Bishop Stopford School  Bishop Stopford School is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England. It meets the needs of parents who wish their children to be educated by a system which enables pupils to continue their understanding of life based on the Christian Faith as taught by the Church of England. The school is located in the Headlands, Kettering. The current headteacher is Miss Jill Silverthorne. Former students of Bishop Stopford are known as Old Stopfordians. Head teachers who served at Bishop Stopford School. 2018- onwards: Miss Jill Silverthorne  2001-2018: Mrs Margaret Holman  Past-2001: Mr James Colquhoun  Bishop Stopford School was founded in 1965 as a purpose-built Secondary Modern institution, as a replacement for its precursor, a school founded in 1535 by the rector of St Peter and St Paul. The former bishop of Peterborough, Robert Stopford, agreed to the new school being named after him. Bishop Stopford School soon introduced a sixth form and admitted its first fully comprehensive intake in 1976. The school has benefited from an extensive programme of new buildings and refurbishment over the years to meet the demands of modern-day students and a changing curriculum. In recent years various additional building projects have been undertaken, in particular major expansion and refurbishment of the design and technology department, library, science department, the subsequent construction of the sixth form centre, Octagon building and sports hall. Subsequently, Bishop Stopford School has been nominated for "Midlands School of the Year" four-years running. In 2008 Bishop Stopford opened its newly re-developed library named after the late teacher Ian Smith, who died from cancer in 2007. On 23 May 2012, Bishop Stopford opened its new extension on the sixth form centre, which features new facilities includes a university-style study area, two seminar rooms and an additional Politics classroom  The number-on-roll has more than doubled since 1965 to approximately 1450 students, with a sixth form of approximately 400. The school converted to academy status in August 2011. There are generally eight houses in each year group, each with approximately 27 mixed sex students; students each wear a tie depicting their house colour and coat of arms. These are named after great Church of England cathedrals: Canterbury (silver), Durham (light blue), Ely (orange), Gloucester (emerald green) - collectively known as Band A; and Peterborough (purple), Salisbury (grey), Winchester (red) and York (yellow) - collectively known as Band B.