De Aston School

De Aston School
Address
Willingham Road Market Rasen , Lincolnshire , LN8 3RF England
Coordinates	53°23′01″N 0°19′32″W / 53.3836°N 0.3255°W / 53.3836; -0.3255
Information
Type	Academy
Religious affiliation(s)	Christian
Established	1863
Department for Education URN	136491 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Head teacher	Simon Porter
Gender	Mixed
Age	11 to 18
Enrolment	976
Publication	De Aston Voice
Website	www.deastonschool.co.uk

De Aston School is a mixed secondary school with academy status in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, England. It also has a sixth form but no longer has a boarding house as of 2020, following the country's decision to leave the European Union, due to the declining popularity of boarding, and dwindling funds to support the facility.^[1] The school has a broad Christian ethos but accommodates those of other faiths.

The school has 1,002 pupils.^[2] The school used to provide boarding accommodation for around 80 pupils, many of whom came from abroad. De Aston was a specialist school in mathematics and computing.

De Aston School was founded in 1863 as a small grammar school, as part of a legal settlement following a court case involving funds from the medieval charity of Thomas De Aston, a 14th-century monk. Until 1995,^[3] the school's Foundation Governors also owned the chapel at the site of the charity's Almshouses at Spital-in-the-Street, 10 miles to the west.

The school's headmaster originally had his own house on the school site. The Victorian Gothic red brick house was built in 1863 and was designated as a Grade II listed building by English Heritage in 1984.^[4] The original buildings was designed by the Louth Architect James Fowler and further additions were added in 1904-6 by the Lincoln architect Herbert Dunn. As a grammar school it was administered by the Lindsey Education Committee, based in Lincoln, and became co-educational in 1971.

It became a comprehensive in 1974 (when Lincoln became comprehensive), amalgamating with Market Rasen Secondary Modern School on Kilnwell Road. At the same time, new buildings were opened.^[5]

The school converted to academy status in March 2011.^[6]

Simon Porter

In March 2001, at the Secondary Heads Association's conference in Newport, Ellenor Beighton, head teacher, spoke out against the current funding system for schools.^[7] Then in July 2001 Former Headmaster Anthony Neal disagreed with School Standards Minister Stephen Timms over the benefits of specialist schools saying that they create a two-tier system.^[8] Homework was being publicly discussed in December 2001 in the wake of Cherie Blair's request to the Ministry of Defence for information to help with her son's homework. Neal commented that homework was essential and central to the fact that standards were rising.^{[9][failed verification][dead link]}

Police apologised to the school, in November 2006, after a computer error wrongly put it at the top of a national table for the number of police call-outs.^{[10][failed verification][dead link]}

This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (May 2015)

• Professor Anthony Davenport, Professor of Cardiovascular Pharmacology & Fellow of St Catherine's College, University of Cambridge. Director of the Human Receptor Research group.
• Phil Boulton, Professional Rugby Union player with Leicester Tigers, Rotherham Titans and Bedford Blues.
• Bruce Barrymore Halpenny, military historian and author
• Sir Walter Liddall CBE, Conservative MP from 1931 to 1945 for Lincoln
• Philippa Lowthorpe, television director whose credits include the controversial Jamaica Inn, and Call the Midwife^[11]
• Michael Oglesby, High Sheriff of Greater Manchester from 2007 to 2008
• Rod Temperton, songwriter of the Michael Jackson song Thriller
• Sir Richard Wakerley^{[dead link]}, barrister
• John Graham Wallace, illustrator
• Prof Charles Wilson CBE, Professor of Modern History from 1965 to 1979 at the University of Cambridge
• Gordon White, Baron White of Hull, co-founder of Hanson plc
• Dr Garry Campion FRHistS, historian.^[12][13][14]
• Professor Tim Veal, Professor of Physics, University of Liverpool, author of Indium Nitride and Related Alloys
• Warwick Grosvenor, Mike Gray, Iain Heron-Stamp, former BAFANL American football players, later coaches and founding members of Scunthorpe Alphas.

• Bernie Taupin, lyricist for Elton John

• Bruce McGowan, headteacher from 1957-64, later headteacher from 1973 of Haberdashers' Boys' School, and in 1985 the chairman of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC)^[15]

• Joan Harrop. A history of the development of De Aston School, Market Rasen. Middle Rasen: J Harrop, 1991.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to De Aston School.

• Official website

• De Aston school history - contains details of former pupils circa 1900.
• De Aston School war memorial - contains details of former pupils who fell in the first world war.