# The Axholme Academy

The Axholme Academy (formerly North Axholme School) is a mixed secondary school located in Crowle, North Lincolnshire, England.

## History
### Secondary modern school

Children transferred from former Crowle Secondary School.
North Axholme Secondary School opened in November 1957 with 240 children; it was a secondary modern school. It was officially opened Wednesday 17 September 1958 by Frederick Gough, with 390 children and 17 staff. The school had cost £143,000, being built over fourteen months, and was opened three months early. It was hoped that the other Isle of Axholme secondary school (South Axholme Secondary School) would be ready by September 1960. When the school opened, 60 children were from Owston Ferry and 50 children were from West Butterwick. The Haxey and Epworth area went to a different secondary school.
The deputy headmaster was Roy Gillatt who taught Physics, who left in April 1980, when the school was a comprehensive; he had attended Scunthorpe Grammar School, and had flown the Consolidated PBY Catalina with the RAF during the war. The first headmaster was Walter Day, from Norfolk, who moved to the area in 1953 as the head of Fieldside primary school. He helped with the local scouts, and his wife with the guides; he left in 1963 to go to Laindon secondary school in Essex. Harold Dent, Professor of Education at the University of Sheffield, handed out prizes in July 1959.
At the school prize day, on Tuesday 21 July 1964, prizes were handed out by Simon Barrington-Ward, the Chaplain of Magdalene College, Cambridge, later the Bishop of Coventry from 1985 to 1997. Out in the Isle of Axholme, the grammar school system was broadly supported, and the headmaster Mr L George warned about possible changes to the local selective system, if a parent had a child capable of attending a grammar school. The Scunthorpe education division change to comprehensive schools, had originated only from Labour supporters in Scunthorpe, animated at a perceived possible unfairness of the eleven-plus system; rural secondary schools have weathered the change to comprehensive education much better than secondary schools in Scunthorpe, which have not fared well; and apart from the success and renown of the John Leggott sixth form college, much of the rest of Scunthorpe's enthusiasm for the comprehensive system has frequently backfired. Yet it was Scunthorpe that had mostly provoked this change, and not the Isle of Axholme.
The headmaster L George wanted a wider curriculum, and there would be cooperation with South Axholme Secondary School and North Lindsey Technical College. A pre-nursing course, for girls, had started. From September 1964, Epworth children would travel to Crowle for nursing, and Crowle children would travel to Epworth for commerce and metalwork.
Rural teachers, in 1964, wanted Lindsey County Council to keep the Frederick Gough Grammar School, as it was, with no significant change. The Isle of Axholme NUT group wanted the grammar school to stay, as the school was situated outside the Scunthorpe borough boundary. If the Frederick Gough grammar school was included in the Scunthorpe plan, which is what happened, the NUT group wanted a new rural grammar school to be built.
Rev. Donald Eric Cornelius became headmaster in January 1967; he had attended Borden Grammar School in Kent, having been Head of Divinity at Scunthorpe Grammar School for ten years. He became vicar of Gunness and Burringham in October 1991.

### Comprehensive

The school became comprehensive in September 1968.
In December 1991, 13 year old Tim Buttrick collapsed at a school disco at 7pm and died in Scunthorpe General Hospital at 9pm; he had a heart defect from birth.
The school swimming pool, after 26 years, closed in 1992. Rev Cornelius retired in August 1993, aged 62, after 27 years as headmaster. The new headmaster from September 1993 was Lee Smith, who had attended Brigg Grammar School and the University of Nottingham, teaching German and French. He had two daughters at the Vale of Ancholme School, and lived at Broughton.
The school was previously a community school administered by North Lincolnshire Council, North Axholme School was converted to academy status on 1 January 2012 and was renamed The Axholme Academy. However the school continues to coordinate with North Lincolnshire Council for admissions.

## Structure

The school is on the west side of the north-south A161, south of Crowle, and towards Ealand, to the south. An electricity transmission line passes east-west, close to the north of the school.

## Curriculum

The Axholme Academy offers GCSEs and BTECs as programmes of study for pupils.