Heysham High to become an academy

A consultation period has now ended with students, parents and staff, and governors have passed a resolution that the school will convert to academy status and join the Great Sankey Multi-Academy Trust.

The Department for Education has been informed of this decision and it is planned that the conversion will take place during the summer term.

Assistant head Matthew Hood said: “Since 2013, we have invested £650,000 in the learning environment and following a recent visit from Ofsted our work on improving the quality of learning was described as ‘tireless’ with a ‘culture of optimism and vibrancy’. As a school on the up we now believe that working closely with Great Sankey – an outstanding teaching school – will help us on the next stage of our journey from good to great.

“We will continue to be a community school with community governors and won’t be wasting time re-structuring, changing our name or changing our uniform.

“Instead John Shannon, our headteacher, will be working closely with Jon Wright, the headteacher at Great Sankey School (and former headteacher at Central Lancaster High School and National Leader in Education) and our staff will be offered a range of new training and development opportunities.

“Ultimately this will ensure that our pupils continue to get the knowledge, skills and character they need to thrive in further study and the workplace.”

The change will officially come into force in September.