The £26.3m contract with Oldham Council will see Willmott Dixon deliver the new Waterhead Academy, sponsored by The Oldham College, on the site of the former Orb Mill, off Huddersfield Road.

Designed by Aedas, the building will also offer the local community indoor and outdoor sporting facilities including a fitness and activity studio, floodlit artificial 3G pitch and hard surface areas for football, netball and tennis.

This new contract follows a deal being signed in September 2010 for the new Oasis Academy Oldham on the site of the former Brook Mill in Hollinwood.

Plans for the new EACT-sponsored Oldham Academy North – to be based on the current site of Our Lady’s, Royton replacing Grange School – are proceeding.

Willmott Dixon secured the work following a competitive process under the national academies framework.

As part of its ‘local pound’ agenda, the builder will invest a significant element of the Academies budget within Oldham providing local employment and training.

This includes annual work experience placements and providing pupils with development opportunities in professions such as quantity surveying and structural and civil engineering.