01 / BOA Academy

Birmingham Ormiston Academy is an independent state funded 14-19 academy specialising in Creative, Digital and Performing Arts. Students attend BOA primarily to study BTEC level 2 and level 3 vocational courses. Although located in Birmingham, BOA is a regional academy admitting students from Birmingham and the local authorities of Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, and Walsall.

BOA opened in September 2011 with the support of our founding partners, Maverick TV and the BRIT School – although we have numerous creative and industry partners who continue to offer high levels of support, investment, expertise and opportunities for our students and the academy. In the five years since opening, BOA has rapidly gained a reputation as a centre of excellence for the arts. It has impressed the creative industries and subsequently had an extensive array of well-known industry partners who support the differing pathways by helping design, develop and deliver the programmes of study.

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BOA is the top performing 14-19 school in the UK, and in the top 10% of all schools in Birmingham.

02 / BOA Digital

BOA Digital will be an 11-18 academy specialising in digital technologies. It will be the sister school to BOA and form part of the newly established BOA group. It is our aim to open BOA Digital in September 2018 located in the centre of Birmingham - geographically in the hub of the digital and creative industries situated around the Eastside and the Knowledge Quarter. This new academy will also be close to Aston University, Birmingham City University (BCU) and their new STEAMhouse project. The STEAMhouse campus is a new innovative space and incubation hub for the creative industries. 

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Britain’s booming digital economy has created record levels of jobs but the training deficit has left many of these jobs unfilled. With Birmingham being in the top five employers of digital talent and the area of Digbeth providing a growing hub for digital businesses, the new academy will be responding to the needs of Greater Birmingham and its creative digital industries.

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The future is very much around developing the digital economy, with 130,000 jobs in the technology sector needing to be filled each year. Our aim is for BOA Digital to be at the forefront of this digital revolution. This industry is here to stay and BOA Digital will maximise the life chances of all its students by working closely with the industry to help address the growing demand for higher level digital skills.

03 / BOA Group

BOA has an ambitious vision to expand from a single academy trust with a number of subsidiary companies including BOAT (Old rep Theatre), BOATV and B2Radio, to a small MAT with a maximum of five schools. We aim to build on our current offer with each academy (school) being uniquely individual but with synergy across the group. Ensuring key partners are both on the Board and represented on the Boards we will continue to develop the strong outward facing ethos in which students and staff benefit from a network of expertise and opportunities from partners and industry curriculum affiliates. BOA has a wealth of significant industry partners such as Live Nation, PRG Lighting and the BBC. These partners offer substantial and significant long term strategic support and investment. They offer exciting opportunities for the students to work in collaboration on a range of projects. Importantly, they offer career progression

Update Sept 16

In June 2015 BOA was approached by the New School Network (NSN) to open a new school. In August the Principal and the two founding partners met with both BIS and the DfE with regards to this. The BOA Board subsequently voted to open at least one new school. Additional meetings have been held with a number of key creative and digital industry leaders who are keen to see a school that can address the skills shortage in this sector. Meetings have also taken place with Birmingham City Council, the Director of Education and the previous Regional Schools Commissioner, who all endorse the BOA2 bid.

We hope to hear whether our bid has been successful early in the new year.

Update Jan 17

Watch this space...

Update April 17

APPROVED! The Department for Education has given the green light to BOA Digital, an innovative academy that will build on the success of Birmingham Ormiston Academy (BOA), the specialist performing arts school in central Birmingham.

“We are thrilled that our plans to open a specialist digital academy, for which there is a groundswell of support amongst local and key digital industry leaders, have received the seal of approval. We are so excited to launch BOA Digital, a milestone in our mission of working with the country's top young talent to teach and train the digital leaders of tomorrow."

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