'A really exciting school to be part of' - We take a look around West Bromwich's unique Shireland CBSO Academy

Picking the right school can be a challenging task for even seasoned parents, but the Black Country is not short of highly rated educational institutes to choose from when deciding the perfect place for their children to develop in young men and women. 

One of those schools, Shireland CBSO Academy - in West Bromwich -was founded in 2023, and has come on leaps and bounds since its first day, giving its children a unique focus on music while underpinning that with the full national Curriculum. 

Shireland CBSO Academy is a non-selective secondary academy serving Sandwell and the West Midlands, developed in partnership with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), the Academy is the first state school in the country to form a partnership of this kind with a professional orchestra.  

 Students attending the Academy receive a broad education covering the full national curriculum with an 'expectation' that they will strive for academic and musical excellence.  

 Shireland CBSO Academy is supported by Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust, a 'well-established' multi-academy Trust that currently operates five Primary and five Secondary Academies and two Nurseries.  

 Founded by three-times Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ Shireland Collegiate Academy, the Trust has a national reputation for 'innovation, collaboration and inspiring individuals to reach their full potential'. 

Speaking on the academy, its principal David Green, who has been the head of the table since its opening, praised the academy's approach to providing children with a 'fantastic' broad curriculum with an opportunity in music that without them would 'not exist' for the students.