Accrington Academy is a mixed 11-16 Academy in Accrington, Lancashire. It has designated specialisms in Sports and Mathematics. It is situated in the centre of Accrington. Accrington St Christopher's C of E High is nearby to the west.

The school, run by United Learning, opened on 1 September 2008 on the site of the former Accrington Moorhead Sports College, itself the successor Moorhead High School which was the successor of the one-time Accrington High School for Girls. All pupils previously at Moorhead automatically transferred to the new school, which has had a sixth form provision from September 2009 up until July 2024.

Accrington Grammar School had around 500 boys and 100 in the sixth form in the 1970s. Accrington High School for Girls had around 600 girls. Accrington Moorhead High School was on Cromwell Avenue off Queens Road West. The school was founded in 1895 on Blackburn Rd, Accrington as a 'Technical School' In 1968, it moved to the Moorhead site. In 1975, following the Labour government's educational reforms, it ceased to exist.

In 2008, Nosheen Iqbal wrote in The Guardian that Moorhead High School had been "failing". Her article described a "startling transformation" from 17% of children achieving 5 GCSEs at grades A*-C, to 78% of children doing so in the new school. The school's headteacher believed that the change had been brought about through the Creative Partnerships approach, an Arts Council England programme.

This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (July 2020)

Dominic Brunt, actor, known for his part in Emmerdale as Paddy Kirk.

• Sir Kenneth Barnes CB, Permanent Secretary from 1976 to 1982 of the Department of Employment
• Jim Bowen, comedian, and former host of Bullseye
• Oliver Bulleid CBE, Chief Mechanical Engineer from 1937 to 1948 of the Southern Railway
• Harold Davenport FRS, mathematician
• Sir James Drake CBE, civil engineer, designed the UK's first motorway
• Graeme Fowler, cricketer
• Harry Hill, cyclist who competed in the Olympic Games in 1936
• Ron Hill, marathon runner in the 1964 Tokyo and 1972 Munich Olympics, and won the gold at the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games
• Prof Leslie Howarth OBE, mathematician
• Prof John Lamb CBE, James Watt Professor of Electrical Engineering from 1961 to 1991 at the University of Glasgow, President from 1970 to 1972 of the British Society of Rheology
• James Arthur Prescott CBE, FRS, agricultural scientist
• Edward Slinger, cricketer, solicitor and judge
• Sir John Tomlinson CBE, opera singer
• Prof John Wallwork CBE FRCS FMedSci, cardiothoracic surgeon and emeritus professor who performed Europe's first successful combined heart-lung transplant in 1984
• Graham Walne, theatre consultant, lighting designer, author, and lecturer
• Harry Yeadon, civil engineer, worked with James Drake on the UK's first motorway

• Julie Hesmondhalgh, actress
• Gwen Mayor, primary school teacher who was killed in the Dunblane massacre
• Val Robinson OBE, played hockey for Great Britain
• Hazel Townson, children's author
• Jeanette Winterson, CBE, author

• The New Academy Website
• EduBase