The Nelson Thomlinson School

The  Nelson Thomlinson School is a  comprehensive  secondary school located in the market town of  Wigton,  Cumbria,  England. The school's motto is the Latin phrase  Fide et Operis, "Faith and Works". The position of Headteacher has been occupied by David Samuel Northwood since September 2012, after the former head, Janet Downes, retired at the end of the previous academic year.

As with many older British Secondary schools, The Nelson Thomlinson School has a prefect system drawn from the Sixth Form. However, instead of one Head Prefect or a Head Boy & Girl pair, there are five Head Prefects who each take charge on a particular day of the week. Former pupils of the school include TV presenter  Melvyn Bragg and  BBC newsreader  Anna Ford.

Since 1997 their results have placed them in the top fifty comprehensive school Sixth Forms in the country and 5 times have been in the top 10. The school also has an excellent record of students going on to study at Oxbridge, with 5 students taking up places in 2011, and 6 taking up places in 2012.

The school enters students in the  GCSE and  A-Level examinations. Around 70% of pupils achieve 5 or more A*-Cs each year in GCSE examinations <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, and in terms of A-Level results, the school has been rated in the country's top 40 comprehensive school since 1997 <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:11px;line-height:11px;white-space:nowrap;">. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> In a 2006  Ofsted<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> inspection the school was judged to be an Outstanding school.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">The  Thomlinson Girls School<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> (formed from Westmorland House owned by Isaac Pattinson and named after the cotton manufacturer John Thomlinson, and now known as the  Thomlinson Junior School<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> on  The Goose Market<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">) and  The Nelson School for Boys<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> (formed from Floshfirld House), which were both  grammar schools<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> and had opened in 1899, merged in 1953 to form the  Nelson Thomlinson Grammar School<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">. This school merged with  Wigton Secondary School<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> (a  secondary modern school<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">) in 1969 to form the  Nelson Thomlinson Comprehensive School<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">.