A BURNLEY sixth form plans to convert to an academy in 2017 in time to mark the centenary of its namesake’s First World War heroism.

Thomas Whitham Sixth Form announced last year that it intended to leave Lancashire County Council and join the Pennine Foundation Trust.

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Now the school, which has around 400 students, has confirmed the move will be made in time to celebrate 100 years since 29-year-old Private Thomas Whitham received the Victoria Cross.

Private Whitham, born in Worsthorne in 1888, was part of the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards and was awarded the British Army’s highest honour after serving at Pilckem near Ypres, Belgium, on July 31, 1917.

During an attack by an enemy machine gun Pt Whitham worked his way from shell-hole to shell-hole and captured it under heavy fire, together with an officer and two other ranks.

The sixth form was established in 2006 after the merger of Habergham Sixth Form and St Theodore’s Sixth Form.

The sixth form was rated as ‘outstanding’ following it’s most recent Ofsted inspection in 2011.

Head teacher Simon Davies said: “ We have a new and dynamic senior leadership team and Thomas Whitham Sixth Form has a great future ahead of it.

“Academy status gives us real control over what we do as a school.

“It feels appropriate that we are becoming an academy in the same year that we celebrate the centenary of Thomas Whitham’s outstanding heroism that earned him the Victoria Cross.”

Mike Smith, chairman of governors, said: “This is a real opportunity to keep Thomas Whitham Sixth Form at the forefront of educational developments and will enable us to maintain the high standards and ethos of the school at the same time as taking advantage of the freedoms given by academy status.”