Oakhill School

Oakhill School (also Oakhill Grammar School) is a private school in the affluent Weatherfield suburb of Oakhill. It is considered the best school in the area – indeed, it finished top of the league tables in 2004 and it is an aspirational destination for Weatherfield residents with money, although it does also offer scholarships. It has a reputation for being posh and stuffy.

Pupils wear maroon blazers and dark striped ties.

Mike Baldwin paid for his son, Mark Redman to attend in September 1993. At this time, the fees were stated to be £1,800 per term, which Mike found hard to pay by early 1994. Headteacher Mr Sammells refused to take Mark on a scholarship basis but allowed Mike to defer payment for a term. At the end of the academic year, Mark left Oakhill and moved to Felixstowe with his mother Maggie and her new husband-to be, Gerry Woodward, with Mark never having settled in the posh school environment.

Seven years later, Adam Barlow returned to Weatherfield following the death of his mother Susan. In March 2001, Mike, who was looking after him during a custody battle with maternal grandfather, Ken, briefly enrolled Adam at Oakhill, but within a month, he was desperate to return to Borthwick Hill, his former boarding school in Glasgow. Mike paid for him to go back there instead.

In May 2004, Sally Webster got it in her head that her eldest daughter, Rosie, was a maths genius, and decided to send her to Oakhill – despite vociferous objections from Kevin, who disagreed with the concept of private education, and Rosie's lack of enthusiasm. Rosie was offered a place and started that September, but was immediately miserable and complained of being bullied. Things improved though, and in December, Sally helped out at the school's Christmas fayre, delighted to hear the new headmaster, Mr Austin, reporting that Rosie had finally settled in.

During her first year at the school (Year 9), Rosie made friends including Pippa Papadopoulos, Gemma Davenport – whose father Ian was having an affair with Sally – and Imogen Dooley. She took her boyfriend Craig Harris to the school's 2005 Christmas ball and as their relationship progressed during 2006, went on a skiing trip and a five-week French exchange visit. Rosie sat her GCSE exams in summer 2007 but decided to leave Oakhill instead of staying on for her A levels and took a job at Underworld, to Sally's consternation.

Simon Barlow attended an open day at Oakhill in January 2010 with his father Peter and maternal grandfather George Wilson, who had recently tracked down Simon following the death of his daughter Lucy Richards. George offered to use his considerable wealth to pay the school fees. Simon loved the school and Peter made the initial arrangements to withdraw him from Bessie Street School, but the plans come to nothing when Peter started drinking again.

Summer Spellman's guardians Billy Mayhew and Todd Grimshaw looked into sending her to Oakhill in 2017 as she was struggling to get on at Weatherfield High, but the fees were too high. Summer later revealed she was not too bothered anyway.

Kelly Neelan was attending the school in 2019, when Gary Windass had to pay the fees covertly to avoid suspicion, having killed Kelly's father Rick. Kelly was at Weatherfield High by the following year, though; and after she circulated an embarrassing video of Asha Alahan, Dev took Asha and her brother Aadi out of Weatherfield High and enrolled them at Oakhill, unhappy at headteacher Mr Griffin's response to the incident.

Chesney Winter-Brown's son Joseph started attending Oakhill in 2024, with Joseph's maternal grandmother, Linda Hancock, paying the fees. His friends there include Olly Ruskin and two other boys, Omari and Jamie.

Known staff[]

Mr Sammells – Headteacher (1994)
Mr Austin – Headteacher (2004)
Dawn – Admissions officer (2024)