SMITHILLS School is exploring plans to open a sixth form on campus.

The school, a government flagship academy, is now preparing to consult on plans to open a post-16 centre following “many requests from within the school community.”

Headteacher Alec Cottrill said: “Smithills is really looking forward to this consultation and to hearing people’s views.

“It doesn’t actually start until November 1 but, as that’s a Saturday at the end of half term, we thought it best to start early.

“Letters are going out to many stakeholders over the next few days.

“We’re actually asking for people’s views on two things: Should we reduce the number of pupils who come in to the school and should we open a small sixth form?

“When the consultation finishes in January we’ll decide if we’re going to apply for one or both of these things.”

The school is seeking feedback on the idea of opening a sixth form on site from parents and pupils, and the wider community from November 1 to January 11, just over two months.

The idea is to offer students level three — A-level equivalent — courses in the school’s area of “excellence” which includes music and provide “continuity of education" for a number of its students.

Smithills School became an academy in January to “accelerate progress” and help achieve its declared ambition to become an 'outstanding' school.

Now pupils, parents, the local community, MPs, colleges, the local authority and other interested parties are being asked to say yes or no to the development of a sixth form centre on the school site. They can also make any comments about the proposal before — if the consultation supports it — the school applies to the Secretary of State to provide sixth form education from September 2016.

Currently the school provides education to 11 to 16-year-olds with a maximum school roll of 1,500. Each year there are 300 school places available at intake for year seven.

But overall, the school is under-subscribed and currently numbers in years seven and eight are below 200 in each year group.

The school is consulting on reducing admission numbers from 300 to 240.

This, the school says, would mean a better use of resources and enable it to plan to create provision for 30 year 12 students in 2016, increasing in future years.

School governor, Cllr John Walsh, said: “We are at the very early stages and are consulting with parents and others about it.

“No decisions have been made at this stage and we are exploring the proposals.”

He added that people interested in taking part in the consultation should visit the school website at smithillsschool.net

Bolton has six sixth form centres based at the following schools : Bolton School, Turton School, Canon Slade, Thornleigh Salesian College, Kearsley Academy and Bolton St Catherine’s Academy.

If Smithills School decides to go ahead with its plans, all secondary academies, apart from Essa Academy in Great Lever, will have a sixth form centre on site.