Chorlton High School


Chorlton High School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status, located in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, England. It has around 1500 pupils and 300 in each year.

History

Grammar school

Chorlton High School for Boys was founded in September 1924 with 110 boys due to the growing need to educate older local boys. The first headmaster was A. F. Chappell, appointed in 1925. During Second World War it was twice evacuated to Fleetwood, owing to the Blitz; school records for the period during the war are sketchy, as the boys were moved around multiple times. The first headmaster retired in 1951 and was succeeded by Mr Merriman a year later. In 1952 it became a grammar school as pupil numbers started increasing again. The third and final headmaster was C. A. Crofts, appointed in 1963. There was at one time a lower school in Darley Avenue.

Comprehensive

During the 1960s it returned to its comprehensive roots. The existing building of Chorlton High School at Nell Lane replaced the old school at Sandy Lane, which was formerly Chorlton Grammar School; in the early years it was called Oakwood High School. Chorlton Grammar School on Corkland Road merged with Barlow Hall Secondary Modern School in 1967, when all of Manchester's secondary state schools became comprehensive. Oakwood High School was the name give to the school, formed by the amalgamation of Wilbraham High School and Chorlton High School in the early 1980s. The current site of Chorlton High School at Nell Lane, was the original site of the Wilbraham High School Upper School.
It was designated a specialist Arts College in 2002. In May 2012, the school governors approved the controversial decision to convert into an academy. The school became an academy on 1 January 2013.

Coronavirus pandemic

Due to the 2020 coronavirus outbreak in the United Kingdom, the school, along with all of the schools in the UK, was shut in March 2020 until further notice, leaving students into home learning.

Notable people

A recording studio commemorates Maurice Gibb, though none of the Bee Gees studied at Chorlton High School. They went to the nearby Oswald Road primary school but the family then emigrated to Australia.

Chorlton High School