The Lowry Academy (formerly Harrop Fold School) is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

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

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, England, which serves pupils from

Little Hulton Little Hulton is an area in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, south of Bolton, northwest of Salford, and northwest of Manchester. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, Little Hulton is bordered by Far ...

and

Walkden Walkden is a town in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, northwest of Salford, and of Manchester. Historically in the township of Worsley in Lancashire, Walkden was a centre for coal mining and textile manufacture. In 2014, ...

. The school is named after the noted Salford artist,

L.S. Lowry Laurence Stephen Lowry ( ; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Lancashire (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its vicinity ...

History

The school was formed in 2001 from the merger of Joseph Eastham High School in

and Little Hulton Community School in

. Originally on both former schools' sites, a new building was subsequently constructed on the playing fields of Joseph Eastham High School and the old building demolished in 2008. The school has a very high proportion of pupils who are

economically disadvantaged The "disadvantaged" is a generic term for individuals or groups of people who: * Face special problems such as physical or mental disability * Lack money or economic supportKingdom of Nepal: Economic and Social Inclusion of the Disadvantaged Poo ...

. In 2003,

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

inspectors told the governing body that Harrop Fold was the "worst school in the country". In 2005, the school had improved and 94% of teaching was judged satisfactory or better. In 2010 and again in 2013 the school was judged Good. In 2018 the headteacher, Drew Povey, was first suspended and then resigned. This was linked to allegations that the school had wrongly recorded information, possibly in order to make results appear better than they were ("

off-rolling Off-rolling or offrolling is the practice in the United Kingdom, of removing disadvantaged and struggling pupils from the school roll, before they take their final exams so their poor results are not included in the school statistics. Definition ...

"). He had served as headteacher since February 2010. Later in the year the school was judged Inadequate and placed back into Special Measures. Previously a community school administered by

Salford City Council Salford City Council is the local authority of the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan borough council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majo ...

, in March 2021 Harrop Fold School converted to academy status. The school is now sponsored by

United Learning United Learning is a group of state-funded schools and fee-paying independent schools operating in England. United Learning is the trading name for United Church Schools Trust (UCST) and United Learning Trust (ULT). It is one of the largest 10 ch ...

. In September 2021 the school completed its transformation and was renamed ''The Lowry Academy'', after the Salford-born artist,

, with a new uniform and

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

Television coverage

The school featured in

Educating Greater Manchester ''Educating Greater Manchester'' is the 5th series of the BAFTA award-winning British documentary television programme ''Educating'' broadcast on Channel 4. The eight-episode fifth series began broadcast from 31 August 2017. The documentary fol ...

on Channel 4.

References

External links

The Lowry Academy official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowry Academy Secondary schools in Salford Academies in Salford Educational institutions established in 2001 United Learning schools 2001 establishments in England

History

Television coverage

References

Further reading

External links