The Ecclesbourne School is a secondary school with academy status situated in Duffield,

Derbyshire, England Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...

History

Since opening in 1957 as a small county school in the grounds of Duffield Hall, The Ecclesbourne School has had a varied organisational history. It became a co-educational 11 – 19 comprehensive school in 1976, grant maintained in 1990 and a Foundation School in 2001. Central Government recognised its excellence in 1999 by awarding ‘Beacon’ status. The School was successful in its bid to become part of the ‘Specialist School’ programme when it was awarded Technology College status in 2001. The school has been involved in a Leading Edge Partnership since 2003; at first in the South East Derbyshire Secondary Schools Improvement Partnership, but now is focused on collaborative work with

John Flamsteed Community School John Flamsteed Community School is an 11–16 mixed secondary school with academy status in Denby, Derbyshire, England. It is named after Sir John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, who was a native of Denby and made early and accurate pr ...

. The school has been awarded the Careermark twice (2004 and 2008), the

Sportsmark Sportsmark is Sport England's accreditation scheme for secondary schools. The scheme recognises a school's out of hours sports provision.

in 2004, and was one of only two schools in Derbyshire to receive the ‘Health Promoting Schools’ award. In 2011 the school controversially became an academy which caused a two-day strike by some teachers. In September 2022, the school was condemned by Ofsted and rated "inadequate" after it found the school failed to safeguard students from bullying and allowed racist,

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...

and sexist language to be routinely used by students.Ecclesbourne Academy rated inadequate over racist language
- BBC News, 21 September 2022

GCSE and A level results

The Ecclesbourne School attained the highest GCSE results for the whole of Derbyshire for a non-private school. 91% of the students got at least 5 GCSEs at grades A*-C.

Extracurricular activities

Student groups and activities include charity fund raising, choir, debating, drama, environmental teams, instrumental music ensembles, orchestra, mock trials, Duke of Edinburgh award and young enterprise. Sports include athletics, basketball, cricket, dodgeball, cross-county, football, hockey, netball, rugby, squash. The Under-14 hockey team won the national title in 2004.

Notable former pupils

Nigel Hitchin Nigel James Hitchin FRS (born 2 August 1946) is a British mathematician working in the fields of differential geometry, gauge theory, algebraic geometry, and mathematical physics. He is a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the University o ...

, mathematician *

Stefan Buczacki Stefan T. Buczacki (born 16 October 1945) is a British horticulturist, botanist, biographer, novelist and broadcaster. Early life Buczacki grew up in Duffield, Derbyshire, where he was educated at The Ecclesbourne School. He gained a first-clas ...

, horticulturist and broadcaster *

Kate Pickett Kate Elizabeth Pickett (born 1965) is a British epidemiologist and political activist who is Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York, and was a National Institute for Health and Care Research Ca ...

, co-author of '' The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better'' *

Hollie Webb Hollie Pearne-Webb, (born 19 September 1990) is an English field hockey player who plays as a defender for Wimbledon and the England and Great Britain national teams. She attended The Ecclesbourne School. Club career Pearne-Webb plays club ...

, Olympic gold medallist in women's hockey *

Daniel Trilling Daniel Trilling is a British journalist, editor and author. He was the editor of ''New Humanist'' magazine from 2013 to 2019. He writes about migration, nationalism and human rights and is the author of ''Lights in the Distance: exile and refuge ...

, journalist * Tom Howell, cricketer * Mel Reid, Professional golfer * Liam Delap , Professional Footballer

Notable Teachers and Staff

*Christopher Knapp, current head of music and music technology at the school. Knapp goes by Chris Francis and produces music on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

to a sizeable audience.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecclesbourne Educational institutions established in 1957 Secondary schools in Derbyshire 1957 establishments in England Academies in Derbyshire