Skip to content ↓

Purple Oaks Academy

About Us

Purple Oaks Academy is a special free school for students with autism and/or Severe Learning Difficulties. All students who attend the academy have an Education, Health and Care Plan. 

The academy was built as part of the free school programme. A major capital building programme costing £5m was secured to provide a state of the art building and facilities for students and staff.  The new building was completed in December 2017 and the academy moved in on the 3rd January 2018.

The academy caters for a wide range of abilities, from students who are able to function academically at their chronological age level to those who are working significantly below. The academy supports students with a complex range of needs. 

About the Sponsor

 The Academy is sponsored by the Greenwood Academies Trust (GAT) who currently has 37 open academies educating over 18,000 pupils across seven local authority areas including Nottingham City, Nottinghamshire, Leicester City, West Northamptonshire, North Northamptonshire, Peterborough, and Lincolnshire.

Governance of the academy will be the responsibility of the Greenwood Academies Trust (GAT).

The GAT provides central support for all aspects of education, HR, finance, Health and Safety, site management and maintenance, procurement, IT and media engagement thereby freeing the Principal and the staff to concentrate on the day to day business of the school.

The GAT believes that all our students will achieve high levels of success.

The GAT provides educational experience and expertise. The Trust also has considerable experience in designing and managing new Academy buildings having managed 7 new builds and £170m capital funding. 

The GAT is led by educationalists who have significant experience in a wide range of Academies. The Chief Executive is Wayne Norrie. Wayne has been an outstanding Primary Head Teacher and was a senior HMI with Ofsted.

Wayne takes the professional lead on all the GAT’s work and leads the work on all new projects, utilising the expertise from the central team.