The St Lawrence Academy (formerly High Ridge 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 t ...

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

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, in

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A pre ...

, North Lincolnshire, England. The Academy teaches GCSEs and BTECs, and has specialisms in sports and science.

History

Grammar school

Scunthorpe Grammar School opened in 1927. It became a comprehensive, as High Ridge School, in 1968 when the Scunthorpe division of

Lindsey Lindsey may refer to : Places Canada * Lindsey Lake, Nova Scotia England * Parts of Lindsey, one of the historic Parts of Lincolnshire and an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 ** East Lindsey, an administrative district in Lincolnshire, a ...

turned comprehensive.

Comprehensive

A community school administered by

North Lincolnshire Council North Lincolnshire Council is the local authority of North Lincolnshire. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It is one of fifty five unitary authorities. It provides a full rang ...

, High Ridge School converted to academy status on 1 September 2008 and was renamed The St Lawrence Academy. The school is sponsored by the Church of England

Diocese of Lincoln The Diocese of Lincoln forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire. History The diocese traces its roots in an unbroken line to the Pre-Reformation Diocese of Leices ...

. In 2011 demolition of the old building began and construction started as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme. The new building was built by

May Gurney Kier Group plc is a British construction, services and property group active in building and civil engineering, support services, and the Private Finance Initiative. Founded in 1928 in Stoke-on-Trent it initially specialised in concrete enginee ...

and was completed in October 2013. The old hall is refurbished but still remains.

Notable alumni

Scunthorpe Grammar School

Joan Plowright Andrew Ray A Taste of Honey Broadway 1960

Roy Axe Royden Axe (September 1937 – 5 October 2010) was a British car designer. Early life and career Axe was born in Scunthorpe and attended Scunthorpe Grammar School (now St Lawrence Academy). Axe began his career in 1959 with the Rootes Group wh ...

, car designer with

Chrysler Europe Chrysler Europe was the American automotive company Chrysler's operations in Europe from 1967 through 1978. It was formed from the merger of the French Simca, British Rootes and Spanish Barreiros companies. In 1978, Chrysler divested these ...

in the 1970s, designing the Talbot Horizon and

Alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

, later working for

Austin Rover Group The Austin Rover Group (abbreviated ARG) was a British motor manufacturer. It was created in 1982 as the mass-market car manufacturing subsidiary of British Leyland (BL). Previously, this entity had been known as BL Cars Ltd (formerly Leyland C ...

in the late 1980s * Prof

Gordon Dougan Gordon Dougan is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge and head of pathogen research and a member of the board of management at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, United Kingdom. He is also a Fellow of ...

FRS, Head of Pathogen Research at the

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute The Wellcome Sanger Institute, previously known as The Sanger Centre and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is located on the Wellcome G ...

in Cambridgeshire * Ric Parker CBE FREng, Director of Research and Technology from 2001–16 at Rolls-Royce (at High Ridge from 1968) *

John Peck (politician) John Peck (August 1922''The Times House of Commons 1964'', p.140 – 28 March 2004) was a British communist politician, known for contesting a large number of elections before finally winning one. Early life Born in Caistor in Lincolnshire, Pec ...

, can be seen in the film '' Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'', who belonged to the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

(CPGB) *

David Plowright David Ernest Plowright (11 December 1930 – 24 August 2006) was a British television executive and producer. Life Plowright was educated at Scunthorpe Grammar School. He began his career in journalism as a reporter on the ''Scunthorpe Star ...

, CBE, television producer, younger brother of Joan, Controller of Programmes from 1969–79 at

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

(which helped his brother-in-law) * Dame Joan Plowright, actress, married to

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the Theatre of the U ...

from 1961 to his death in July 1989 * Major-General Dennis Shaw CB CBE, Head from 1975-78 of the Commando Logistic Regiment * Graham Taylor OBE, former manager from 1990-93 of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

* Michael Tomlinson (engineer) FICE FIStructE, Chairman from 1969-71 of the British Geotechnical Association, who researched soil mechanics,

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

control and design of

piles Hemorrhoids (or haemorrhoids), also known as piles, are vascular structures in the anal canal. In their normal state, they are cushions that help with stool control. They become a disease when swollen or inflamed; the unqualified term ''hemo ...

Pile Design and Construction Practice, Sixth Edition by Michael Tomlinson
/ref> who lived at Burton upon Stather * Prof

Stephen Westaby Professor Stephen Westaby FRCS (born 27 July 1948) is a British heart surgeon at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, England. He won the award of Midlander of the Year in 2002. Early life Westaby was raised on a council estate in Scunthorpe, Lincol ...

FRCS, Senior Cardiac Surgeon since 1986 at the John Radcliffe Hospital, and Professor of Biomedical Sciences since 2006 at the University of Wales

References

External links

The St Lawrence Academy official website
Secondary schools in the Borough of North Lincolnshire Church of England secondary schools in the Diocese of Lincoln Academies in the Borough of North Lincolnshire Schools in Scunthorpe {{Lincolnshire-school-stub