Manchester Academy

History

The Manchester Central Grammar School for Boys was established on Whitworth Street in 1900. While the Central High School for Girls remained at Whitworth Street, the Central High School for Boys moved to Kirkmanshulme Lane in Longsight in 1958. It amalgamated with Victoria Park Secondary School to form the Central High School for Boys (as a comprehensive school) in 1967. It then amalgamated with Ducie Technical College to form the Ducie Central High School for Boys in 1982.

The school moved to Moss Side, where new buildings were built at a cost of £5 million (the old site is now occupied by Belle Vue Centre), in September 1995. Iain Duncan Smith visited the school in October 2002. After a £12 million new building had been completed, the school re-opened under the leadership of Dame Kathryn August as the Manchester Academy in September 2003.

Admissions

Since its reopening, it has been 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.

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.

Notable alumni

Central Grammar School for Boys

Sir John Alcock, first flight across the Atlantic

Joel Barnett, Baron Barnett, Labour MP from 1964 to 1983 for Heywood and Royton

Sir George Cartland

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 to 1973, Master from 1966 to 1975 of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology from 1961 to 1978

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

Prof. Robert Geoffrey Edwards, Professor of Human Reproduction from 1985 to 1989 at the University of Cambridge Nobel Prize for Medicine and inventor, with Patrick Christopher Steptoe, of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in 1978

Georg Eisler, painter

Rev George Kenneth Giggall, Bishop of St Helena from 1973 to 1979, and Royal Navy chaplain

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

Sir Henry Hardman, Permanent Secretary from 1963 to 1964 at the Ministry of Defence

Frank Hatton, local Labour MP from 1973 to 1974 for Manchester Exchange, and from 1974 to 1978 for Manchester Moss Side

Ducie Technical High School for Boys

Mel Ainscow, Professor of Education at the University of Manchester

Sir Howard Bernstein, chief executive since 1998 of Manchester City Council

Peter McGarr, composer

Lord Monks, trades unionist

Sir Trefor Morris, chief constable from 1984 to 1990 of Hertfordshire Constabulary

John Thaw, actor.

George Waring, actor

Paul Young, singer and percussionist

Other local United Learning Trust schools

Salford City Academy

Stockport Academy

William Hulme's Grammar School