Bowland High 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 t ...

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

with academy status, located in

Grindleton Grindleton is a village and civil parish in the Ribble Valley district of the English county of Lancashire, formerly in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Its 3,700 acres sit within the Forest of Bowland. The population of the civil ward taken at the ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England. It educates pupils from ages 11–16, and as of 2022 has approximately 550 pupils.

History

The main building dates from 1865. It was originally opened as ''Foxley Bank Hydro'', later to become a hotel in the Edwardian era. In 1923, it became a

National Children's Home Action for Children (formerly National Children's Home) is a UK children's charity created to help vulnerable children & young people and their families in the UK. The charity has 7,000 staff and volunteers who operate over 475 services in the ...

orphanage under the direction of Sister Ella Curnock. Later, it was developed into a wartime home for refugee children from Europe, still under the auspices of the National Children's Home organisation. In 1989, the refugees had a 50th anniversary reunion at the school and a film, ''They came to Riversmead'', was produced for television to commemorate the event. The building was opened as a secondary school in 1949. It was previously known as Grindleton Riversmead Secondary Modern School and then as Bowland County Secondary School. The conversion to an academy was resisted by staff in 2011.

School performance

As of 2020, the school's most recent

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

inspection was in 2016, with a judgement of Outstanding.

Notable former pupils

Samantha Murray Samantha Murray (born 25 September 1989) is an English modern pentathlete. She won the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and the bronze medal at the 2012 World Championships. In 2014, she won individual gold and team silver medals at t ...

, pentathlete

References

External links

Ofsted Inspection Report - 4 June 2009
Secondary schools in Lancashire 1949 establishments in England Educational institutions established in 1949 Forest of Bowland Academies in Lancashire Schools in Ribble Valley {{Lancashire-school-stub