Samuel Whitbread Academy 3.93

Samuel Whitbread Academy is an upper school and sixth form with academy status serving the rural communities around the small market town of Shefford in Central Bedfordshire. Its school campus includes a nursery school and facilities for adult education.History1970sOriginally designated Shefford & District Upper School, it was as Samuel Whitbread Upper School that it opened on a purpose-built site on 4 September 1973, as part of Bedfordshire County Council's re-organisation into a 3-tier, non-selective school system. Adult education provision was in place from the beginning under Mr Gordon Ainscough, but the name of the institution was not changed to Samuel Whitbread Upper School and Community College until 1975 (when the 'Headmaster' became the 'Head') and it became Samuel Whitbread Community College, (led by a 'Principal') at some point in the late 90s.The Headmaster, when the school opened, was Mr Kenneth Dodsworth, and the Chairman of Governors was Alderman W. Inskip.The original intention was for the school to have an eventual roll of 1100, drawn from the existing secondary modern schools Robert Bloomfield and Etonbury, which were to become middle schools, and from 1975, a planned purpose-built Henlow Middle School.