CONSULTATION over the proposed borough-wide Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme will resume during 2008.

Under the scheme, every secondary school in the borough will either be rebuilt or refurbished. Three new controversial Academy schools will be built on new sites and there would be substantial investment in areas such as new technology.

Five existing schools – those at Breeze Hill, Counthill, Grange, Kaskenmoor and South Chadderton – would close. It is hoped work on new schools could start in 2011.

Detailed plans for the programme – worth more than £200 million – are being developed by the council with teachers, school governors, trades unions, parents and pupils, to be invited to comment again in 2008.

  • OLDHAM Sixth Form College is to expand and strengthen linkages to UCO and Oldham College. Plans remain under wraps but are likely to build on success with science students – whose numbers have increased by 26 per cent in the last three years – by building a science centre.