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Higham Lane School

Higham Lane School

New Secondary School- Higham Lane North Academy- Approved “in Principle” for Opening in Nuneaton!

Higham Lane School Media Release

New Secondary School- Higham Lane North Academy- Approved “in Principle” for Opening in Nuneaton! 

Higham Lane School is delighted to announce that the Department for Education has approved “in principle” our application to open a new secondary school in Nuneaton- Higham Lane North Academy!

The letter from the Department for Education states:

“The Secretary of State for Education has decided that your application should be approved “in-principle”. This means that it was assessed to be strong enough to be kept in the process for now but will not progress formally to the pre-opening stage until such time as the conditions described within this letter are met.

Your school will be approved into pre-opening on condition that:
• the S106 agreement for the proposed 9.06-acre Top Farm, Higham Lane site in Nuneaton is approved by May 2022 and
• the school can enter into a construction contract on the permanent site by May 2024 at the latest”.

We are absolutely delighted with this vote of confidence in our proposal from the Department for Education and we are fully confident that our team can take Higham Lane North Academy to its full opening. This is also wonderful news for the town of Nuneaton!

The prospect of this state-of-the art school and community resource being created within our local area on the proposed site of Top Farm is so exciting for both Higham Lane School and the new community it will serve. This will help to address the urgent need for additional school places within our local area.  

This new secondary school, if finally approved, will work closely with the existing Higham Lane School, a high-performing 11-18 comprehensive school and a centre of excellence for initial teacher training, as part of the Higham Lane School Academy Trust. It will follow the same successful model for secondary education that has seen Higham Lane School judged as Outstanding by Ofsted in May 2019. Higham Lane North Academy will continue the Higham Lane tradition of high quality educational provision, academic excellence, exceptional pastoral care and personal development in a school at the heart of its community. 

This was a highly competitive process, with several other well-established multi-academy trusts also applying to open a new secondary school on the proposed site. We would like to thank all those involved in our application so far: our staff and governors; our consultants, Premier Advisory and the New Schools Network and everyone who gave our proposals their support, including parents/carers of current and future students, other local schools and colleges and local businesses and community groups.

We are very excited about the journey ahead and we look forward to keeping everyone fully up-to-date about all future developments!

The Higham Lane North Academy Team

Photograph shows Higham Lane North Academy Free School Bid Team from Higham Lane School from left to right: Kirstie Robinson, Assistant Headteacher, Ben Elliott, Director of Corporate Services, David Buckle, Chair of Governors, Phil Kelly, Headteacher and Peter Banks, Deputy Headteacher.