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Message 2025PROSPECTUSVisit our websitewww.blue-coat.orgFaith-Vision-Nurture

Providing Outstanding Education'They are committed toensuring that pupils leaveschool with the qualificationsthat they need to succeed.'Ofsted

Welcome to Blue CoatWe are very proud of our school, which attracts students from all over Greater Manchester and beyond. Itfirst opened in 1834. Our founder, Thomas Henshaw, was a committed Anglican who left a bequest to fund aschool which would provide education for the orphaned boys of the parish.From these humble beginnings the Blue Coat Schoolhas become one of the biggest and most successfulschools in the country. The school has a nationalreputation for high quality teaching and learning,pastoral care, consistently excellent examinationresults and outstanding progress. Our most recentOFSTED inspection in 2022 judged the school to beoutstanding in every category.Blue coat is grounded in tradition and history whilstalso constantly evolving and looking forward. Ourhistoric campus has been restored and developed overthe years, with further development to come in 2025 toexpand teaching and learning space for our students. Daily they get to enjoy our historic grounds and GradeII listed building as well as enjoying our rolling frontterrace lawn during their social times.Blue Coat is dedicated to serving our young people, toenable them to become everything they can be and aremeant to be. We are a Church of England School thatwelcomes members of other Christian denominations,other faiths and none. Our Anglican beliefs, values andworship are at the core of our life together in school.The Blue Coat School mission is that we are here toserve our young people, to ensure that they becomeeverything they can be and everything they are meantto be. We want our young people to experience adistinctively Christian education. At a personal andhuman level, we try to discern what is right: what wouldGod want?The fulfilment of our mission is rooted in our corevalues of Faith, Vision and Nurture.Our Mission

The Cranmer EducationTrustThe Blue Coat School is an academy within the CranmerEducation Trust, a successful, growing Trust which pridesitself on looking after its staff and students. Alongside BlueCoat, the Trust is made up of 3 other secondary schoolsand 5 primary schools. Each of the schools within the Trustmaintains their individuality whilst working under a sharedethos to improve the life chances of young people.The Cranmer Education Trust’s mission is to be a leader ofeducation and a provider of excellent schools whichnurture children and young people and enable all toachieve, progress, and experience success, and to becomegood people, good neighbours and good citizens whom weare proud to know.Our nationally accredited Initial Teacher Training arm,Manchester Nexus, trains 70+ (and increasing) newteachers per year, both primary and secondary, so that wehave a pipeline of energetic, committed and skilled peoplefor our schools. Training and mentoring new teachersenables our staff to develop professionally and progress intheir careers. A growing Trust provides furtheropportunities for career progression and helps us retainour people.The East Manchester Teaching School Hub is our Trust’sschool-led centre of excellence for teacher training anddevelopment. The hub provides quality professionaldevelopment for teachers and leaders at all stages of theircareers across the region. Through our hub, we arecommitted to great teaching, great schools and greatleadership for children and young people. We do thisthrough openness and dialogue.

Growing minds think Blue Coat'Pupils are consistently politeand respectful.'Ofsted

Moving UpEvery year pupils come to Blue Coat from nearly 100primary schools across Oldham and beyond. All childrenare visited in their primary schools by a member of staff.Our transition evenings and transition day ensure thateveryone is known and welcomed as an individual. Allpupils will be members of a form group, a year group anda House - three families which will support themthroughout their time at school.New friends, new subjects and new activities all offerfantastic opportunities to become involved in the life ofthe school right from the very start. Students enjoylearning a wider range of subjects, taught by experts, inspecialist facilities. There will be opportunity to try newsports and cultivate interests in music and drama.Our vibrant House system provides our young peoplewith the opportunity to get involved in and lead a widerange of extra-curricular activities and competitions.Past events have included:The Blue Coat Bake-OffRace for LifeSporting competitions including basketball,swimming, football, rounders and rugby.Poetry competitionsCulture FestivalA Blue Coat is also one of the largest Duke of Edinburghproviders in the country with almost all our Year 9scompleting the Bronze Award with many students goingon to achieve the Silver and Gold Awards. Studentsreally enjoy completing the awards, which developresilience and leadership.The Blue Coat School has and outstandinglysuccessful music department. The Blue CoatSchool Brass Band and Senior Choir have wonmany prestigious national awards over the yearsand they continue to deliver amazingperformances as does our award winning JazzOrchestra that plays and performs across themusical repertoire.Key school performances throughout the yearinclude both our prestigious Christmas and EasterConcerts where our bands get to demonstratetheir amazing talents and entertain our schoolcommunity.We encourage all students, be they existingmusicians or novices, to explore the extra-curricular opportunities that we provide, and touse the superb facilities, with our practice roomsand the vast array of musical opportunities onoffer.We only get one body, so we need to look after it.Sport at Blue Coat focuses on healthy living, theenjoyment and character building that come fromteamwork, leadership and healthy competition andthe personal satisfaction that results from learningnew skills. There is a huge range of sportingactivities to suit all interests and abilities, and theHouse system ensures that everyone has theopportunity to participate and compete.Getting InvolvedDuke of EdinburghMusicSport

All the school’s outcomes are outstanding'Pupils experience anambitious curriculum that issuccessfully designed to builda deep and secure body ofknowledge over time.'Ofsted

Success & AchievementOur aim is that every individual will experiencesuccess. That doesn’t come magically - it is theresult of hard work, perseverance and commitmentby the student and good teaching, encouragementand feedback from staff. Everyone at Blue Coat isexpected to give their all.We organise the curriculum in subject disciplines.Pupils in Years 7 - 9 study English Language andLiterature; Maths; Science; Religious Studies;History; Geography; a Modern Foreign Language;Academic Transition Skills (ATS); PE; ReligiousStudies; Design Technology (which includesproduct design, food technology and textilestechnology); Information Technology, Art, Music,Drama, Citizenship and Wellbeing. All pupils havethe opportunity to study a wide, interesting andchallenging curriculum which enables them toprogress and achieve.Young people learn best when they are activelyengaged, so our lessons are very hands-on, withlots of questions and students working together.Our teachers are all specialists; they love theirsubjects and want to pass on their enthusiasm andexcitement to the pupils.Homework is especially important for success. Itdevelops good study habits and independence.Homework is issued via Teams which helps youngpeople and their teachers keep track of andorganise their work. Parents can also log in to keeptrack of what their child has been set which you willbe introduced to during our transition evenings.We want all of our students to achieve their verybest and encourage and support them to enternational competitions and Olympiads. Recently,we have been particularly proud of theirincreasing success in science, maths, computingand law as reflected in:The number of Oxbridge places for math’s,natural sciences, engineering and lawNuffield ScholarshipsOutstanding results in the UKMT ChallengePlaces on both the Sutton Trust and UNIQsummer schoolsWinning the Turing Prize for Computing andthe Merton College Oxford Law EssayCompetitionRepeated success in the EngineeringEnterprise SchemeAll students at Blue Coat will have theopportunity to take part in a range of excitinglearning experiences outside the classroom ontrips and visits.A special feature of the Blue Coat School is thewide range of trips and visits opportunitiesoffered across all our year groups with our youngpeople being able to experience:BelgiumLondonParisBerlinSkiing and much moreOur CommitmentThe CurriculumLessons and LearningAcademic ExcellenceTrips and Visits

I feel extremely lucky that my children areeducated at Blue Coat'Pupils readily assumeleadership roles, for exampleon the school council.'Ofsted

Pastoral Guidance andCareNurture is at the heart of our ethos. We have thehighest expectations of our young people, not simplyin their progress in learning, but in how they grow asgood citizens. we want our students to be people wewould be proud to know as our family, friends andneighbours.When our young people go out in to the world, wewant them to make a very positive difference.We believe that all schools have a duty to developyoung people's grit and resilience, help them developskills and confidence to meet challenge, cope withpressure and really work hard.Form tutors meet their forms twice daily, look aftereach and every student and monitor their personaland social development. In most cases students willhave the same form tutor from Year 7 - 11. Thisensures that tutors have the opportunity to formsupportive relationships with both young people andtheir families.The form tutor provides parents with a first port ofcall for concerns and questions and parents have anannual appointment in years 7 and 8 with their child’sform tutor. In addition each year group has a Directorof Learning to monitor the overall progress of thestudents.The ethos of the school is that we all help and lookout for one another. From the start there areopportunities to lead, share and involve. As studentsprogress through school they become peer mentors,junior sports leaders and senior students. We expectour students to be good role models.Our high achieving 6th Form is one of the best inthe country. Our 6th Form students lead thestudent body through modelled behaviour anddirect work with younger pupils, supportinglearning, helping with extra-curricular activities,mentoring and counselling. We hope all ouryounger students look up to our 6th Form andaspire to join us in the future if they choose tostudy A levels.NurtureCharacter and ResilienceThe Form TutorPeer NurturingThe 6th Form

The teaching is excellent and there is a strongcaring ethos'Pupils and students havepositive attitudes towardstheir learning which arereflected in their highattendance.'Ofsted

A Church of EnglandSchoolWe believe that we have all been created unique andindividual by our God whose love for us is unconditionaland limitless, as revealed in the life, death andresurrection of Jesus Christ. We try to put His teachingand example into how we are and how we behave withone another throughout our daily lives.Christian worship is at the centre of the school day.Pupils of all faiths and none take part in collectiveworship as well as form worship and reflective practices.We also practice Eucharistic worship during Advent andLent.We commit as a community to make the world better andfairer for all, particularly by giving time to and raisingmoney for those people who most need it - people whoare poor, hungry, sick, homeless and those who have novoice.Religious Studies is studied by everyone throughout theirtime at Blue Coat. In Years 7-9 pupils learn aboutreligious beliefs across all the main world faiths. At GCSEwe focus on Christianity and Islam.The key test of our faith is how well we nurture, respectand value one another here at Blue Coat in fellowshiptogether. We are all different. We bring individualqualities and contributions to our school community; weare all equal and we are all special. Together we are apowerful force that makes us all far more than we couldever be or achieve alone.Our Faith is our bedrockWhat this means in Blue CoatReligious StudiesOur Faith

Relationships throughout the school areexemplary, based on mutual respect.'Students in the sixth formstrive to serve their localcommunity, working towardsthe ‘Blues Award’, which isgiven for 24 hours of voluntaryservice.'Ofsted

Where Are We Going?Every year our students achieve amongst the highestin the country at GCSE and A-Level. After GCSE,approximately 70% progress to our 6th Form wherethey are joined by other ambitious and highachieving young people from across Oldham andbeyond. The remaining 30% of the students progressin different ways, to more applied courses andapprenticeships.The overwhelming majority of our 6th form go on touniversity, often to the most competitive andprestigious courses or apprenticeship schemes.Many of our students stay in touch after they’ve left,some even come back as staff.Whatever path our students take in the future, weare safe in the knowledge that by the time they leaveus they are exceptional young adults, the kind andcaring friends, parents and citizens of the future whowill make a positive contribution to the communitiesin which they live and work.Our vision for the school is that we becomeexemplary - that we become a school that otherswant to learn from and with. Being designatedoutstanding is a great honour, but we have to buildon that, for all the generations of students to come.We hope that you will want to join us on this journey,and that you will commit to working with us tobuilding the future.Mr Robert HigginsHeadteacherWhat happens next?Our Vision

A nurturing environment where my child hasflourished.'Great school experience formy son and hoping it stayssuch a fantastic school.He is happy there and reallyenjoys everything on offer tohim.'Parent Survey

The Blue Coat SchoolEgerton StreetOldhamOL1 3SQ0161 624 1484www.blue-coat.org