Formby High School is an English

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

with academy status located in the town of

Formby Formby is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, three manors are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

. The local primary schools Freshfield, Redgate and Trinity St. Peter's act as feeder schools to Formby High.

History and administration

The school was officially opened in November 1938 and later reopened in 1972 by Margaret Thatcher during her tenure as Secretary of State for Education and Science. However, the school faced challenges with overcrowding in the 1970s, with ten-form entries by 1971, each with over 30 pupils per class, prompting considerations for conditional admissions in 1972. To address the issue, the Sefton Education Authority provided temporary classrooms in 1974, accommodating 200 students. By that time, enrollment had reached 1,560 pupils, which expected to rise to 1,750 by September 1974. Construction was scheduled to commence on a new sixth form block around this time to alleviate capacity constraints. Additionally, building work started on a new high school in April 1974, initially known as Formby South High School, with an anticipated capacity of 750 pupils and the potential to accommodate up to 1,050 pupils. In 2002, the school achieved

specialist school Specialist schools, also known as specialised schools or specialized schools, are schools which specialise in a certain area or field of curriculum. In some countries, for example New Zealand, the term is used exclusively for schools specialis ...

status as an

Arts College An Arts College, in the United Kingdom, is a type of specialist school that specialises in the subject fields of the performing, visual, digital and/or media arts. They were announced in 1996 and introduced alongside Sports Colleges to En ...

, allowing it to access additional funding in this subject area. Two years later, in 2004, its new

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

building was opened by local MP Claire Curtis-Thomas. Under the leadership of D. A. Mackenzie, the school currently accommodates over 1,000 students.

Notable former pupils

Angela Eagle Dame Angela Eagle DBE (born 17 February 1961) is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wallasey since 1992. Eagle has served as Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum since July 2024. Eagle ...

, Labour MP and former ministerGeraldine Bedell
Jeremy Corbyn’s top woman: Angela Eagle on a journey through Labour
dated 14 November 2015 at independent.co.uk, accessed 12 July 2016 *

Maria Eagle Maria Eagle (born 17 February 1961) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Garston, previously Garston and Halewood, since 1997 Unit ...

, Labour MP and former minister *

Karl Neilson Karl Neilson (born 1971 in Liverpool) is a British television director. He left school and started work as a van driver for an electrical goods company in Southport. Harbouring an ambition to be a director, he returned to education at the Live ...

, television director *

Stacey Roca Stacey Roca (born 12 September 1978 in Southport) is an English actress, known for portraying Rachel in ''The Office'', Claudie Stephenson in '' Strictly Confidential'' and Nancy Tench in Netflix drama '' Mindhunter''. Background Born in South ...

, actress

References

External links

* {{authority control Academies in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton Secondary schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton Formby 1938 establishments in England Educational institutions established in 1938