Established 1931 DfE number 876/4207 Phone +44 151 423 2721 Founded 1931 Gender Mixed-sex education | DfE URN 139368 Tables Number of students 1,500 Lead Principal Simon Corner | |
Location Birchfield RoadWidnesCheshireWA8 7TDEngland Ofsted Reports Pre-academy reports Similar Rainhill High School, The Heath School, Great Sankey High Sch, Saints Peter and Paul Cath, St Chads Catholic & Church of | ||
Wade deacon high school video prospectus
Wade Deacon High School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status, located in Widnes, Cheshire, England.
Contents
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 (to the north) and Appleton (to the south) and opposite Victoria Park. Widnes railway station 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.
Grammar school
It was formerly two grammar schools - 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) and friend of Michael Faraday. 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 and multi-coloured rustic bricks with stone dressings. The floors of the main entrance were made marble terrazzo. The main drive from Birchfield Road was finished with Carnforth gravel. The building included two hard tennis courts. It opened as a single mixed grammar school in September 1931 with grounds of 40 acres (160,000 m2). 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 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.
Academic performance
It gets very good results on paper at GCSE: the best in the borough of Halton, and comparable with many Cheshire schools. Like all schools in Halton except one school, St Peter and Paul Catholic Sports College (which is next door), it has no sixth form.