A NEW secondary school has officially opened to replace the poorly performing Broad Oak High School.

Hazel Wood High School, which senior leaders say is on a "rapid journey to success" launched its vision at its first open evening in front of hundreds of prospective students and families.

The school has opened in the Broad Oak building, which has been refurbished and a new uniform has been introduced to reflect the school's new identify.

Broad Oak School, a local authority school, failed to meet the Government's minimum standards for two years running.

Now the school has shut and the new school is an academy, free from local authority control.

Hazel Wood High School is run by the Oak Learning Partnership, which also oversees Unsworth School, an Ofsted rated good school, and Elms Bank, which is graded outstanding.

Headteacher Paul Greenhalgh, said:"Following our hugely successful staff training days, we are proud to launch our schools co-produced vision ­— 'Fostering a sense of pride and community and providing opportunity for all to excel'.

"This is underpinned by our values of respect, responsibility and aspiration.

"Nothing demonstrated this ethos more than our open evening, where our students made us hugely proud of our community.

"They looked fantastic in their amazing new uniform as they welcomed parents, carers and families into our recently refurbished school building.

" Our pupils were excellent school ambassadors, showing respect and maturity and went above and beyond in terms of their roles."

He added: "Hazel Wood High School is a school to be proud of and on a rapid journey to success."

Elaine Parkinson Chief Executive Officer of the Oak Learning Partnership added"As a trust we are very proud of Hazel Wood High School and the hard work being done by all the staff to ensure that every pupil has the opportunity to succeed.

"We want our pupils to reflect our values in everything they do and we hope that all members of our community will find an opportunity to come to our school to see our pupils hard at work and enjoying their learning.’

School leaders say that the open evening was a huge success with Years Five and and Six pupils enjoying different activities and positive feedback from parents.

Headgirl Chloe Rushton said: "I would like to thank everyone who came and what a pleasure it was to see so many getting involved in all the activities."

Head Boy Joseph Pattrick added: "I am extremely proud of my fellow students in how we represented our school."