Beckfoot Upper Heaton

Beckfoot Upper Heaton (formerly Belle Vue Boys' School) is a secondary school and sixth form located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is situated near the Hallmark Cards factory, not far from Bingley Road (B6269).

Currently a boys' school, Beckfoot Upper Heaton is due to become coeducational from September 2016 and move to new buildings soon after.^[1]

History

The school was founded in 1877 and was officially opened (including the girls' section) on 12 August 1879 by William Edward Forster, the local MP. It moved to the present site in 1964, as a boys secondary grammar school. It was known as Belle Vue High School from 1896. In 1918, the junior and infants section closed, with the buildings being taken over. From 1966 it became a comprehensive. It had four houses – Dunwell, Hirst, Holroyd and Parry.

Previously a community school administered by Bradford City Council, Belle Vue Boys' School converted to academy status in September 2015 and was renamed Beckfoot Upper Heaton. The school is now sponsored by the Beckfoot Trust,^[2] but continues to coordinate with Bradford City Council for admissions.

Notable former pupils

Belle Vue Boys' School

• Adil Rashid – Yorkshire and England cricket player
• Marsha Singh 1954– 2012 – Labour MP for Bradford West (includes the school) 1997 to 2012

Belle Vue Boys' Grammar School

• Kamlesh Patel, Baron Patel of Bradford, OBE – politician and member of the House of Lords.
• Sir Reginald Bailey CBE – former President of the British Wool Federation
• Sir James Birrell FCA – Chief Executive of the Halifax Building Society from 1988–93
• Sydney Burton – Managing Director of the Gateway Building Society (bought by The Woolwich in 1988) from 1975–81 and President of the Building Societies Institute (became the CBSI in 1979 and then became part of the Chartered Institute of Bankers) from 1976–7
• Malcolm Creek LVO OBE – High Commissioner to Vanuatu (High Commission abolished in 2004) from 1985–8
• Trevor Croft – Director of the National Trust for Scotland from 1997–2001
• Satnam Singh Gill OBE Principal Working Men's College London from 1999
• James Hill (British director), film director of 1966 Born Free
• Norman Crowther Hunt, Baron Crowther-Hunt of Eccleshill – former Labour education minister from 1974–6
• Sir Robert Yewdall Jennings – President from 1991–4 of the International Court of Justice
• George Layton, actor – starred in Confessions of a Driving Instructor
• Harry Moore – Professor of Glass Technology from 1946–55 at the University of Sheffield
• Geoffrey Myers CBE – British Rail executive and Chairman of Transaid from 1987–95
• Prof John Needham – Professor of Architecture from 1957–72 at the University of Sheffield
• J. B. Priestley OM, writer, who wrote Time and the Conways, and Freeman of the City of Bradford
• Simon Rouse – actor who played Jack Meadows in The Bill
• Jack Schofield – former computer editor, The Guardian
• Sydney Smith CBE – Chairman of the Scottish Gas Board from 1956–65 and the East Midlands Gas Board from 1952–6
• Prof Fred Watson AM – astronomer
• Fielding Reginald West – Labour MP for Hammersmith North from 1934–5 and Kensington North from 1929–31
• Rear Admiral Ken Wilcockson CBE

See also

• Belle Vue Girls' School

References

External links

• Beckfoot Upper Heaton official website

News items

• Former school site to open as a Muslim school in May 2004