Jack Hunt School, officially Jack Hunt School Language College, is a

co-educational 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) ...

and

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located in Netherton in the city of

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

in the

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. Students are aged 11 (

Year 7 Year 7 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand. It is the seventh full year (or eighth in Australia) of compulsory education and is roughly equivalent to grade 6 in the United ...

) to 18 (

Year 13 Year 13 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England and Wales, Northern Ireland and New Zealand. It is sometimes the thirteenth and final year of compulsory education, or alternatively a year of post-compulsory e ...

). Refurbishment of the premises, as part of the Peterborough Secondary School Review, increased the capacity by one form of entry in each year group, with a similar increase in the sixth form, amounting to around an extra 175 places.

History

The school was officially opened by Alderman Dr. Jack Hunt, chairman of the Education Committee of the then Huntingdon and Peterborough County Council, after whom it is named. Briefly, until education in the county was reorganised in 1976, it functioned as 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 school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

. Jack Hunt School became a Beacon school in September 1999 for an initial period of three years. Following a successful application to the then Department for Education and Skills, Beacon status was granted for a further three years with effect from September 2002. In 2003, the school was reopened as a 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 succes ...

by John Simpson CBE. In 2004, Beacon schools came to an end nationally and Jack Hunt successfully applied to become a new Leading Edge School. In September 2001 racial tensions escalated at the school following the racist

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

of former pupil Ross Parker in the city shortly after the

September 11th Attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

. Three Asian pupils were suspended in October 2001 following an attack on another pupil but the school and headmaster Chris Hilliard were later praised in

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for the way they managed to overcome such problems. On 16 January 2012, the school received a hoax call stating that a bomb had been planted on the premises. Subsequently the entire school had to be evacuated. The pupils were left outside for hours, leading to numerous complaints from parents. In response, and as a token of apology, the head purchased a doughnut for every pupil. Previously a foundation school administered by

Peterborough City Council Peterborough City Council is the local authority for Peterborough in the East of England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. The City was incorporated as a municipal borough ...

, in April 2018 Jack Hunt School converted to academy status. The school is now sponsored by Peterborough Keys Academies Trust.

Facilities

Jack Hunt Pool is an 82 feet (25 m) dual-use facility, built on the premises but open to the general public. Jack Hunt is also home to Peterborough's Yamaha School. The school offers Keyboard, Guitar and Drumming to the community. In 2019 Jack Hunt opened a new block with a new dining facility, new classrooms and an all-weather astro turf football pitch.

Notable former pupils

* Fatima Manji, a Reporter,

Channel 4 News ''Channel 4 News'' is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982. Current productions ''Channel 4 News'' ''Channel 4 News'' ...

Aston Merrygold Aston Iain Merrygold (born 13 February 1988) is an English singer, dancer, television personality and actor. He is known for being a member of the British boy band JLS, who were the runners-up to Alexandra Burke in the fifth series of ''The ...

: member of boyband

JLS JLS (an initialism of Jack the Lad Swing) are an English boyband, which consists of members Aston Merrygold, Oritsé Williams, Marvin Humes, and JB Gill, originally formed by Williams. They initially signed to Tracklacers production company ...

. *Keith Palmer: better known as

Maxim Maxim or Maksim may refer to: Entertainment * ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine ** ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition ** ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition *Maxim Radio, ''Maxim'' magazine's radio channel on Sir ...

, MC with dance act The Prodigy.Kirby, Terr
Author in a Spot of Bother for 'horrible' view of Peterborough
The Independent, 31 August 2006 *James Fox, Paralympic Rower. Part of team that won gold at the 2017 Paralymic Games. * Kirsty Bowden, GB and England hockey player, Olympian and Commonwealth Games medallist.

References

External links

Jack Hunt SchoolJack Hunt PoolBouygues (UK) Construction
{{authority control Secondary schools in Peterborough Educational institutions established in the 1970s Academies in Peterborough Specialist language colleges in England