Runshaw College

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Runshaw College

Type: Sixth form and Further Education College
Location: Leyland, Lancashire, United Kingdom
LEA: Lancashire
Ofsted number: 130741
School Category: Beacon college
Headteacher: Mr Michael Sheehan
Staff:
Students: 3,000+
Age Range: 16+
Gender: Mixed
Website: Runshaw College Website

Runshaw College is a further and higher education college based in Leyland, Lancashire in the United Kingdom. Its main campus in Leyland is a sixth form college catering for 16-19 students. It also has two centres in Chorley borough. The Euxton Lane campus is the centre for adult and higher education. It also hosts the Runshaw Business Centre, meeting the needs of local small and medium sized enterprises, and Runshaw Training offering apprenticeships and vocational training. Runshaw's third campus, in Chorley town centre, specilaises in hairdressing, beauty and holistics.

The college had a good Ofsted inspection report in 2005.^[1]

[edit] History

Runshaw was founded when the sixth forms of Parklands High School and Balshaws High School were amalgamated in 1974 to make a sixth form college primarily serving the boroughs of South Ribble and Chorley. The college has achieved awards for excellence: it won the UK EFQM Quality Award for Excellence in 2002 and, the following year, it won the European Award, the prize presented by the President of Finland in Helsinki. It became one of the government's Beacon Colleges in 2006.

[edit] Former students

These include Kevin Simm and Rebecca Taylor of Liberty X, actor Michael Dixon (who in 2006 played Chris Pitcher in Coronation Street), actor/comedianJohn Thomson and actress Samantha Robinson who has appeared in two ITV Drama Premiers and in an episode of Shameless.

Other notable ex-Runshaw students are David Unsworth, footballer, Lancashire and England 'A' cricketer Tom Smith and the MP forWestmorland and Lonsdale, Tim Farron. Amanda Roocroft, international opera star and winner of a Laurence Olivier Award, was an A level student at Runshaw. The college's theatre is named after her. Runshaw is the only state school or college to provide two presidents of the Cambridge Students' Union, Pav Ahktar and Laura Walsh.