Knutsford Academy

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Knutsford Academy is a secondary school for students aged 11 to 18 in Knutsford, Cheshire, England. It has a Performing Arts specialist status and runs a Studio School site on its upper campus.

History and changes
The school began as two separate sites. The upper site on Bexton Road opened in 1953 as a secondary modern school for boys and girls. The lower site on Westfield Drive opened in 1966 as a girls’ school. In 1973 the two schools merged to form Knutsford County High School. In 2011–12, work was done at the lower site to remove asbestos. The school became Knutsford Academy on 1 April 2012 after gaining Academy status and introduced a new uniform: a blue blazer with the academy logo and a striped tie. It also runs a traditional sixth form.

Two sites and facilities
Knutsford Academy operates on two main sites, lower and upper, which are linked by a public path. Year 7 pupils start in the lower school, and from year 9 they move to the upper school. The upper site includes a Studio School, opened officially in January 2015 by George Osborne, with Nicola Hall leading the Studio.

Sports and learning facilities
The upper site shares space with Knutsford Leisure Centre, giving strong sports facilities for the PE department. There are outdoor pitches, including football pitches, tennis courts, and a three-pitch astro-turf. The academy provides extensive technology resources for design and computing, including CAD, computer graphics and construction design. It has many ICT facilities, with over 100 Apple Macs and a large number of laptops (replaced around 2013–14 with Toshiba machines). Across both sites there are more than 200 ICT computers, with software such as Adobe Creative Suite CS6 and Office 365 being introduced to replace older Office programs around 2014. The Studio School is equipped for its additional learning and creativity-focused work.