Haling Manor High School
Encyclopedia
Harris Academy Purley is an Academy
Academy
An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...

 secondary school in South Croydon
South Croydon
South Croydon is a locality in Greater London, the area surrounding the valley south of central Croydon about 1 km in radius, centred on the Red Deer public house on the Brighton Road. It is part of the South Croydon post town and in the London Borough of Croydon...

, 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...

. Haling Manor High School was one of only fifteen schools in the country to be awarded specialist status
Specialist school
The specialist schools programme was a UK government initiative which encouraged secondary schools in England to specialise in certain areas of the curriculum to boost achievement. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust was responsible for the delivery of the programme...

 as a music school
Music College
Music Colleges were introduced in 2004 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in England. The system enables secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, music. Schools that successfully apply to the Specialist Schools Trust and become Music Colleges will receive extra...

.

General information

The school is situated in the London Borough of Croydon.

The school has developed good links with the wider school community and enjoys a growing positive reputation that is built on trust and good communication.

History

Before becoming an 'Academy' the school was named Haling Manor High School. There were two 'wings' to the school for many years: Pampisford Wing which was originally South Croydon Boys Technical School; and the Kendra Wing which was originally South Croydon Secondary Modern School. Origins went further back to what was Wadden Secondary School. (There was a famous entry in the punishment book from that era: 'X' received 6 strokes of the cane for letting off a paper bag during an air raid' - cited by Michael Round, previously Headmaster)
The first Headteacher of Haling Manor was a Mr. Fox (not to be confused with Richard Fox, Head of Science and Senior Master who spent his entire career at the school) and the first
Deputy Head was Mr. Piper. Michael Round replaced Mr Fox and was Headmaster 1975-1996 (21 years)until a heart attack forced retirement. He is still active (2011) writing and travelling. His then Deputy, John Troake, took over as an equally successful Head until August 2009 when the school was passed to the Harris Foundation.

Up until 31 August 2009, the school was 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...

 Secondary High School.

From 1 September 2009, it became part of the Harris Federation
Harris Federation
Harris Federation is a federation of Primary and Secondary academies in South London, England. There are currently fourteen open academies in the federation which span over five London boroughs including the London Borough of Croydon, London Borough of Southwark, London Borough of Bexley, London...

 of schools, and was renamed to Harris Academy Purley, under the leadership of Carol-Anne Alcock. Mrs Alcock had previously been the headteacher at Selsdon High School.

The school is situated in South Croydon, not Purley.

Performance

The school had a GCSE pass rate of 23% achieving 5 A*-C grades (as of July 2009) including English and Maths and had one of the highest achievement rates in the capital when taking into account CVA (contextual value added
Contextual value added
Contextual value added is a statistic used by the government of the United Kingdom to assess the performance of schools.The statistic is intended to show the progress children have made whilst attending a particular school...

) meaning that from relatively low prior attainment pupils show good levels of progress.

As Haling Manor High School (Headmaster: Mr John Troake MA) 76% of all year 11 students left in 2008 with 5 A* - C grades, above the national average. 41% of all children left the school with a modern foreign language grade A*-C in 2009 again beating most Croydon schools and the national average. The school is ranked 78th in the country for CVA. This ranks the school in the top 3% of schools for the amount of progress students make.

MR Round was still the headmaster when I left in 1981, MR Fox was head of science

External links

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