St Gabriel's Roman Catholic High 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 ...

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 ...

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

located in

Bury, Greater Manchester Bury (, ) is a market town on the River Irwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. which had a population of 81,101 in 2021 while the wider borough had a population of 193,846. The town was originally part of the ...

, England. Founded in 1954, it became an

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

sponsored by the St Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Academy Trust in 2020.

History

The main school building was opened in 1954. From 1954 to 2020, it was 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 m ...

administered by

Bury Metropolitan Borough Council Bury Metropolitan Borough Council, also known as Bury Council, is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and provides the majority of local government services ...

, and later gained status as a

specialist Science College Science Colleges were introduced in 2002 as part of the now defunct Specialist schools programme, Specialist Schools Programme (abolished in 2011) in the United Kingdom. The system enabled Secondary education#England, Wales and Northern Ireland, ...

. The school celebrated its

Diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

anniversary in 2014, which was marked by a visit by the

Bishop of Salford The Bishop of Salford is the Ordinary (church officer), ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford, Catholic Diocese of Salford in the Province of Liverpool, England. With the gradual abolition of the legal restrictions on the activities o ...

. The school's publication, ''Pronuntio'' (lit. ''I pronounce'' in Latin), had been published for many years but the final issue was produced in December 2019. In November 2020, the school became an

academy school An academy school in England is a state-funded school which is directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control. The terms of the arrangements are set out in individual Academy Funding Agreements. 80% ...

sponsored by the St Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Academy Trust. The school's Form classes are named after

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

s and

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

s from

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

and consist of Arrowsmith, Lyne,

Southworth Southworth may refer to: People * Southworth (surname) Places * Southworth, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Southworth, Washington – unincorporated community on Puget Sound in Kitsap County, Washington * Point Southworth – on Kitsap Penins ...

Ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

, Barlow,

Clitheroe Clitheroe () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Ribble Valley, Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England; it is located north-west of Manchester. It is near the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for to ...

, Plessington and Rigby. Two of the form classes (

and Rigby) were added during the 1990s and two more ( Mayne and

Jones Jones or Joneses may refer to: People and fictional characters *Jones (surname), a common Welsh and English surname * List of people with surname Jones, including fictional characters ** Justice Jones (disambiguation) ** Judge Jones (disambiguati ...

) added in the 2000s. The latter two form classes ceased to be used for

Year Seven Year 7 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand. It is the seventh full year (or eighth in Australia and England) of compulsory education and is roughly equivalent to Sixth gra ...

students beginning in 2019, and were dissolved school-wide in 2020, with those previously in the forms being moved to other classes.

School Facilities

The School buildings include: the Main Building; the School Library and Centre; the St Teresa of Calcutta Chapel; the Drama and Performance Arts Complex (typically referred to as the Paul Hopkins Building); a Gymnasium and Sports Hall and the shared English/Art Complex (connected to the P.H building) which is commonly known within the school as ‘Doc’s Block’ in memory of a former teacher.

References

External links

St Gabriel's Roman Catholic High School: Official Website St Gabriel's Roman Catholic High School: Official Parents-Teachers Association Website
Secondary schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Salford Educational institutions established in 1954 1954 establishments in England Academies in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury Schools in Bury, Greater Manchester {{GreaterManchester-school-stub