Bramhall High School
Encyclopedia
Bramhall High School is a comprehensive
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...

 high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 in Bramhall
Bramhall
Bramhall is a suburb of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of about 25,500.Research by the University of Sheffield has placed Bramhall as the "least lonely" place in Britain. Bramhall is also regarded as an affluent area where most residents...

, Stockport
Metropolitan Borough of Stockport
The Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in north west England, centred around the town of Stockport. It has a population of about 280,600 and includes the outyling areas of Cheadle and Cheadle Hulme, Marple, Bredbury, Reddish and Romiley...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Admissions

The school is a Science College
Science College
Science Colleges were introduced in 2002 as part of the now defunct Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, science and mathematics...

 and a Reed College of Enterprise. It is also a teacher training school in connection with Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University is a university in North West England. Its headquarters and central campus is in the city of Manchester, but there are outlying facilities in the county of Cheshire. It is the third largest university in the United Kingdom in terms of student numbers, behind the...

. It is situated in the east of Bramhall.

There are also a very wide range of extra curricular activities and the school has a long record of outstanding success in sport (with more than 50 school teams), music (with four bands and many ensembles), drama, public speaking and more.

Many students come from professional families and a good percentage of parents work in the media. As a result, the school has experienced more than its fair share of press attention.

In January 2011, a new headteacher - Heather Cooper - was appointed.

If you are looking for old school photos, then Bramhall High School group photographs go back to 1996 and can be found at http://www.myoldschoolphoto.com

Grammar school

It opened as Bramhall County Grammar School on Seal Road in 1967 as a co-educational three-form entry grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...

.

Comprehensive

It became The Bramhall County High School in 1971 with a ten-form entry with a sixth form. New buildings were added to prepare for the comprehensive intake. Until April 1974 it was administered by Cheshire Education Committee. By 1973 it had a 12-form entry with around 1400 boys and girls. With the new LEA of Stockport, it became known as Bramhall High School in 1974. In 1975 it was a 9-form entry school with around 300 in the sixth form, and again was 12-form entry in 1980. Similar to Marple Hall School, the sixth form was closed in the early 1990s. There are no 11-18 schools in Stockport LEA.

Press

The school came under the spotlight in 2002, when they asked parents of pupils to pay £10 a month to help following cuts in funding from Stockport
Metropolitan Borough of Stockport
The Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in north west England, centred around the town of Stockport. It has a population of about 280,600 and includes the outyling areas of Cheadle and Cheadle Hulme, Marple, Bredbury, Reddish and Romiley...

 Education Authority under the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 government

The school was initially criticized after the installation of unisex
Unisex
Unisex stands for the meaning that either gender or sex will be able to, but can also be another term for gender-blindness.The term was coined in the 1962 and was used fairly informally...

 toilets in 2000, as a move to tackle bullying and smoking. Subsequently, this development has become accepted Government policy, and the school features on the 'Bog Standard' website,http://www.bog-standard.org/display_case_studies.aspx?id=6 was selected as a case study in good design by the Design Council and in 2007 was the subject of a follow-up documentary for the BBC Breakfast Programme.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast/6583709.stm

The school also was the focus of critical news headlines after it introduced sniffer dogs to search the school premises for traces of illegal drugs. Like the toilets, this too is now official Government policy and accepted practice in many secondary schools.

In March 2007, the school was in the news after banning traditional knotted ties from the school uniform and replacing them with clip-on ties. A spokesperson for the school later declared that the move to introduce clip-on ties was "more about student appearance than health and safety".

In October 2011 the school was in a racism row over attacks made on a lower year student by a 10th year student. The pupil was set upon by a gang of youths at the school gates [Citation Needed].

OFSTED Report

In 2006 the school was inspected by the schools regulator, Ofsted. Much of the work of the school was rated as good or better, (outstanding Physical Education, Music, Drama, Technology) but the inspectors disagreed with some of the school's own assessment of standards, claiming that the school offered a satisfactory standard of education. In 2010, the school achieved its best ever results, with excellent attainment across the ability range and positive value-added at both KS3 and KS4. The latest OFSTED inspection took place during 2010, and the school was rated good overall.

Post-Bramhall Education

After Bramhall High, most students attend one of the local sixth form colleges: Aquinas College, Stockport
Aquinas College, Stockport
Aquinas College, Stockport, Greater Manchester is a Roman Catholic sixth form college. It was established in 1980 on the site of St. Michael's Secondary School, and is owned by the Diocese of Shrewsbury. The college is named after St. Thomas Aquinas.-Reports:...

, Cheadle And Marple Sixth Form College
Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College
Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College, or CAMSFC, is a sixth form college in Stockport.-Structure:It has two campuses:* Cheadle Hulme - the site of the former girls' and boys' grammar school, which then became the Margaret Danyers College.* Marple...

 or Stockport College
Stockport College
Stockport College is a large educational institute providing further education and Higher Education to those age over 15. It has a well-established history and plays a major role in providing educational opportunities for the community including school leavers, businesses and overseas students.The...


Academic performance

The percentage of students gaining the top grades has reached the highest ever at 79.4%. The percentage achieving English, Maths and 5+ A* - C grades rose from last year's 65% to 66% (provisional with remarks pending). At the same time the average points score per student rose by 13 points. This measure indicates students gaining (on average) the equivalent of an extra A* each compared with similar students in 2004. A massive 80% of students achieved at least two C grades in Science, and 118 students achieved C or better in 3 separate sciences.

Notable alumni

  • Jo Blakeway, radio presenter
  • Christine Bottomley
    Christine Bottomley
    Christine Bottomley is a British actress.She is best known for her regular roles as Melanie in the BBC comedy series Early Doors and Susie Ward in Heartbeat.-Life and career:...

    , actress
  • Richard Burden
    Richard Burden
    Richard Burden is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield since 1992. Together with close friend and fellow ex-Young Liberal Peter Hain M.P., he was an enthusiastic supporter of the ill-fated Alternative Vote system in the May 2011...

    , Labour MP since 1992 for Birmingham Northfield
  • Mark Chatterton, actor
  • Tina Cullen
    Tina Cullen
    Christina Louise "Tina" Cullen is a field hockey forward from England. She represented Great Britain in two consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1996 when the team ended up in fourth place....

    , hockey player
  • Lauren Drummond
    Lauren Drummond
    -Background:Drummond was born and brought up in Cheadle Hulme in Stockport and attended Bramhall High School before completing a Performing Arts Course at Mid Cheshire College...

    , actress
  • Keith Fielding
    Keith Fielding
    Keith John Fielding is an English former dual-code international rugby union and professional rugby league footballer of the 1960s, '70s and '80s who at representative level has played rugby union for England, and at club level for Moseley Rugby Football Club, playing at Wing, i.e...

    , rugby league footballer
  • Yvette Fielding
    Yvette Fielding
    Yvette Fielding is a British broadcaster, producer and actress. She is best known for being the presenter of the TV shows Blue Peter, Most Haunted and Ghosthunting With....-Early life and career:...

    , TV presenter
  • Esther Hall
    Esther Hall
    Esther Hall is an English actress who has had high profile roles in a number of television dramas.Born in Manchester in 1970 and brought up in Cheshire, she took A levels in Manchester before training in Theatre Arts for three years at the University of Leeds Bretton Hall College where she gained a...

    , TV actor
  • James A. McGurk, DJ, music promoter
  • Graeme Smith
    Graeme Smith (swimmer)
    Graeme Smith is a former British freestyle swimmer.He won the bronze medal in the 1500 m freestyle at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States. Three years later, at the European Short Course Swimming Championships 1999 in Lisbon, he captured the golden medal in the same event...

    , swimmer
  • Hannah Whelan
    Hannah Whelan
    Hannah Kate Whelan is a British artistic gymnast from Stockport. She was the youngest member of the 2008 Summer Olympic British team where she helped the team to a 9th place finish...

    , Olympic gymnast
  • Harriet Waters, Actress,
  • Helen Milligan, The Apprentice runner up 2011
  • Reece Douglas, actor
  • Adam Platt (Frisbee Fanatic)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK