Harton Academy

Harton Academy (formerly Harton Technology College or Harton Comprehensive School) is a mixed secondary school and sixth form located in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England. It founded on the existing site in 1936.

In 2006, Ofsted rated the school as 'outstanding' and it has received three Government Achievement awards, as well as being named in the 'top 50 most improved specialist schools' throughout the UK. In 2009 Ofsted highlighted Harton as one of 12 outstanding schools serving disadvantaged communities. In 2013, they delivered a similar report.

As part of the BSF (Building Schools for the Future) initiative, in 2010 the school has recently completed twenty-five million pounds worth of construction on a new sixth form building – holding specially designed DT, Maths and Science blocks – which initially housed existing pupils while refurbishment of the main building was under way. The school designed the new building specifically for Sixth Form usage with whole-school Maths, Science, Design Technology and cafeteria, whilst the refubished old block contains English, Humanities, Computer Science, Music and Modern Foreign Languages. In summer of 2015, the swimming pool facilities were redeveloped to the cost of four hundred thousand pounds.

In 2011, the National College for Teaching and Leadership announced Harton Academy as one of the first one hundred Teaching Schools to be designated from the start of 2011-2012 academic year; one of only five secondary schools in the north east, and one of only fifty-six secondary schools in the country, to receive the recognition. This new designation entitles the academy to lead the training and professional development of staff from across the North East region.

As part of HM Queen Elizabeth II's birthday honours list for 2013, the executive head teacher; Ken Gibson was knighted on the grounds of 'excellence in administrating education.'

Notable former pupils

• Jared Deacon, 2002 European and Commonwealth gold medalist, GBR 4x400 relay, Sydney 2000 Olympics.
• Joe McElderry, X Factor 2009 winner.
• Nick Pickering, footballer.
• Chris Ramsey, comedian.
• David Wilson, rugby union player.
• Martyn Waghorn, professional footballer.
• Kane Avellano, Guinness World Record for youngest person to circumnavigate the world by motorcycle (solo and unsupported) at the age of 23 in 2017.

Westoe Secondary School

• Jack Brymer OBE, clarinettist
• James Kirkup, poet

South Shields High School

• Malcolm Barbour, son of the founder of J. Barbour and Sons
• Freddie Chapman, rugby player, and younger brother of Sir Robert Chapman, 1st Baronet
• Harry Eltringham FRS, entomologist
• Prof John Erickson (historian)
• Ron Fenton, footballer
• Bill Hewison, cartoonist for Punch
• James Mitchell (writer), writer of When the Boat Comes In and Callan
• John F. Pollard, historian
• Sir James Halder Readhead, 2nd Baronet
• Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford
• Francis Scarfe, poet
• Rowland Scott-Batey, Chairman from 1973-80 of the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority
• Prof John Stoddart CBE, former Director of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research from 1988-1993 (now part of the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences)
• Prof David Alan Walker, Professor of Biology from 1970-84 at the University of Sheffield
• Paul Wilenius, BBC news journalist
• Sir Robert Wilson (astronomer) CBE FRS

South Shields Grammar-Technical School for Boys

• Gary Best, Headmaster from 1987-2008 of Kingswood School
• Prof Barry Clarke, Professor of Civil Engineering Geotechnics since 2008 at the University of Leeds, and of Civil Engineering from 1998-2008 at Newcastle University, and President from 2012-13 of the Institution of Civil Engineers
• Prof Robert Colls, Professor of English History at the University of Leicester
• Ian Michael Davison, PLO terrorist - for which Pan Am Flight 73 was hijacked on 5 September 1986 to free him from serving life imprisonment in a Cyprus prison for the murder of three Israelis
• Prof Jim Edwardson, Professor of Neuroendocrinology from 1979-2006 at Newcastle University, and Director from 1995-2006 of the Institute for Ageing and Health
• Prof John Gray (philosopher), School Professor of European Thought from 1998-2007 at the LSE
• Kevin Maguire (journalist), Daily Mirror main political journalist (at the comprehensive from 1974)
• Ian Pegler, former boss of Little Chef and Happy Eater in the 1990s
• Prof David Phillips (chemist) CBE FRS, Professor of Physical Chemistry from 1989-2006 at Imperial College, and gave the 1987 Christmas Royal Institution lecture
• Paul Thain, playwright
• Sir Ronald Watson CBE, Leader from 1983-87 of Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
• Ashley Wilson, microbiologist, and former Director of the Centre for Cell and Tissue Research at the University of York
• Edward Wilson (actor)
• Prof Ed Wraith, Professor of Paediatric Inherited Metabolic Disease since 2009 at St Mary's Hospital, Manchester