Oasis Academy Wintringham

Grammar school

The old grammar school buildings in Weelsby Avenue, Grimsby, were opened in 1953 ^{[citation needed]} as Wintringham Grammar School to replace a former school on Eleanor Street, Grimsby.^[3]

In 1948 there were plans to separate the school into male and female grammar schools.^[4] The school was first divided into a boys' and girls' grammar school (they are both now demolished) on a combined site, with around 750 boys and a similar number of girls. The boys' school was on the Weelsby Avenue side of the site, and the girls' school was on the west side of the site, accessed via Park Avenue next to the tennis courts. The Highfields School which was to the north, is now the Lisle Marsden CE primary school.^[5] The school was administered by the County Borough of Grimsby Education Committee, from its offices^[6] on Eleanor Street.

On 16 November 1949 Sir Robert Watson-Watt, the inventor of radar, spoke at the annual speech night.^[7][8]

The schools remained separate up to 1969 when a mixed sixth form became the start of a gradual merger.^[9] The sixth form shared the playing field and some out-of-school activities. The sixth form block was built between the two sites: the co-educational sixth form numbered 200. From the late 1960s until 1974, it was administered (but not taught) as the single-entity Grimsby Wintringham Grammar School for ages 11 to 18. The former Boys' School became the Upper School, and the former Girls' School became the Lower School. Music lessons were held in Highfield House, an old Victorian detached house on the school property.

In 1970 the Conservative group on Grimsby council wanted to retain the school as a traditional grammar school.^[10] John Davoll, founder of The Conservation Society, spoke on 4 November 1971.^[11]

Comprehensive

It became the comprehensive Wintringham School in September 1974. The school name comes from the Wintringham family, specifically John Wintringham. Also in 1974, administration was transferred over the Humber to Beverley, and Humberside County Council, in the Grimsby Division. The school became a comprehensive (incrementally) year by year, with the first all-ability year composed of ten forms. It also became an upper school with ages 12–18, as Grimsby became part of the three tier system.

In the late 1980s, headmaster Keith Bardgett switched the school from streaming to mixed-ability classes, the change starting with the new intake of pupils in September 1988. A restricted form of streaming remained, limited to specific subjects, notably mathematics and foreign languages. From September 1990, the naming convention for classes switched to the modern nomenclature still in use today.^[when?] At the same time, a re-organisation of local education saw Wintringham give up its sixth form and take in new pupils a year earlier than was previously the case. This meant that the 2nd – 6th forms were replaced with Years 7 – 11.

In 1996, administration passed back to Grimsby under North East Lincolnshire.

Oasis Academy Wintringham

In September 2007, the school adopted Academy status under the Oasis Community Learning multi-academy trust. The former schools' buildings were to be demolished and replaced with a single newbuild costing of £25 million. The construction started on 30 August 2007, being undertaken by Clugston Construction of Scunthorpe who finished in January 2009. The start of the construction work was marked by a ceremony where Steve Chalke of Oasis and pupils from the new Academy drove the first spades into the ground. The Academy transferred across to the new buildings in February 2009.^[12]

There are also community facilities. The sports hall is sponsored by Stagecoach. The Dean Suite is named in memory of Dorothy Dean, the headteacher of the school from 1953 to 1975.

The Ofsted Visit in 2016 identified significant difficulties. An interim "executive principal" was brought in from the neighbouring Oasis Academy Immingham. In October 2015 the Oasis Trust appointed an interim executive board to replace the governing body.^[13]

Pupil outcomes reached a nadir in 2016. In 2018, Ofsted declared this a 'good' school.^[14]

Headmistresses

• 1953 Miss Dorothy Dean, her brother Stanley, of Rustington, was killed on 27 November 1967 near Horsham, in his Austin-Healey Sprite, and was taken to Redhill General Hospital,^[19][20] she became headmistress of both schools in 1966, with Mary Buckley as deputy head, and of the comprehensive in 1974, leaving in July 1975; she died in October 2011 aged 96^[21]

Wintringham School

• Thomas Turgoose, actor

Grimsby Wintringham Boys' Grammar School

• John Edward Brown, bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf 1987–96^[25]
• Dennis Brown, professor of medicine^{[citation needed]}
• Quentin Cooper, BBC Radio 4 science presenter^{[citation needed]}
• Tony Ford, footballer^{[citation needed]}
• Derek Gladwin, Baron Gladwin of Clee, trade unionist and life peer^[26]
• Sir William Harpham, Ambassador to Bulgaria from 1964–66
• Bryan Klug, football coach^{[citation needed]}
• Richard Markham, concert pianist^{[citation needed]}
• Duncan McKenzie, footballer^{[citation needed]}
• Kevin Moore, footballer^{[citation needed]}
• Adrian Royle, runner^{[citation needed]}
• Tom Smith (engineer), aeronautical engineer, and leader of the 1960s BAC Mustard design, possibly directly influencing the later Space Shuttle
• David Tarttelin, artist^{[citation needed]}
• Michael Tilmouth, musicologist, Tovey Professor of Music from October 1971^[27]
• Charles Rowland Twidale, geomorphologist and academic^{[citation needed]}
• Andrew Whiten, zoologist, psychologist and academic^{[citation needed]}
• Patrick Wymark, actor^{[citation needed]}

Grimsby Wintringham Girls' Grammar School

• Dame Janet Baker CH, mezzo-soprano opera singer^[28]
• Doreen Forsyth, née Watkinson, Woman's Hour producer from the mid-1960s, she lived at 22 Connaught Avenue, and married Stuart Forsyth in 1956
• Sheila Foulkes, Member of the Legislative Council, Parliament of Western Australia 2005–2009
• Patricia Hodge, actress^[29]
• Julie Peasgood, actress, television presenter, author^[30]
• Prof Jill Rubery, Professor of Contemporary Politics at the University of Manchester
• Bridget Turner, 1960s actress from Cleethorpes^[31]

Wintringham Secondary School

• Sir Arthur Lennon Binns, chief education officer for Lancashire from 1945, being knighted in the 1954 New Year Honours; his 26 year old daughter Margaret married Sir Michael Bruce, 11th Baronet in 1945
• George Edward Briggs FRS, Regius Professor of Botany (Cambridge) from 1948 until 1960,^[32][33] where he conducted important work on photosynthesis with Frederick Blackman^[34]
• Norma Procter, contralto opera singer^[35][36]