The Brooksbank School

The Brooksbank School is located in Elland near Halifax, West Yorkshire. It is a sports college and is also the largest school in Calderdale. The school currently has over 1700 pupils with over 250 members of staff.

History

The school was first founded in Elland almost 300 years ago, thanks to the generosity of a man named Joseph Brooksbank. He grew up in Elland but left the town at the age of sixteen to become a haberdasher’s apprentice in London. He was described as a prosperous and a promising young man, whose enterprising spirit was rewarded with the title of Citizen of the City of London in 1681. His social standing was reflected by his marriage in 1679 to ‘Mary, daughter of Richard Stamp, merchant, of The City and of Reading, and niece of the Thomas Stamp who became Lord Mayor in 1691’. A final accolade was bestowed upon him when he was appointed a Master of the Haberdashers Company in 1718. However, Joseph never forgot his local roots and, in 1712, he founded a new school in his home town.

The original Brooksbank School was opened to help just forty poor children of Elland learn to read, for free, and for a charge of one penny a week they could also learn to write. Fortunately for us, it seems that the old adage ‘like father, like son’ was particularly apt in the Brooksbank family. Joseph’s son, Stamp, who was born in 1694, was even more successful than his father had been. He became a Director of the Bank of England by the age of thirty six and was appointed Governor of the bank from 1741-43. Stamp, who was also an MP, had gained millionaire status he time of his death in 1756. In the same year, Stamp’s son, also called Joseph, increased the Brooksbank connection with Elland by generously providing the school with a second endowment.

Little is known about what happened over the following hundred years as records are scarce. What we do know is that the school moved to premises in Westgate. Charity Commissioners, who inspected the school in 1829, reported that forty children were attending and that the schoolmaster was being paid £70 a year to teach them.

As the years passed, the desire grew for improved educational opportunities and it was decided that Elland needed a brand new building in a better location. The elevated green fields along Victoria Road were chosen and building work began. An impressive new school, whose classical facade remains intact today, opened to approximately one hundred pupils on 12 September 1911; it was named Elland and District Secondary School. In 1933, the school’s reputation for academic achievement was increasing and it was renamed Elland Grammar School to reflect this. As a result the learning flourished and the number of pupils on roll began to rise.

Twenty five years later, as the nation embraced the idea of comprehensive education, the school shed its grammar school identity and embraced the ethos of equal educational opportunities for all students regardless of ability. A new name was needed to reflect the new ethos and the school looked to its founding forefathers and chose to revive the name of Brooksbank.

A series of major extensions have been added since then and The Brooksbank School is now home to a learning community of around 1,700 young people. Throughout its long history, The Brooksbank School has always encouraged every student to work hard and achieve their full potential. Levels of academic attainment and achievement have risen steadily and the school’s vision for every student to Aspire and Achieve has become a reality.

Campus

The school is located to the west side of Elland approximately a 5 minute walk outside the town centre. The school is located approximately 1/2 a mile south of the M62 and is easily accessible from the motorway. The school also has good bus links offering transport to and from various locations such as Halifax and Wakefield.

The Brooksbank school houses a large sports hall, 2 tennis courts, 3 drama studios, a large playing field and many other facilities, including a gym and rock climbing wall. Other sports that can be played include badminton, table tennis, rugby, yoga and many more

Curriculum

Extracurricular activities

As the school is a Sports College, the school does many sporting activities from Football to Archery to Rock Climbing. Academic activities such as Science Club are also on offer. Each year the school performes both a drama production and a gym and dance evening which showcases school talent.

References

External links

• The Brooksbank School