Hummersknott Academy is a

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 ...

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

in the north east of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It has approximately 1,250 pupils aged eleven to sixteen. It has had specialist

Language College Language Colleges were introduced in 1995 as part of the specialist schools programme (SSP) in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, modern foreign languages. Schools that successf ...

status since 2005.

History

The school began as the Darlington High School in 1955, a girls'

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

. It was officially opened by the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not pr ...

on 15 November 1955. In 1968 it was reorganised by the then Darlington County Borough to form one of six 11–16 co-educational comprehensive schools, with the Boys' Grammar School becoming a

sixth form college A sixth form college (pre-university college in Malaysia) is an educational institution, where students aged 16 to 19 study typically for advanced post-school level qualifications such as GCE Advanced Level, A Levels, Business and Technology Edu ...

nearer the town centre and near to the College of Technology, now known as QE (Queen Elizabeth).

New build

In July 2007 a £15 million scheme to demolish and replace some school buildings and renovate others was initiated. The bulk of the funding was provided by national government, with the local council providing £2.7m and the school £0.7m. Work began on the school building during the summer of 2007, although plans for the new design were drawn up a year earlier. The work was completed in 2010 and the refurbished school was 'reopened' by the

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in September 2010. The main hall was refurbished and new lighting and stage area was included in the refurbishment.

Academy Trust

The school became a self-governing academy, under the name Hummersknott Academy on 1 July 2011. It is operated by the Hummersknott Academy Trust, a company limited by guarantee. On 1 February 2013, the Hummersknott Academy Trust was reconstituted as a

multi-academy trust Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or academy chain is an academy trust that operates more than one academy school. Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local aut ...

when it took over the newly formed Skerne Park Academy (a converting primary school) in the town. In January of 2023 it was announced that a multi-academy trust in County Durham had bought the school; the deal was completed in September 2023.

House and college reform

Originally, when a grammar school for girls, the school had six houses into which all pupils were distributed and these houses competed against each other in sporting and music competitions for the House Shield. The shields of each house can be seen above the doorways on the front of the school building. These houses were: Barrett, Bede, Caedmon, Carroll, St Hild and Wycliffe. The house system was changed in the late 1980s and the school then had four houses: Dunelm, Edinburgh, Starmer and Trinity. In July 2006 these were replaced by a system of colleges.

Notable alumni

Jenny Chapman Jennifer Chapman, Baroness Chapman of Darlington (born 25 September 1973) is a British politician and life peer who has served as Minister of State for International Development, Latin America and Caribbean since 2025. She previously served a ...

, Darlington MP * Philippa Langley, discovered the remains of Richard III in a car park in Leicester in 2012 * James Morrison, footballer

References

External links

* {{Coord, 54.5217, -1.5940, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title 1955 establishments in England Academies in the Borough of Darlington * Secondary schools in the Borough of Darlington Educational institutions established in 1955 Schools in Darlington