Manchester Academy (secondary school)

Updated on Dec 26, 2024

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Established 2003 Religion Christian DfE number ???/352-6905 Founded 2003 Local authority Manchester		Type Academy Executive Principal and Senior Partner Mr Andy Griffin Number of students 912 Founder United Learning Gender Mixed-sex education

Location Moss Lane EastMoss SideManchesterM14 4PXEngland

Manchester Academy is a non-selective co-educational secondary school within the English Academy programme, in Moss Side, Manchester.

Admissions

It is run by United Learning, a subsidiary of the United Church Schools Trust. Over half of pupils are entitled to free school meals and many are from refugee or non-English speaking backgrounds.

It is situated on Moss Lane East (B5219), near Denmark Road, with the University of Manchester nearby to the north and the Whitworth Art Gallery to the east.

History

Manchester Central Grammar School for Boys moved to Whitworth Street in 1900, then moved to Kirkmanshulme Lane in Longsight in 1958. It was still known as Manchester Central Grammar School for Boys. The Central High School for Girls remained at Whitworth Street. The boys' school had around 950 boys. The former site on Whitworth Street became the Mather College of Education in 1963, a teachers' training college. The boys' grammar school merged with Victoria Park Secondary School for Boys to become the comprehensive Central High School for Boys in 1967 with 1,300 boys and girls.

Ducie Technical High School had separate boys' and girls' schools, with 600 girls and 700 boys. It moved into a new building in 1964.

Comprehensive

This became a comprehensive in 1967 when the boy's and girls' schools were merged. Ducie High School was on Lloyd Street North. It merged with the Central High School for Boys in 1982 to become Ducie Central High School for Boys.

It then moved to a site on Daisy Bank Road towards Longsight. In 1993 it had the highest truancy rate of schools in England. It moved back to Lloyd Street North in September 1995, when new buildings were built at a costs of £5 million when the headteacher was Dawn Peters. The former school site is now the Belle Vue Athletics and Leisure Centre.

It was a very multi-ethnic school, when known as Ducie High School. Prince Charles visited the school. Due to its multi-ethnicity, the pro-multi-cultural National Union of Teachers was alarmed when a Christian charity, the Church Schools Company, offered in April 2002 to take the school over. A teacher at the school said the development of a white, middle class, Christian ethos would be offensive at the multi-ethnic school. Iain Duncan Smith visited the school in October 2002.

Academy

Upon takeover by the United Learning Trust, a new £12 million school was built, replacing Ducie High School (formerly Ducie Technical High School) which had earlier absorbed the old Central Grammar School for Boys, established in 1900.

The school opened under the new name of Manchester Academy in September 2003 under the leadership of Dame Kathryn August.

Academic performance

In 2009, the Manchester Evening News reported that the school had achieved an 'astounding transformation', with its predecessor once branded 'the worst in the country', it was now rated by Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, as 'outstanding'. The fact that many pupils come from diverse and often economically impoverished backgrounds led experts to state that pupils at the Academy performed much better than they would at most other schools.

Awards

Pupils from the Academy won the national "Apax – Mosaic Enterprise Challenge". 2009/10 Award, with their 'virtual business' having generated profits of over £6.3 million online. Attending a ceremony at Atlantic House, London, in March 2010, they were awarded a trophy and a cheque for £3,000 from BBC Dragon's Den and Radio Four Today presenter Evan Davis and Khawar Mann of Apax Partners.

Having won the regional final of the Debate Mate competition, pupils from the Academy competed as national finalists in the 2010 Richard Koch Cup Debating Final, chaired by Channel Four's Krishnan Guru-Murthy at the House of Lords.

Central Grammar School for Boys

Sir John Alcock, First flight across the Atlantic

Prof H. Wright Baker, Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1939-60 at the University of Manchester

Joel Barnett, Baron Barnett, Labour MP from 1964-83 for Heywood and Royton

James Bingham, Chairman from 1980-81 of Greater Manchester County Council

Prof Eric Boyland, Professor of Biochemistry from 1948-70 at the Institute of Cancer Research, Royal Marsden Hospital, London and expert on molecular toxicology

Prof. Frank W. Cambray, professor and chairman, Geological Sciences, Michigan State University, USA

Sir George Cartland CMG

Sir James Chadwick, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1935 for discovering the neutron

Sir Alcon Copisarow, Chief Scientific Officer from 1962-64 to the Ministry of Technology

Prof William Alexander Deer, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1971-73, Master from 1966-75 of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology from 1961–78

Robert Donat, actor who won the best actor Oscar in 1939

Sir William Downward, Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester from 1974–87

Reginald Eastwood, Professor of English Law from 1924-60 at the Victoria University of Manchester

Prof Robert Geoffrey Edwards CBE, Professor of Human Reproduction from 1985-89 at the University of Cambridge and inventor, with Patrick Christopher Steptoe, of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in 1978

Georg Eisler, painter

Denis Filer CBE, President from 2000-01 of the IMechE, and Director General from 1988-95 of the Engineering Council

Rt Rev George Kenneth Giggall OBE, Bishop of St Helena from 1973-79, and Royal Navy chaplain

Prof Edward Gregson, composer and Principal from 1996-2008 of the Royal Northern College of Music

Sir Henry Hardman CB, Permanent Secretary from 1963-64 at the Ministry of Defence

Frank Hatton, local Labour MP from 1973-74 for Manchester Exchange, and from 1974-78 for Manchester Moss Side

Rabbi Louis Jacobs CBE

Prof William Johnson, Professor of Mechanics from 1975-82 at the University of Cambridge, and Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1960-75 at the University of Manchester

Sir Leslie Kirkley CBE, Director from 1961-74 of Oxfam, and largely responsible for it, and Chairman from 1977-81 of the Disasters Emergency Committee

Arthur Knowles CBE, Secretary General from 1946-56 of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce

Kenneth Marks, Labour MP from 1967-83 for Manchester Gorton

Cecil Melling CBE, President from 1962-63 of the IEE

Vivian Pereira-Mendoza, Director from 1970-80 of the Polytechnic of the South Bank, and Principal from 1966-70 of the Borough Polytechnic (its predecessor)

Sir Derek Roberts, Provost from 1989–99 and 2002-03 of University College London (UCL)

Benny Rothman

James L. Tuck, physicist, member of the Manhattan project, Shaped explosives expert.

Brian Statham CBE, English cricketer(fast bowler). Played for England 1951-65. In 1962 breaking the record held by Alec Bedser for the most wickets taken by an English bowler.