Accrington Academy is a mixed 11-16

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

Accrington Accrington is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, east of Preston, north of Manchester and is situated on the culverted River Hyndburn. Commonly abbreviated by locals to ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. It has designated specialisms in

Sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

and

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

. It is situated in the centre of Accrington. Accrington St Christopher's C of E High is nearby to the west.

History

The school, run by

United Learning United Learning is a group of state-funded schools and fee-paying private schools operating in England. United Learning is the trading name for United Church Schools Trust (UCST) and United Learning Trust (ULT). It is one of the largest 10 char ...

, opened on 1 September 2008 on the site of the former Accrington Moorhead Sports College, itself the successor Moorhead High School which was the successor of the one-time Accrington High School for Girls. All pupils previously at Moorhead automatically transferred to the new school, which has had a sixth form provision from September 2009 up until July 2024.

Former schools

Accrington Grammar School had around 500 boys and 100 in the sixth form in the 1970s. Accrington High School for Girls had around 600 girls. Accringto
Moorhead High School
was on ''Cromwell Avenue'' off Queens Road West. The school was founded in 1895 on Blackburn Rd, Accrington as a 'Technical School' In 1968, it moved to the Moorhead site. In 1975, following the Labour government's educational reforms, it ceased to exist. In 2008, Nosheen Iqbal wrote in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' that Moorhead High School had been "failing". Her article described a "startling transformation" from 17% of children achieving 5

GCSEs The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

at grades A*-C, to 78% of children doing so in the new school. The school's headteacher believed that the change had been brought about through the

Creative Partnerships Creative Partnerships was the UK government's flagship creative learning programme, established in 2002 as part of the council's SR2000 settlement to develop young people's creativity through artists' engagement with schools in nominated areas acr ...

approach, an

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

programme.

Notable former pupils

Accrington Moorhead Sports College

Dominic Brunt Dominic Adam Brunt (born 15 April 1970) is an English actor, director and producer, best known for portraying the role of Paddy Kirk in the ITV (TV channel), ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale''. For his role as Paddy, Brunt has been nominated in variou ...

, actor, known for his part in

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British television soap opera that is broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a List of fictional towns and villages, fict ...

Paddy Kirk Paddy Dingle (also Kirk) is a fictional character from the British soap opera ''Emmerdale'', played by Dominic Brunt. He has been married five times: to Mandy Dingle (Lisa Riley) in 1999 and 2024, to Emily Kirk, Emily Dingle (Kate McGregor) in ...

Accrington Grammar School

* Sir Kenneth Barnes CB, Permanent Secretary from 1976 to 1982 of the Department of Employment *

Jim Bowen James Brown Whittaker (born Peter Williams; 20 August 1937 – 14 March 2018), known professionally as Jim Bowen, was an English stand-up comedian, actor and television personality. He was the long-time host of the ITV game show '' Bullseye'', ...

, comedian, and former host of ''

Bullseye Bullseye or Bull's Eye may refer to: Symbols * ◎ (Unicode U+25CE BULLSEYE), in the Geometric Shapes Unicode block * (Unicode U+0298 LATIN LETTER BILABIAL CLICK), the phonetic symbol for bilabial click Animals and plants * Bull's Eye, '' Eury ...

'' *

Oliver Bulleid Oliver Vaughan Snell Bulleid Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (19 September 1882 – 25 April 1970) was a British railway and mechanical engineer best known as the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the Southern Railway ( ...

CBE,

Chief Mechanical Engineer Chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotive ...

from 1937 to 1948 of the Southern Railway *

Harold Davenport Harold Davenport FRS (30 October 1907 – 9 June 1969) was an English mathematician, known for his extensive work in number theory. Early life and education Born on 30 October 1907 in Huncoat, Lancashire, Davenport was educated at Accringto ...

FRS, mathematician * Sir James Drake CBE, civil engineer, designed the UK's first motorway *

Graeme Fowler Graeme "Foxy" Fowler (born 20 April 1957) is an English former professional cricketer and cricket coach, who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England, and later for Durham. He appeared in 21 Test matches and 26 One Day International ...

, cricketer *

Harry Hill Matthew Keith Hall (born 1 October 1964), known professionally as Harry Hill, is an English comedian, presenter and writer. He pursued a career in stand-up following years working as a medical doctor, developing an offbeat, energetic performanc ...

, cyclist who competed in the Olympic Games in 1936 *

Ron Hill Ronald Hill MBE (25 September 1938 – 23 May 2021) was a British runner and clothing entrepreneur. He was the second man to break 2:10 in the marathon; he set world records at four other distances, and laid claim to the marathon world recor ...

, marathon runner in the 1964 Tokyo and 1972 Munich Olympics, and won the gold at the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games * Prof Leslie Howarth OBE, mathematician * Prof John Lamb CBE, James Watt Professor of Electrical Engineering from 1961 to 1991 at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, President from 1970 to 1972 of the British Society of Rheology * James Arthur Prescott CBE, FRS, agricultural scientist *

Edward Slinger Edward Slinger (2 February 1938 – 31 July 2023) was an English first-class cricketer, solicitor and judge. Biography Slinger was born at Accrington on 2 February 1938. He was educated in the town at Accrington Grammar School, before going up ...

, cricketer, solicitor and judge * Sir John Tomlinson CBE, opera singer * Prof John Wallwork CBE

FRCS Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (FRCS) is a professional certification, professional qualification to practise as a senior surgeon in Republic of Ireland, Ireland or the United Kingdom. It is bestowed on an wikt:intercollegiate, ...

FMedSci, cardiothoracic surgeon and emeritus professor who performed Europe's first successful combined heart-lung transplant in 1984 * Graham Walne, theatre consultant, lighting designer, author, and lecturer * Harry Yeadon, civil engineer, worked with James Drake on the UK's first motorway

Accrington High School for Girls

Julie Hesmondhalgh Julie Claire Hesmondhalgh ( ;) is an English actress and narrator. She is known for her role as Hayley Cropper in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' between 1998 and 2014. For this role she won "Best Serial Drama Performance" at the 20 ...

, actress * Gwen Mayor, primary school teacher who was killed in the

Dunblane massacre The Dunblane massacre took place at Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, near Stirling, Scotland, on 13 March 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton killed 16 pupils and one teacher and injured 15 others before killing himself. It remains the d ...

* Val Robinson OBE, played hockey for Great Britain * Hazel Townson, children's author *

Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson (born 27 August 1959) is an English author. Her first book, '' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', was a semi-autobiographical novel about a lesbian growing up in an English Pentecostal community. Other novels explore gender ...

, CBE, author

References

External links

The New Academy Website

EduBase
{{authority control Schools in Hyndburn Academies in Lancashire United Learning schools Educational institutions established in 2008 Secondary schools in Lancashire Accrington 2008 establishments in England