The County High School, Leftwich, 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 ...

with academy status, for

students A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school ...

between 11 and 16 years of age, in

Leftwich Leftwich is a historic village, ward and southern suburb of Northwich in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. The name, given as merely 'Wice' in the Domesday Book of 1086, is written 'Leftetewych' in a document of 1278 an ...

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.

History

The school was established in 1957 as the Northwich County Grammar School for Girls. The school was later known as Leftwich High School until the early 1990s before becoming the County High School Leftwich.

Comprehensive

The school became a comprehensive in September 1978, with sixth form pupils from the school and the former Sir John Deane's Grammar School going to the new Sir John Deane's College.

Academy

The school converted to academy status on 1 September 2012. The school is in partnership with Sir John Deane's College as part of the Sir John Brunner Foundation.

Academic performance

The school gets good GCSE results, well above the England average, and slightly above the Cheshire average. Results have steadily improved over the last 6 years. The 2016

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

inspection graded the school as "outstanding" (the highest rating available). In the 2015/16 academic year the school achieved its highest ever result with 86% of students receiving at least 5 GCSEs at grades A*-C. This result put the school as the top rated secondary comprehensive in

Notable former pupils

Northwich County Grammar School for Girls

Sue Birtwistle Susan Elizabeth Birtwistle, Lady Eyre, (born 9 December 1945) is a producer and writer of television drama. Birtwistle has won awards for several of her productions, including '' Hotel du Lac'', ''Pride and Prejudice'' and '' Emma'', and was one ...

, television producer of well-known BBC

costume drama Costume is the distinctive style of clothing, dress and/or cosmetics, makeup of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, occupation, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch—in short, culture. The term also was traditionally used ...

s such as the 1995 ''

Pride and Prejudice ''Pride and Prejudice'' is the second published novel (but third to be written) by English author Jane Austen, written when she was age 20-21, and later published in 1813. A novel of manners, it follows the character development of Elizabe ...

'' and the 1996 '' Emma'' *

Moira Buffini Moira Buffini (born 29 May 1965) is an English dramatist, director, and actor. Early life Buffini was born in Cheshire to Irish parents, and attended St Mary's College at Rhos-on-Sea in Wales as a day girl. She studied English and Drama at Gold ...

, playwright, film director and actress, who notably wrote the 2010 play '' Handbagged'' about Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

and

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

, and the 2010 film '' Tamara Drewe'' *

Diana Johnson Dame Diana Ruth Johnson (born 25 July 1966) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull North since the 2005 general election. A member of the Labour Party, she has served as Minister of ...

, Labour MP since 2005 for Hull North (in attendance from 1977 to 1982) *

Jennifer Saunders Jennifer Jane Saunders (born 6 July 1958) is an English actress, comedian, singer, and screenwriter. Saunders originally found attention in the 1980s, when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Royal Central School ...

, comedian, best known as half of ''

French and Saunders ''French and Saunders'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is al ...

'' and for the television series ''

Absolutely Fabulous ''Absolutely Fabulous'' (often shortened to ''Ab Fab'') is a British television sitcom created and written by Jennifer Saunders, which premiered in 1992. It is based on the 1990 '' French and Saunders'' sketch " Modern Mother and Daughter", cr ...

'' * Shirley Strong, Olympic hurdler, who won the silver medal in women's 100 metres hurdles at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

(attended 1970–75)

Leftwich High School

* Tim Burgess, lead singer of English alternative rock band The Charlatans. *

Michelle Donelan Michelle Emma May Elizabeth Donelan (born 8 April 1984) is a British former politician who served as Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology from July 2023 to July 2024, having previously served in the position from February to ...

References

Secondary schools in Cheshire West and Chester Educational institutions established in 1957 Academies in Cheshire West and Chester 1957 establishments in England {{Cheshire-school-stub