Ormiston Chadwick Academy (from 2014, prior to which it was called The Bankfield School) 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 with academy status, located in

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form th ...

in the English county of Cheshire.

History

Bankfield School

Bankfield School opened in September 1958 as a small

secondary modern school A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usuall ...

, before becoming a comprehensive school in 1974. The numbers on the roll fell, and in the 1980s the school was threatened with closure. In January 1990, following a campaign by the local community, Bankfield became a

grant-maintained school Grant-maintained schools or GM schools were state schools in England and Wales between 1988 and 1998 that had opted out of local government control, being funded directly by a grant from central government. Some of these schools had selective ad ...

. In 1997, the school joined the other schools managed by Halton Borough Council. In September 2004, Bankfield School was awarded the specialist status

Science College Science Colleges were introduced in 2002 as part of the now defunct Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, science and mathematics Mathemati ...

and in doing so partnered with the Catalyst Museum and Science Discovery Centre along with 16 industrial sponsors. In 2010, Bankfield became the first school in the Borough of Halton to be judged as 'Outstanding' by Ofsted. The school also gained a second specialism in Applied Learning, and also became a Gifted & Talented Lead School.

Ormiston Chadwick Academy

In April 2013, Ofsted deemed the school to 'require improvement'. This inspection found that standards in the school had significantly slipped. In January 2013, following an October Ofsted report, the school was placed into special measures. Bankfield was then taken over by an interim executive board who aimed to improve the school, and they appointed John Rigby as the interim executive headteacher. On 1 September 2014, the school re-opened as Ormiston Chadwick Academy. The academy is now sponsored by

Ormiston Academies Trust Ormiston Trust is a charitable trust based in London, England. It is a grant-making trust that chiefly assists schools and organisations supporting children and young people. The trust was established in the memory of Fiona Ormiston Murray who d ...

and is paired with Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy in

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...

Notable former pupils

* Derek Twigg, Labour MP for Halton.

References

External links

Ormiston Chadwick Academy WebsiteOrmiston Chadwick Academy Twitter
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1958 1958 establishments in England Widnes Secondary schools in the Borough of Halton Academies in the Borough of Halton Ormiston Academies