St Paul's Catholic High School, also known as St Paul'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

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 a ...

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.

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 Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

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 an area of Manchester, England. Historically part of Cheshire, in 1931 Wythenshawe was transferred to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a large housing estate there in the 1920s. With an area of approximately , ...

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 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 ...

, 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 Diocese of Shrewsbury () is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church 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 includ ...

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 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 ...

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 located in Rusholme, Manchester, England, approximately south of the city centre. Established in 1862, it is recognised as being one of the most oversubscribed sixth form colleges in Greater Manches ...

for

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

education.

Notable alumni

St Augustine's Grammar School

Mark Lythgoe Mark Lythgoe is Professor of Biomedical Imaging and Founder and Director of the UCL Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging, based at University College London (UCL). He has published over 300 papers including publications in Nature, Nature Phot ...

, British neurophysiologist *

Johnny Marr John Martin Marr (Birth name#Maiden and married names, né Maher; born 31 October 1963) is a 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 sinc ...

, main composer and guitarist of

The Smiths The Smiths were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...

Hughie O'Donoghue Hughie O'Donoghue (born 1953) is a British painter. Biography Hughie O'Donoghue was born in 1953 in Manchester, England. His father, Daniel O'Donoghue, was also born in Manchester, to Irish parents, and was a railway company clerk in the city. ...

, painter *

Paul Power (footballer) Paul Power (born 30 October 1953) is an English retired professional footballer. He played both in defence and midfield and played for Manchester City F.C., Manchester City between 1975 and 1986. Career He played in 447 games for the team sco ...

, left back for

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

Andy Rourke Andrew Michael Rourke (17 January 1964 – 19 May 2023) was an English musician best known as the bassist of the 1980s indie rock band the Smiths. Regarded as one of the greatest bassists of his generation, he was known for his melodic and funk- ...

, 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 television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

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

Curly Watts Norman "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 with his ...

in ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' (colloquially referred to as ''Corrie'') is a British television soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced ...

References

External links

St Paul's Catholic High School official website
* Secondary schools in Manchester Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Shrewsbury Academies in Manchester {{RC-school-stub