Witton Park Academy is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

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 ...

located in the west of

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

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 ...

, England. Witton Park is for children aged 11–16. It is within the boundary of

Witton Country Park Witton Country Park is a public park in the west of Blackburn, Lancashire, England. Around half of the country park is mixed woodland and parkland, while the rest is either farmland or rough grassland with open access. A visitors' centre featur ...

, to the west of Blackburn. A levels are taken at Blackburn College or

St. Mary's College, Blackburn St Mary's College was a school in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, from 1925 to 2022. It was established in 1925 by the Marist Fathers as a Catholic boys grammar school. It later became a sixth form college. The college closed on 1 August 2022. ...

. It has

GNVQ A General National Vocational Qualification, or GNVQ, was a certificate of vocational education in the United Kingdom. The last GNVQs were awarded in 2007. The qualifications related to occupational areas in general, rather than any specific ...

courses in Business, Art and Design Technology. In each year there are ten or eleven forms, mostly with the same number of students.

History

It was originally called Blackburn High School for Girls, a

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 first at Spring Mount on ''Preston New Road'' from 1883, then moved to Crosshill. It moved to ''Buncer Lane'' (B6447) in 1961 and became a comprehensive in 1968, when it merged with Witton Park Secondary Modern School, which was next-door, the combined school (named Witton Park High School) was then housed in two separate buildings, known as the North and South wings. Under the

Building Schools for the Future Building Schools for the Future (BSF) was the name given to the British government's investment programme in secondary school buildings in England in the 2000s. Around half of the work was procured under the private finance initiative. The deli ...

plans, in January 2011

Balfour Beatty Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, the company is active ac ...

started to construct a new school building close to the South wing on what had originally been a tennis court and a school playing field. In 2014 Witton Park High School converted to an

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 ...

, becoming independent from

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council is the local authority of Blackburn with Darwen in the ceremonial county of Lancashire, England. Since 1998 it has been a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a co ...

. It was later renamed Witton Park Academy.

Academic performance

A 2016

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

report rated the School as 'Good'

Notable former pupils

Blackburn High School for Girls

* Prof Patricia Easterling, Regius Professor of Greek at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

from 1994 to 2001. *

Kathleen Ferrier Kathleen Mary Ferrier (22 April 19128 October 1953) was an English contralto singer who achieved an international reputation as a stage, concert and recording artist, with a repertoire extending from folksong and popular ballads to the class ...

CBE,

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

, for whom the

Kathleen Ferrier Award The Kathleen Ferrier Award is a prestigious contest for opera singers held each April in London, England. The first competition was held in 1956. According to the ''Telegraph'', the competition has a record of "spotting winners". Originally con ...

s were named.

Witton Park High School

Mohsin Muhsin (also spelled Mohsen, Mohsin, Mehsin, or Muhsen, ) is a masculine Arabic given name. The first person known to have the name "Muhsin" was Muhsin ibn Ali, the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatimah bint Muhammad. Islamic term In Arabic, it ...

and Zuber Issa, billionaire businessmen, co-founders of

EG Group EG Group Limited is a British operator of filling stations, convenience stores and Fast-food restaurant, food service providers across Europe, the United States and Australia. It was founded in Blackburn in 2001 by brothers Mohsin and Zuber Iss ...

Tez Ilyas Mohammed Tehzeeb Ilyas (; born 8 April 1983), popularly known as "Tez" Ilyas, is a British stand-up comedian. He is best known for starring in the BBC Three comedy, ''Man Like Mobeen'' and presenting the satirical comedy programme, ''The Tez O'C ...

, Comedian. * Kevin Iddon, Author.

References

External links

Witton Park Academy official website

Former school

News items

Ecstasy in December 2004
{{authority control Secondary schools in Blackburn with Darwen Academies in Blackburn with Darwen Schools in Blackburn