Castlebrook High School is a comprehensive school

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...

 located in Unsworth

Unsworth

Unsworth is a residential area of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, in Greater Manchester, England. It is seven miles north of the city of Manchester and four miles south of Bury.-History:...

, in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury

Metropolitan Borough of Bury

The Metropolitan Borough of Bury is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in North West England. Lying to the north of the City of Manchester, the borough is composed of six towns: Bury, Ramsbottom, Tottington, Radcliffe, Whitefield and Prestwich, and has a population of 181,900...

, Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

, 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...

.

History

The school opened in September 1971 and was originally called Unsworth Comprehensive School. Its initial enrollment was 146 pupils. In 1983, the school merged with Whitefield High School (aka Albert Road) and was renamed Castlebrook High School.

Intake and catchment

It has a wide ranging catchment area with some pupils traveling from central Manchester or neighboring Bury and Salford. Some even come from as far as Bolton.

Possible closure

Throughout 2006, along with several other schools in the wider Bury borough, it had been under a sustained threat of closure. It is believed that there will be 2,000 fewer high school students in Bury,so Bury Council wanted to close two high schools in the area. It was possible that Castlebrook would amalgamate with nearby Philips High School, or that either Castlebrook or Philips will be closed.

, 952 pupils attend the school.

Talent of the school

The school has been known for its great musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 and theatrical ability and has staged many productions, musicals and musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

, from Hobson's Choice, My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...

, West Side Story, and most recently in 2006 one of the first, if not the first, comprehensive school

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...

 to perform the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie

Thoroughly Modern Millie

Thoroughly Modern Millie is a 1967 American musical film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Julie Andrews. The screenplay by Richard Morris focuses on a naive young woman who finds herself in the midst of a series of madcap adventures when she sets her sights on marrying her wealthy boss.The...

. The School has also been known to create its own musicals and stage them themselves, for example in the year 2001 the school staged a production (musical) called 'Sold Out' which was written by the performing arts

Performing arts

The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...

staff of the school.

The school's GCSE results have been improving greatly over the last few years; with 61% of pupils achieving 5 A*-Cs in 2008, up to 76% in 2009 and to 80% in 2010, the highest the school has ever achieved .

As of latest Castlebrook gets the highest GCSE results in the Construction BTEC course in England.

Hong Kong businessman Sir Alex Hargreaves was also a student at this school during the 1990's