Brookfield Community School is an academy school located on Chatsworth Road (A619) in the west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England. It is a comprehensive secondary school which has around 1300 students between the ages 11–18 (Years 7–13), including approximately 300 sixth formers.
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Academic performance
In the data for the year 2024/2025, the school had a Progress 8 score of 0.5, indicating that pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 had made more progress, on average, than pupils across England who got similar results at the end of Key Stage 2. The same data shows 66.2% of pupils achieving a GCSE grade 5 or above in English & Maths.
History
Brookfield Community School's history stretches back to the founding of the Chesterfield Grammar School in 1598. This school taught boys throughout the 17th and 18th century, until its closure in 1832. In 1845, the school was restarted in a new building (which remains on Sheffield Road today, and is now part of Chesterfield College), expanding to a size of around 500 in 1928. Additional land on Storrs Road (on the west side of the town) was acquired in the 1930s, but minimally used due to lack of funds and the Second World War. In 1949, work began on the levelling of playing fields on the site, which was opened in 1953.
The present site of Brookfield (on Chatsworth Road/Brookside, adjacent to the Storrs Road playing fields) was opened for Chesterfield School in 1967. Following the Education Act 1944, the school became a state-sponsored grammar school.
Brookfield Community School was formed in 1991 in a re-organisation of schools in Chesterfield, On 1 April 2011, Brookfield Community School officially gained academy status.
In 2018, following an Inadequate OFSTED inspection, the school was encouraged to join a MAT (Multi Academy Trust). Shortly afterwards they announced they were joining Redhill Academy Trust. The school's most recent Ofsted inspection judged it to be 'Good'.
Staff incidents
In April 2018, a TRA disciplinary panel found that Mark Rodda had engaged in unacceptable conduct while working as a science teacher at the school between January and May 2017. His behaviour included inappropriate physical contact, such as massaging pupils' shoulders and placing his arm around them. He also made explicit sexual remarks to students. Rodda was indefinitely banned from teaching in any school or sixth form college in England.
Notable former pupils
Ian Blackwell, cricketer
Chesterfield Grammar School
Chris Adams, former Derbyshire and England cricketer.
Sir Alfred Arnold, Conservative MP from 1895 to 1900 for Halifax
Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins
Charles Balguy, physician
B. V. Bowden, Baron Bowden, Principal of UMIST 1953–76
Henry Bradley, lexicographer, president from 1891 to 1893 of the Philological Society
Francis Chavasse, Bishop of Liverpool from 1900 to 1923
Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin
Robert Waring Darwin of Elston, botanist
Sir John Fretwell, UK Ambassador to France from 1982 to 1987
Ken Gibbons, Archdeacon of Lancaster from 1981 to 1997
Richard Gillingwater CBE, dean from 2007 to 2012 of the Cass Business School, chief executive from 2003 to 2006 of Credit Suisse First Boston
Rt Rev William Godfrey (bishop), Bishop of Peru since 1998
Ralph Heathcote, writer
Sir William McCrea, astronomer
Geoff Miller, England cricketer
Charles Newcombe, cricketer
Ian Newton, OBE FRS FRSE, former deputy chief scientific officer, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Monks Wood
Notable former teachers
Cyril Bibby, biologist; taught biology (1938–40)
Paul Holmes, History master (1979–83), Liberal Democrat MP for Chesterfield (2001–10)
Cec Thompson, former professional rugby league footballer; Head of Economics and Rugby Master (at the school for 17 years, retired 1991)