St Nicholas Catholic High School

St Nicholas Catholic High School opened as a secondary modern on 6 September 1965, with Michael O'Connor as its first head teacher and Father R. Velarde, Parish Priest of St. Wilfrid's, Northwich as the first Chairman of Governors. It was the first Catholic secondary school in mid-Cheshire.

In 1972, the school became a comprehensive, and changed its name to St Nicholas High School. At the same time, a new science and languages block was built to the side of the original building. In 1979, a new sixth form block was opened by Mark Carlisle, the Secretary of State for Education. Remodelled science laboratories followed in 1989, and a music suite and additional science laboratories in 1992.

In 1995, O'Connor retired after 30 years as headmaster, and was succeeded by Gerard Boyle. In 2003, the school was awarded Business and Enterprise status. The school also holds the Eco-Schools Green Flag, Healthy Schools status and the Inclusion Quality Mark.

St Nicholas has extended and refurbished the originally standing Sports Hall with Science and Language rooms at the rear at a total cost of £11.5m, as well as a refurbished Sixth Form Centre and new Geography rooms.

Following the retirement of Gerard Boyle at the end of the 2009 term, his successor was Kieran Kelly.[2]

In its 2004 Ofsted inspection, the school and sixth form was rated "very good".[3] In the July 2011 inspection, it was rated "outstanding".[4] The school was reassessed in 2019 and downgraded to "good" due, in part, to the declining performance of students in mathematics.[5][6]

As there are few Catholic high schools in Cheshire, St Nicholas' catchment area extends as far away as Helsby and Knutsford. It also includes Barnton, Davenham, Kingsmead, Middlewich, Weaverham and Winsford. The Sixth Form catchment area also includes the area of St. Thomas More Catholic High School in Crewe, which does not have its own sixth form. Buses run from all the mentioned towns and villages to and from St Nicholas, but due to recent cuts the bus service has come under threat.

Residentials and retreats are normally organised during the month of January. Year 7 pupils usually stay at Conwy Centre in Anglesey for five days. Usually, Year 7 pupils go on a retreat day to St Josephs Catholic Primary School. Year 9 pupils usually stay and do mock SATS in residential week. Year 10 pupils have attended retreats to Savio House in Bollington, Cheshire for a number of years, more recently some have attended retreats at Brettargh Holt in Cumbria and Middleton Grange in North Yorkshire.

• Maeve McClenaghan – Investigative journalist and author[7][8][9]
• Nicky Maynard – footballer
• David Mannix – footballer[10]
• Lucy Meggit – singer with Fast Food Rockers[11]
• Evan Mitchell – Disability rights campaigner[12]

• School homepage