer their questions. 

A huge thank you to all those primaries that welcomed me and spent time with me – Mayfield Primary school, Royton Hall Primary School, Whitegate End, St Thomas’s Werneth, St Paul’s Royton and St Hilda’s. I’m really looking forward to meeting more local primary Heads in September. 

Thursday 15th July was also the very first virtual open event. Thankfully the technology worked and having over 150 parents turn up on one of the hottest days of the year was really impressive. I received lots of important questions about the new school which have now all been replied to. Again it felt wonderful to be able to finally share some of the detail of the plans including the ‘birth’ of Brian Clarke, the curriculum, a virtual tour of the building, the uniform and admissions process. If you did not get a chance to attend the virtual event, you can now watch the presentation online. Please visit tinyurl.com/3rvm72cc

Summer will be busy too – we have already begun receiving applications for Brian Clarke for those students that will be entering year 7 in September 2022. Like the virtual event, we have been really happy with just how many of you have already applied and the interest the school is receiving. We continue to be available to answer any questions you have about our new school. 

As we enter the next exciting chapter with Brian Clarke Academy, we ask you to follow us and show your support on Facebook and Twitter. This is where you will receive all the latest news and video updates from the school. We have so much to look forward to and we can not wait to share it with you.

Although physical work has yet to start on the new Brian Clarke CE Academy, we sat down with chosen construction team, Willmott Dixon earlier today, to discuss the project status, and were given a surprising sneak peek.

Allison Ash, the newly appointed headteacher of Brian Clarke CE Academy, visited Willmott Dixon to learn more about the new school’s status and vision. After talking over blueprints and 3D plans, Project Surveyor Pearce Darnell-Walsh and Operations Manager Simon Atkinson dialed into their lead Architect remotely to show Allison a 3D animated fly-through of the school, to see what it will look like when it is finally built.

We virtually toured the entrance and dining halls, the different floors of the building as well as certain learner spaces. The animation really helped us gain a true flavour of the space and its offerings. It was an amazing insight, and we plan on sharing it with you soon.

Keep an eye out for upcoming updates by following us on our social channels (found at the top right of the page).