St Matthew's RC High School is a mixed

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 the Moston area of

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England. The school is named after

Saint Matthew Matthew the Apostle was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. According to Christian traditions, he was also one of the four Evangelists as author of the Gospel of Matthew, and thus is also known as Matthew the Evangelist. The claim of his g ...

, one of the

Apostles An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary. The word is derived from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", itself derived from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to se ...

and, according to Christian tradition, one of the

four Evangelists In Christian tradition, the Four Evangelists are Matthew the Apostle, Matthew, Mark the Evangelist, Mark, Luke the Evangelist, Luke, and John the Evangelist, John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four canonical Gospel accounts ...

History

The school building was rebuilt during 2007-2009 and opened in September 2009. This was to replace the aging building built in the 1970s. The school celebrated 40 years open in September 2017. In January 2018 for the first time in its history, the school was placed into special measures by

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 ...

, following the November 2017 inspection. This happened as a result of low pass rates in English and maths (in which the school ranked in the bottom 10% nationally), poor leadership, as well as noticeable behavioural and attendance issues. The school previously ranked as requires improvement in September 2015, and Good in 2012. 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 m ...

administered by

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been re ...

, in June 2021 St Matthew's RC High School converted to academy status. The school is now sponsored by the Emmaus Catholic Academy Trust. It continues to be a Catholic school under the jurisdiction of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford The Diocese of Salford () is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church centred on the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. The diocese was founded in 1852 as one of the first post-Reformation Catholic dioceses in Great Britain. Since 191 ...

. The school was reinspected vu Ofsted in November 2022 following complaints about serious, school-wide issues, and was rated as "Inadequate" in all categories.

Curricula

St Matthew's RC High School offers

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 ...

, BTECs and

Cambridge Nationals Cambridge Nationals are a vocational qualification in the United Kingdom introduced by the OCR Examinations Board to replace the OCR Nationals. These are Level 1 and Level 2 qualifications for students aged 14 to 16 and are usually awarded afte ...

as programmes of study for pupils.

Notable former pupils

Aitch (rapper) Harrison James Armstrong (born 9 December 1999), known professionally as Aitch, is an English rapper from Manchester. He rose to fame in 2018 with the track "Straight Rhymez". His debut studio album '' Close to Home'' (2022) reached number two ...

* Brandon Barker, footballer *

Anthony Crolla Anthony Crolla (born 16 November 1986) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2006 to 2019.. Retrieved 27 March 2017. He held the WBA lightweight title from 2015 to 2016. Professional career Early career Crolla made his prof ...

, boxer *

Terry Flanagan (boxer) Terry Flanagan (born 11 June 1989) is a British former professional boxer. He held the WBO lightweight title from 2015 to 2017, becoming the first Englishman to win a world title in that weight class. He won the Prizefighter lightweight tournam ...

* Jonathan Macken, footballer *

Peter Ash Peter Ash (born 4 February 1985) is an English actor from Moston, Greater Manchester, who has starred in British television series such as ''Casualty'', ''Footballers' Wives'', ''Hollyoaks'', and ''Coronation Street''. Early life Ash attended ...

, actor

References

External links

St Matthew's RC High School
Secondary schools in Manchester Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Salford Academies in Manchester Educational institutions established in 1977 1977 establishments in England {{RC-school-stub