St Paul's Catholic High School, also known as St Paul's RC High School, is a mixed

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

located in the

Newall Green Newall Green is an area in the Wythenshawe district of Manchester, England. It is on the west side of the M56 motorway, approximately 1 mile from Wythenshawe Town Centre. Newall Green has two secondary schools, St Paul's Catholic High School and ...

area of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England.

History

Former schools

St Augustine's Grammar School was a Catholic

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

on Stancliffe Road,

Sharston Sharston is an area of Wythenshawe, south Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 census was 16,754. History Built on former farming land (as was most of Wythenshawe when the estate was first being built in the 1920s), the area was i ...

Mount in the north of

Wythenshawe Wythenshawe () is a district of the city of Manchester, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Cheshire, Wythenshawe was transferred in 1931 to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the ...

off the A560, which opened in 1966. It became the upper school of St John Plessington High School (comprehensive) in 1977. This became part of St Paul's RC High School in 1984, and the Sharston site became derelict in 1987, and demolished in 1988. Another Catholic grammar school in south Manchester is St Bede's College. St Columbia's and All Hallows secondary modern catholic schools in south Manchester closed in 1975 and 1994 with staff and pupils from All Hallows transferring to St John Plessington and ultimately St Paul's.

Admissions

Previously a

voluntary aided school A voluntary aided school (VA school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a religious organisation), contributes to building costs and has a substantial influence in the running of the school. In mo ...

administered by

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three ...

, St Paul's Catholic High School converted to academy status on 1 April 2013. The school is administered by the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury The Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury is a Roman Catholic diocese in the Province of Birmingham which encompasses the pre-1974 counties of Shropshire and Cheshire in the North West and West Midlands of England. The diocese includes rural are ...

but continues to coordinate with Manchester City Council for admissions. The school was graded as 'inadequate' by Ofsted in 2015, highlighting 'serious weaknesses'. In 2022 the school was graded 'good' by Ofsted. The school is situated west of the M56 (North Cheshire Motorway). To the west nearby is Newall Green High School which closed in 2021. The present site of St Paul's on Firbank Road incorporates the original premises of St Peter's RC Primary School, which swapped property with the original St Paul's next door. St Peter's Church adjacent to the site was demolished in 1990.

Curriculum

St Paul's Catholic High School offers

GCSEs The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

and BTECs as programmes of study for pupils. Graduating students often go on to attend Loreto College and

Xaverian College Xaverian College is a Roman Catholic college in Manchester, England, south of the city centre in Rusholme. Established in 1862, Xaverian College has become one of the most oversubscribed Sixth form college in Greater Manchester, along with Lore ...

for

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

education.

Notable alumni

St Augustine's Grammar School

Mark Lythgoe Mark Lythgoe (born 17 December 1962) is a British neurophysiologist, and the founder and director of the Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging (CABI) at University College London (UCL), where he is professor of biomedical imaging. Early life ...

, British neurophysiologist *

Johnny Marr Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher, 31 October 1963) is an English musician, songwriter and singer. He first achieved fame as the guitarist and co-songwriter of the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. He has since performed with numerous ...

, main composer and guitarist of

The Smiths The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to emerg ...

* Hughie O'Donoghue, painter * Paul Power (footballer), left back for

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

Andy Rourke Andrew Michael Rourke (born 17 January 1964) is an English musician, best known as the bassist of the Smiths. He is known for his melodic approach to bass playing. Career Rourke's father was Irish while his mother was English. He received an a ...

, bassist of The Smiths *

Gerry Sundquist Gerald Christopher Sundquist (6 October 1955 – 1 August 1993) was an English actor. Early life Sundquist was born in Chorlton and grew up there with his older brother and younger sister. He developed an interest in acting at primary schoo ...

, actor

St Paul's Secondary School

* John Bradley (known as John West in St Pauls), actor known for portraying Sam Tarly in ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...

'' * Kevin Kennedy (known as Kevin Williams in St Pauls), actor known for portraying

Curly Watts Norman Arthur "Curly" Watts is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera '' Coronation Street'', from 1983 to 2003, and in a few spin-off DVDs in 2010. He was portrayed throughout by Kevin Kennedy. Most of Curly's storylines dealt ...

in ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

References

External links

St Paul's Catholic High School official website

Former previous grammar school
Secondary schools in Manchester Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Shrewsbury Academies in Manchester {{RC-school-stub