Beacon Hill Academy, Dudley

The large population growth of the Sedgley and Coseley urban districts in the mid 20th century saw rising demand for school places, resulting in the construction of the Dormston Secondary Modern School in the 1930s, along with several primary schools. Plans for a grammar school to serve the two districts emerged by the 1950s, and the High Arcal Grammar School finally opened in September 1961. Control of the school passed to Dudley Council in April 1966 as a result of Sedgley's amalgamation into Dudley.

As with other schools in Dudley, the school's age range was altered to 12–18 from September 1972. In September 1975 it became a comprehensive school. Its sixth form centre closed in July 1990 as part of further reorganisation by the local authority, and from September of the following year, the age range was altered to 11–16. In September 2002 a new sixth form was opened at the school by Dudley College.

In December 2011, the school hosted a broadcast of the BBC Radio 4 show Any Questions?.[2] This event was later repeated in December 2019[3] in the run up to the General Election.

In September 2017, the school became part of the Dudley Academies Trust, alongside Castle High School (St. James' Academy), The Hillcrest School (The Link Academy), and Holly Hall School (Pegasus Academy), in association with Dudley College.[4] Its name was officially changed to Beacon Hill Academy the following year.[1]

Despite first opening in 1961, the school has only had 7 headteachers in its 60-year history.

The first headteacher of the school was Mr Laurence Ardern, he served for 14 years, from the schools opening until his retirement in July 1975. He was succeeded by Mr John Gerrish, who retired in December 1992 after serving the school for 17 years.

Mr Jeffrey Williams, who had previously been a geography teacher at the school, then returned to the school as headteacher; he resigned in August 2006 after 14 years of service. His work at the school transformed the already well respected former grammar school into what was probably the most well regarded secondary school in the area at that time. Most of the school facilities today were acquired and built during his term as headmaster and he is still spoken about with a great deal of respect, even to this day. Sadly the career of Mr Williams will most likely be remembered by his quiet and sudden exit in the summer of 2006 after being convicted of kerb crawling,[5]

Mr Williams was succeeded by his deputy head Mrs Jo Manson, who became the school's first female headteacher and built upon the foundations laid by her predecessor. She led the school into a continued "outstanding" OFSTED status and helped to acquire the school a second specialism in gifted and talented learning. After 10 years of leading the school Jo Manson retired in April 2016.

Mrs Jo Bull (another former deputy head) then took over from Mrs Manson as Headteacher, being officially appointed on 24 October 2017 and serving as Interim Headteacher until this time.[6] When the Dudley Academies Trust took over the school in September 2018 and it transitioned from The High Arcal School to become Beacon Hill Academy, the college made significant changes to the leadership teams of all of their Academies, this saw Jo Bull resign after less than 18 months in the role, Mr Sukhjot Dhami took on the role as interim Principal and was supported by Angelina Robin-Jones (Executive Principal of the academies trust).

In January 2020 Mr Mark Thorogood became the first permanent headteacher of the new Beacon Hill Academy , but he resigned in May 2020 after just 3 active months in the role making him the shortest serving headteacher/Principal..

Mr Sukhjot Dhami, who had been acting head twice before, helped to guide the school through its toughest ever period (the COVID-19 global pandemic) and took over permanently as Principal in June 2020. Mr Dhami, who had been a teacher at the school for 15 years, continues to serve as Principal of the school today.[7]

The school was previously divided into a house system, houses consisted of four houses named after local stately homes (Attingham, Himley, Boscobel and Whitwick). The houses participated in both physical and academic competitions, they competed in sports such as cricket, football, tennis and rugby. The students in each house had a 'Head of House' and a 'Student Support Manager', this gave students a member of staff who they could talk to about any concerns either with school life or specific subjects. Each house also had student leaders with the roles of house captain and sports captain. Each house had two house captain's, two sports captain's, two deputy sports captains and two deputy house captains (one male and one female in each role). These roles were given to suitable year 11 students.

From September 2019, the house system was disbanded, along with Head of Houses. The school is now broken down into year groups with each group being assigned their own 'Learning Manager' (Head of Year).

• Lorely Burt, Baroness Burt of Solihull, Liberal Democrat politician (attended High Arcal 1966–1971)
• Chris Eaton (UK musician), singer-songwriter, a student at the school who returned to open the school's newly built music building in 1999
• Andrew Griffiths MP, Conservative politician
• Chris Wood, diplomat (attended High Arcal 1970–1977)