Oulder Hill Leadership Academy (formerly Oulder Hill Community School) is a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

secondary school for 11- to 16-year-olds, located in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

The school fully opened to 13–16 years in 1977, under the leadership of its first Headmaster was Dr Morris. The largest school in the Metropolitan borough of Rochdale, it taught over 1000 students. The school buildings also included the Gracie Fields theatre, a 25-metre swimming pool, tennis courts and extensive fields for football and rugby. In 2003, the school merged with Rydings Special School, a local school for children with disabilities. The merger required a complete reconstruction of the school, which began in 2005 and finished in 2008, and involved the redevelopment of the current site as well as an entirely new building being built on the former playing fields and tennis courts. The Oulder Hill School building remains with the same name and Rydings Special School has been named Redwood Secondary school. The building is now owned by OPERON and the school pays £1 million a year to rent the school from 6 am to 6 pm. Once a thriving part of the school, Oulder Hill's

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

began to decline from the year 2000 onwards. The sixth form closed to new students when Rochdale Sixth Form College opened in September 2010. At the time of closure, the sixth form had about 150 students, down from over 600 when it was first established. Previously a community school administered by Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council, in March 2022 Oulder Hill Community School converted to academy status and was renamed Oulder Hill Leadership Academy. It is now sponsored by

Star Academies Star Academies (formerly Tauheedul Education Trust) is a multi-academy trust (MAT) that operates 28 free schools and academies. There are nineteen secondary schools and nine primary schools under the jurisdiction of the trust. As a multi-academ ...

Notable former pupils

* Waterloo Road star

Shannon Flynn Shannon Flynn (born 22 August 1996) is an English actress and presenter from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, who is best known for appearing in ''Friday Download as well as Emily James in the BBC school-based drama, ''Waterloo Road''., and had ...

attended the school *Singer-songwriter

Lisa Stansfield Lisa Jane Stansfield (born 11 April 1966) is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. Her career began in 1980 when she won the singing competition ''Search for a Star''. After appearances in various television shows and releasing her first ...

attended Oulder Hill

References

External links

Oulder Hill Leadership Academy official website
{{authority control Secondary schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale Academies in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale Schools in Rochdale Star Academies