Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy, formerly St Chad's Catholic and Church of England 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 ...

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and Runcorn Docks, cargo port in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England. Runcorn is on the south bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. It is upstream from the port of Live ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, England. St Chad's was founded as a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

voluntary aided school A voluntary aided school (VA school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a religious organisation) contributes to building costs and has a substantial influence in the running of the school. In m ...

in 1976. After Phase II of a new building programme costing £7.4 million began in the summer of 2008, the school reopened in 2009 as a joint-faith Roman Catholic and

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

voluntary aided school administered by the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury The Diocese of Shrewsbury () is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in the Province of Birmingham which encompasses the pre-1974 counties of Shropshire and Cheshire in the North West and West Midlands of England. The diocese includ ...

and the Church of England Diocese of Chester. An extension to the schools science block was constructed in 2013. Some areas of the school are available to hire for community sports facilities. In March 2022 St Chad's Catholic and Church of England High School converted to academy status and was renamed St Chad's Catholic and Church of England Academy. The school is now sponsored by the St Joseph Catholic Multi Academy Trust, but continues to be under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury and the Church of England Diocese of Chester. In October 2023, the school was renamed Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy.

Carlo Acutis Carlo Acutis (3 May 1991 – 12 October 2006) was a British-born teenager, primarily of Italian ancestry, known for his devotion to the Eucharist, with him creating a website documenting Eucharistic miracles prior to his death from leukemia at ...

(3 May 1991 – 12 October 2006) was an English-Italian

website designer Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code an ...

who documented

Eucharistic miracle Eucharistic miracle is any miracle involving the Eucharist, regarding which the most prominent Christian denominations, especially the Catholic Church, teach that Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, ...

s and approved

Marian apparition A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance of Mary, the mother of Jesus. While sometimes described as a type of vision, apparitions are generally regarded as external manifestations, whereas visions are more often understood as ...

s, and catalogued both on a

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

he designed before his death from

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

. He was noted for his cheerfulness, computer skills, and devotion to the

Eucharist The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ...

, which became a core theme of his life. He was

beatified Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the ...

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

on 10 October 2020.

Overseas links

The school has links with its partner school in

Tongling Tongling () is a prefecture-level city in southern Anhui province of China. A river port along the Yangtze River, Tongling borders Wuhu to the east, Chizhou to the southwest and Anqing to the west. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1, ...

in Anhui Province, China with trips with staff and students being made regularly between the two schools. The school also has links with St Mary's Boys Secondary School in Nyeri, Kenya, with regular trips being made between the two schools. It has hosted fundraising events to help support the Kenyan school, which gives young people who live in poverty a chance to get a better education.

Notable pupils

Nicola Roberts Nicola Maria Roberts (born 5 October 1985) is an English singer and songwriter. In 2002, Roberts was selected as a member of Girls Aloud, a Pop music, pop girl group created through ITV (TV network), ITV's reality competition show ''Popstars: Th ...

, member of

Girls Aloud Girls Aloud are a British-Irish pop music, pop girl group that was created through the ITV (TV network), ITV talent show ''Popstars: The Rivals'' in 2002. The line up consisted of members Cheryl (singer), Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, N ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Chad's Catholic and Church of England Academy Secondary schools in the Borough of Halton Runcorn Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Shrewsbury Church of England secondary schools in the Diocese of Chester Academies in the Borough of Halton