Culcheth High School’s Year 11 students marked the end of their school days with Prom 2025 at The Halliwell Jones Stadium on Wednesday, July 2, and by the look of it, they did not come to play. After weeks of GCSE pressure, revision notes and probably enough highlighters to illuminate Common Lane, the students finally got a proper night to celebrate.
The venue was a strong choice. The Halliwell Jones Stadium has enough polish to make the evening feel special without tipping into ridiculous reality-TV territory, and the appearance of Wolfie added a very Warrington kind of sparkle. Not every prom gets a mascot moment, and frankly, that is the sort of harmless chaos we can all appreciate.
The wider Prom 2025 coverage was reported by Heidi Summerfield, with photos of Culcheth High School students taken by Dave Gillespie, teachers and parents. There was also that rather odd note about an exclusive subscriber partnership with sister title USA Today and a line saying it does not necessarily reflect the view of The Herald. Nothing says hyperlocal Culcheth glamour quite like a transatlantic publishing caveat, but never mind, the photos are what everyone actually came for.
Across Warrington, teenagers have been turning up in style after finishing their GCSEs, with results day still waiting in the wings later this summer. For now, though, they deserved one evening where the biggest worry was whether the hair survived the journey and whether the parents took too many photos. Spoiler: the parents absolutely took too many photos.
The Warrington prom coverage also includes students from Beamont Collegiate Academy, Birchwood Community High School, Bridgewater High School, Cardinal Newman Catholic High School, Culcheth High School, Green Lane School, Great Sankey High School, King’s Leadership Academy, Lymm High School, Padgate High School, Penketh High School, Sir Thomas Boteler CE High School, St Gregory’s Catholic High School and UTC Warrington. Fair play to the photographers, because that is a lot of satin, corsages and proud relatives to capture.
The community photo contributions for Culcheth High School included Lotti Horsman, plus submissions from Kirsty Blowe featuring Layla Blowe and Esme Wardropper, and from Jackie Acton featuring Lola Leary. There were also photos from Ellyse Platt showing Harriet Booth, Ruby Dalton, Evie Platt and Hayden Scott.
Jackie Burns shared a photo of Lucy Rowlands, Amelie Hubble, Lucinda Burns, Kanak Naruka and Evie Twist. Stanislava Angelova submitted a photo named as Vanesa Angelova, with the listing also giving Vanessa Angelova, which is one of those tiny spelling mysteries only a prom gallery can produce.
Further contributions included Abigail Stockton, Isabella Westrich (Izzy), and from Kirsty Thorpe, photos of Lacie Thorpe, Liv Bailey, Cerys Wilson, Lexi Lord and Summer Jackson, along with another photo of Lacie Thorpe. A proper roll call of Culcheth’s class of 2025, and a nice reminder that behind every posed prom photo is someone at home saying, ‘Just one more, love,’ for the seventeenth time.
The special supplement, Perfect Proms 2025, is due in shops later this month, alongside related coverage such as Teenagers arrive in style for Prom 2025 celebrations across Warrington and 15 of the best photos from Prom 2025 at schools across Warrington. It is glossy, sentimental and a bit over-the-top, exactly as prom coverage should be.
Credit where it is due: the students looked smart, confident and happy, and after the slog of exams, that matters. The only criticism is the usual one, prom season can become a bit of an arms race, with outfits, cars and photoshoots sometimes threatening to outshine the actual celebration. But on this occasion, Culcheth High School’s lot seemed to strike the right note, proud, polished and ready for whatever comes next.