(''The work glows'') , established = 1507 , closed = , type =

Academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

, religious_affiliation = , president = , head_label = Lead Principal , head = Simon Corner , r_head_label = , r_head = , chair_label = , chair = , founder = , address = Birchfield Road , city =

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...

, county =

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, country = England , postcode = WA8 7TD , ofsted = yes , dfeno = 876/4207 , urn = 139368 , staff = , capacity = 1,500 , enrolment = 1,583 , gender =

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 ...

, lower_age = 11 , upper_age = 16 , houses = , colours = , publication = , free_label_1 = , free_1 = , free_label_2 = , free_2 = , free_label_3 = , free_3 = , website = Wade Deacon High 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 ...

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, located in

, England.

Admissions

Wade Deacon has a Public Admissions Number of 300 per year and is oversubscribed. It is situated on ''Birchfield Road'' (B5419) between the districts of

Farnworth Farnworth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, southeast of Bolton, 4.3 miles south-west of Bury (7 km), and northwest of Manchester. Historically in Lancashire, Farnworth lies on the River Ir ...

(to the north) and Appleton (to the south) and opposite Victoria Park.

Widnes railway station Widnes railway station (formerly Widnes North) is a railway station serving the town of Widnes, Halton (borough), Halton, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II Listed building#England and ...

is just north of the school, and Widnes Golf Club is next door to the west. It is in the parish of St John, Widnes.

History

Grammar school

It was formerly two

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 ...

s - Wade Deacon Grammar School for Boys and Wade Deacon Grammar School for Girls. The school was named after Sir Henry Wade-Deacon CBE, Chairman of Lancashire County Council for four years until January 1931, and was one of seven sons of Henry Deacon, an important local industrialist of the United Alkali Company (now

Ineos INEOS Group Limited is a British multinational chemicals company headquartered and registered in London. , it is the fourth largest chemical company in the world. Ineos is organised into about 20 standalone business units, each with its own b ...

) and friend of

Michael Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...

. He died on 29 July 1932 aged 79, being born on 18 October 1852. He left a will of around £75,000. It was designed by Stephen Wilkinson, the architect of Lancashire County Council. It had room for 550 boys and girls. The grand-designed building was made of

Ravenhead Ravenhead is an area of St Helens in the North West of England. It is bordered by Thatto Heath, Sutton and the Town Centre. The area is thought to take its name from a farm once located nearby (Ravenhead Farm), while the 'head' portion of the n ...

and multi-coloured rustic bricks with stone dressings. The floors of the main entrance were made marble

terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bindi ...

. The main drive from ''Birchfield Road'' was finished with

Carnforth Carnforth is a market town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England, situated at the north-east end of Morecambe Bay. The parish of Carnforth had a population of 5,560 in the 2011 census, an increase from the 5,350 reco ...

gravel. The building included two hard tennis courts. It opened as a single mixed grammar school in September 1931 with grounds of . The school separated into separate gender schools in September 1947, next door to each other, with 400 in the boys' school and 450 in the girls' school. It was administered by the Widnes Committee for Education, part of Lancashire Education Committee, based on ''Lugsdale Road'', and later in the 1960s known as the Widnes Excepted District. The girls' school had 700 girls in 1953, 500 in 1958, and 600 from 1967-74. The boys' school had 450 boys in 1953, 600 in 1960, and 700 from 1964-74. Rugby was an important sport at the boys' school. In April 1974, it came under the jurisdiction of Cheshire Education Committee.

Comprehensive

It became the Wade Deacon High School in September 1974 for ages 11–16. The headmaster, Mr Ernest High Smith, came directly from the Kingsway County Secondary School, a

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 usually ...

on ''Kingsway'', which formed the comprehensive with both grammar schools. He left in December 1978. A levels would be taken at Widnes VI Form College or Halton FE College. In April 1998, it was administered by Halton borough.

Academy

The school converted to academy status on 1 March 2013.

Notable former pupils

Alan Bleasdale Alan George Bleasdale (born 23 March 1946) is an English screenwriter, best known for social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people. A former teacher, he has written for radio, stage and screen, and has also written novels. ...

, playwright (1957-1964) *

James Durbin __NOTOC__ James Durbin FBA (30 June 1923 – 23 June 2012) was a British statistician and econometrician, known particularly for his work on time series analysis and serial correlation. Education The son of a greengrocer, Durbin was born in W ...

, Professor of Statistics from 1961-1988 at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

, and President from 1986-7 of the

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

and from 1983-5 of the

International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. It was founded in 1885, although there had been international statistical congresses since 1853. The institute has about 4,000 elected members from gov ...

, and who invented the

Durbin test In the analysis of designed experiments, the Friedman test is the most common non-parametric test for complete block designs. The Durbin test is a nonparametric test for balanced incomplete designs that reduces to the Friedman test in the case ...

(1934–41) *

Fred Lawless Fred Lawless is a British playwright from Liverpool who writes mainly for the stage, but also for television and radio. Biography Fred Lawless was born in Dingle, Liverpool. He attended St Patrick's School in Toxteth before his family moved to ...

, writer and producer for

Brookside Brookside may refer to: Geography Canada * Brookside, Edmonton * Brookside, Newfoundland and Labrador * Brookside, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Brookside, Berkshire, England * Brookside, Telford, an area of Telford, England United States * Br ...

Gordon Oakes Gordon James Oakes (22 June 1931 – 15 August 2005) was a British Labour Party politician. Early life Oakes was born in Widnes, Cheshire, and was educated at Wade Deacon Grammar School, in Widnes and at Liverpool University. A solicitor by ...

, local Labour MP for Halton from 1983–97 and for

from 1971–83 * Steve Platt, journalist * Sir Ken Robinson, author (1963-1968) * Stephen Myler, professional rugby union player, Northampton Saints and England *

Rachel McDowall Rachel Anne McDowall (born 4 October 1984) is an English actress. Early life Rachel Anne McDowall was born on 4 October 1984 in Whiston, Merseyside. She developed an affinity for drama while attending Wade Deacon High School in nearby Widnes, Ch ...

, film actress

References

* ''Guardian'' 2 October 1930, page 4 {{authority control Secondary schools in the Borough of Halton Widnes Educational institutions established in 1931 Academies in the Borough of Halton 1931 establishments in England