Aquinas College is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

sixth form college A sixth form college (pre-university college in Malaysia) is an educational institution, where students aged 16 to 19 study typically for advanced post-school level qualifications such as GCE Advanced Level, A Levels, Business and Technology Edu ...

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England. The college offers a range of Level 2 and Level 3 courses including

GCSEs The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

A-Levels The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

, and other vocational courses such as BTECs and T-levels. The college also offers various adult education courses.

History

The college was established in 1980 by the Diocese of Shrewsbury and is named after St. Thomas Aquinas. The college was opened on the site of St. Michael's Secondary School. Ambrose Smith was the college principal from 1989 to 2011. During his tenure the college was so popular among school leavers in the Stockport area that it received twice as many applications as there were places. During this time the college expanded from 400 to 2000 students. In 2010 a new main building was opened. In 2011 Danny Pearson succeeded Ambrose Smith as principal. The College was rated as "Good" at its most recent

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

inspection, which was carried out in 2023.

Notable alumni

* Archie Atkinson, cyclist * Josh Dewhurst, guitarist of Blossoms *

Sacha Dhawan Sacha Dhawan () (born 1 May 1984) is a British actor. He began his career in the ITV series '' Out of Sight'' (1997–1998), '' The Last Train'' (1999), and '' Weirdsister College'' (2001–2002). He originated the role of Akthar in the play '' ...

, actor * Dominic Monaghan, actor * Kate Richardson-Walsh,

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

player * Matt Walker,

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

swimmer

References

External links

* Schools in Stockport Catholic universities and colleges in England Buildings and structures in Stockport Education in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport Sixth form colleges in Greater Manchester Educational institutions established in 1980 1980 establishments in England Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Shrewsbury {{GreaterManchester-school-stub