Netherhall Learning Campus

Story

Netherhall Learning Campus is a federation of 4 schools which share the same campus in Rawthorpe, Huddersfield, England. The federation was formed in 2008, and includes Netherhall St. James Infant & Nursery School (formerly Rawthorpe St James CE Infant and Nursery School), Netherhall Junior School (formerly Rawthorpe Junior School), Netherhall High School (formerly Rawthorpe High School) and the Creative and Media Studio School.Netherhall High SchoolOriginally Rawthorpe County Secondary Modern, the school was built circa 1952. The first Head was "Jack" Timewell who remained with the school until 1975.Mr Timewell indicated unusual difficulties attendant in the school's establishment. One edge of the school's playing fields overlooks the Kilner Bank. In pre-war times the Kilner Bank had been a local beauty spot. Industrial activity in the Huddersfield's Leeds Road area, particularly wartime munitions production, had left the Kilner Bank (and the playing fields) contaminated with high concentrations of soil copper. Only the importing of grass able to tolerate high copper concentrations, from Canada, enabled the school to have large sports fields adjacent.The contamination had destroyed most of the tree life on the Kilner Bank and the school participated in an extensive replanting program starting in the early 1970s.The school had a sixth form, and entered pupils for the GCE A-level examinations whilst still a secondary modern. This continued until three local grammar schools began a phased-transition into sixth form colleges in 1973. Renamed Rawthorpe High School, it lost its own sixth form and became a comprehensive "feeder school". The school continued to enter pupils for the GCE O-level examinations, replacing the Associated Examination Board exams with the far more demanding northern universities Joint Matriculation Board papers in 1974.