Rainford High School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Rainford, Merseyside, England. It first opened in 1940 and continues to serve the communities of St Helens, West Lancashire, Wigan and Kirkby to this day.
History
Rainford High School opened on August 7, 1940, during World War II, as Rainford Senior Council School, with 127 students, one principal, and three teachers. The school was originally a grammar school.
In 1945 the name was changed to Rainford County Secondary School.
During the 1950s and 1960s, the school had begun to grow in size. By this point, the school had become a Secondary Modern school, entering its pupils for external examinations, including A-Level examinations.
The school became a comprehensive on September 7, 1971, with the old system of grammar schools and secondary modern schools abolished, where the school would choose to adopt the name 'Rainford High School'.
The school received both Technology College and Beacon School status in either the 1999/2000 academic year or the 2000/2001 academic year, and the name was changed to 'Rainford High Technology College'.
The oldest Ofsted record available is from 2004, and it shows that the school was inspected and received a good award. However, following reinspections in 2008 and 2011, the school only received a Satisfactory award.
In 2012, the Principal, Ruth Greenwood was suspended, due to "concerns over the leadership and management of the school". Following this, the Vice Principal, Sam Wells, and the Chair of Governors, John Bromilow, along with principal all resigned from their posts, citing personal reasons. In May 2012, Rainford High School appointed a new principal, Ian Young, who expressed that he wanted to ensure "that the standards in the school reach the highest possible levels of attainment and achievement". Following Ian Young's appointment, the school was reinspected by Ofsted, and the school received Requires Improvement.
The school was rebuilt as part of the UK government's Building Schools for the Future programme, and the site fully opened in September 2013. The site has since been further expanded, when a modular, four-classroom building was added to the site in 2021.
The school was reinspected in 2014, when it received requires improvement again, and would then be reinspected in 2015, where it received a good award, for the first time since 2004.
Previously a community school administered by St Helens Council, in September 2017, Rainford High Technology College converted to academy status, and its name was reverted to Rainford High School. The school is now sponsored by the Everyone Matters Schools Trust.
In 2021, the school was inspected for the first time as an academy by Ofsted, and it continues to hold a good award.
Houses
The school used to have 4 houses, called Derby, Muncaster, Holland and Lathom. However, in more recent times these houses have not been used.
In 2022, the school brought back the house system. The house names are Compassion, Integrity, Determination, Endeavour and Resilience. The first house event was the 2022 annual Sports Day in July 2022. In January 2023, the school began to hand out House Badges (to lower school students) and House Lanyards (to staff and sixth form students). There are 5 of these, with different symbols, and colours to match the houses. Each student and member of staff will be randomly placed into one of the five houses.
Rainford High Sixth Form
Rainford High Sixth Form is a sixth form college and the post-16 provision of Rainford High School, located in Rainford, St Helens, Merseyside.
The first A-Level exam to be sat at Rainford was sat in 1962, with the first student to enter University from Rainford in 1966. The Sixth Form building was completed in 1982 and refurbished in 2011. During this process, the Sixth Form was moved into temporary accommodation on one of the fields on the school's grounds.
It is currently third in the results table in the St Helens area, behind Hope Academy and Carmel College. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, exam data from the years 2020 and 2021 has not been released. Exam data is expected to be released from the summer 2022 exam cohort.
The college is based in the grounds of Rainford High School.
The Sixth Form has some specialist facilities, such as a media suite with video editing facilities, and a canteen, however, many of the school's other facilities, such as Science Labs, the Auditourium, and the Sports Hall, are shared with the main school.