Ormiston Chadwick Academy

Ormiston Chadwick Academy
View of the school (2008)
Address
Liverpool Road Widnes , Cheshire , WA8 7HU England
Coordinates	53.3724°N 2.7594°W / 53.3724; -2.7594
Information
Type	Academy
Motto	Latin: Age Quod Agis, lit. 'Do what you are doing'
Established	1958 (1958)
Department for Education URN	140864 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Principal	Jennifer Lowry-Johnson
Gender	Coeducational
Age	11 to 16
Enrolment	948 as of January 2024
Capacity	976
Houses	Ellie Simmonds, Stephen Sutton, Malala Yousafzai, Tim Parry
Website	ormistonchadwickacademy.co.uk

Ormiston Chadwick Academy (formerly The Bankfield School) is a coeducational secondary school with academy status in Widnes, Cheshire.

History

Bankfield School

Bankfield School opened in September 1958 as a small secondary modern school, before becoming a comprehensive school in 1974. The numbers on the roll fell, and in the 1980s the school was threatened with closure. In January 1990, following a campaign by the local community, Bankfield became a grant-maintained school. In 1997, the school joined the other schools managed by Halton Borough Council.

In September 2004, Bankfield School was awarded the specialist status Science College and in doing so partnered with the Catalyst Museum and Science Discovery Centre along with 16 industrial sponsors. In 2010, Bankfield became the first school in the Borough of Halton to be judged as 'Outstanding' by Ofsted. The school also gained a second specialism in Applied Learning, and also became a Gifted & Talented Lead School.

Ormiston Chadwick Academy

In April 2013, Ofsted deemed the school to 'require improvement'. This inspection found that standards in the school had significantly slipped. In January 2013, following an October Ofsted report, the school was placed into special measures. Bankfield was then taken over by an interim executive board who aimed to improve the school, and they appointed John Rigby as the interim executive headteacher. On 1 September 2014, the school re-opened as Ormiston Chadwick Academy. The academy is now sponsored by Ormiston Academies Trust and is paired with Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy in Runcorn.

Notable former pupils

• Derek Twigg, Labour MP for Halton.