Seven underperforming schools in Oldham have been identified as in need of intervention as part of an extended plan to raise standards of education for young people.

The government’s 55 Education Investment Areas, which includes Oldham, has been set up to identify key areas across the country where education standards are currently at the weakest in order to issue new intervention powers to turn them around.

The intervention means schools with two or more consecutive Ofsted ratings below ‘good’ may be matched with a strong multi-academy trust to bring up its improvement.

This is because strong multi-academy trusts generally have a good track record of improving underperforming schools as sponsored academies.

Those academies tend to improve more quickly than other local authority schools.

Previously, only schools with ‘inadequate’ Ofsted ratings were fast-tracked for this type of intervention.

However, the government has put forward new regulations to expand the scheme and include schools that have had consecutive ratings below ‘good'.

The scheme will commence from September 1 this year, and includes up to 900 schools across the country, seven of which are in Oldham. 

There are up to 23 schools or colleges within a three-mile radius of Oldham that received an Ofsted rating of ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’, according to the Government's register.

Yet only a small selection will be put forward for the intervention scheme on the basis that they have received an Ofsted rating below ‘good’ from May 1, 2021 or later.

And it's not just Oldham in Greater Manchester that is set for a government intervention with other local authority areas including Rochdale, Salford, Tameside, Manchester, Bury and Bolton also being identified.

But aside from the intervention scheme, the government is proposing new ways to try to incentivise teachers into the profession and has a raft of measures to improve education in the 55 investment areas.

This includes tax-free bonuses to STEM teachers in their first five years of teaching at a school in one of the areas and £150 million allocated to install modern wireless internet in many of the underperforming schools.

There is £86 million in funding that has also been allocated to support strong trusts to expand over the next three years.

Schools Minister Baroness Barran said: “For too long education outcomes, and therefore children’s life chances, have been different depending where in the country they grow up.

“We are rapidly increasing our delivery of support and investment to our Education Investment Areas - including Oldham - to right that wrong and give every child the chance to fulfil their potential."