Greater Manchester

[3pickles]

Hi,

Really looking for some guidance on secondary schools in and around Manchester (in areas of the tram or frequent trains to the city centre).

We are relocating and my main priority is getting schools right for my children, secondary and primary aged.

I am looking for recommendations for non-selective secondary schools that have excellent pastoral systems that are caring yet have robust systems for dealing with behaviour and bullying. I find ofsted reports and schools websites are quite limited in getting a true reflection on a school and would love some personal recommendations!

Thank you ☺️

Didsbury high is brilliant. You have to buy in to them coming down hard on minor infractions, but they intervened early on when my kid was starting to show poor behaviour a few years back and turned it right around with a mix of discipline and pastoral support. Their academic results are also incredible for a non-selective state school. Cheadle High was the first school in the same trust and is a brilliant school, but I only know it by reputation. Both have small catchment areas though.

Thank you, sounds very much like the school my son is currently in. He is a great kid, but really likes to test that the boundaries remain where they have been placed. Which is why the pastoral side is a real driver for me, if they provide consequences to actions but do so consistently and with some personal guidance too, then I think he would really benefit from that. We really like Didsbury, so great to hear first hand about the high school there, although trying to get in catchment sounds like it might be tough!

Lots of good schools in South Manchester. Parrs Wood High school is a big school but therefore lots of resource. Firm behaviour policy but not as strict as Didsbury High. Good pastoral care. Caters for children of all abilities and loads of great extra curricular activities.
For primary schools, St Paul's CofE in Withington is good for pastoral care and academics. West Didsbury CofE and Didsbury CofE are also good, smaller schools with a family feel.

That’s really useful thank you. Good to know there are a choice of schools near to each other that are good. Where we currently live, the children are relatively happy and doing well but the surrounding schools are really not good pastorally or academically. So is a worry to me about moving, especially not knowing anything about the schools in the area.

All the schools round Didsbury are good. Loads of great primaries & three good highs: Didsbury High, Parrswood & Barlow RC. Up the road in Chorlton there is Chorlton High, William Hulme and Chorlton South. Single sex schools are also good; Burnage Boys, Whalley range girls or levy high girls. Close to town, Trinity high is excellent.,
Id recommend visiting a few

I’d also maybe think about what your DC are likely to want to do at KS4 gsce. Some of the schools offer a wider range of GCSE options due to size eg politics, ethics, sociology, beauty, music tech, vocational options and high performing streams etc

The Barlow RC is smaller than others but has specialist SEN unit. Chorlton had always been big on performing arts and has a theatre. Chorlton South is very close to it and its sister school

It's irrelevant where you move.

There's no spaces anywhere within Trafford / south Manchester ATM. It's a really big problem particularly for anyone relocating. The best schools in Trafford are the grammars anyway which means you are pretty stuffed before you start. For both council areas you will be allocated a space where there are any, even if that means your kids have to travel there. Which inevitably will mean the worst high schools unless you are exceptionally lucky with your timings. Primary schools are a little less pressured due to the falling birth rate. It's the high schools that are the problem.

Both have found they are heavily oversubscribed due to the influx of Hong Kong Chinese kids moving to the area.

If you want a good school with places, avoid Trafford or Manchester councils for this reason and seriously look at other options or further out from central Manchester.

Although Didsbury High has an M20 postcode it's actually quite a way away from the main "Didsbury village" itself. The school is on the border of Chorlton and West Didsbury so you'd probably have to be living in that side of Didsbury to get a place.
Chorlton High is non-selective, has a large intake but seems to manage discipline quite well. CHS South is part of the same academy trust as Chorlton High and is just down the road from it, I don't know as much about it and its policies but both are very near two tram stops.

RedToothBrush has covered Trafford. There are lots of excellent schools here, but they are all full.

If you move anywhere in Trafford, the chances are you will be allocated Broadoak in Partington regardless.

Personally I just wouldn't relocate to Trafford on this basis.

I believe the situation in Manchester isn't much better. The catchment for Didsbury is around less than a mile and apparently is looking even less next year (my friend has a kid in year5 and is just being to realise she lives just a few hundred metres out from several options for her son for the schools that most of his friends will go to). The peak is another 2 years off in 2028.

What age are your kids?

Manchester council has a webpage giving details of the furthest-away distance that was offered a place in every Manchester high school (there's also a similar webpage for the primary schools).
https://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/705/school_admissions/6451/the_demand_for_secondary_school_places

CHS South, as in previous years, had a wider "catchment" - 2.24 miles. Chorlton High just over a mile and Dids High only 0.79 miles. William Hulme school was mentioned by a PP, it has its own admission criteria so living close to that school is no guarantee of getting in

trafford is a nightmare for reasons above. I can’t comment on Manchester but Stockport has well regarded high schools, especially around Cheadle Hulme. Most of the better schools down this neck of the woods are run by Laurus Trust which also runs Didsbury High

Trafford council also has info available about furthest distance offered a place, you would need to read individual schools' admission criteria very carefully in some cases. As mentioned by PP the only schools to offer a place to all applicants for 2025 entry were Wellacre, Lostock and Broadoak. And Blessed Thomas Holford which is a Catholic high school
https://www.trafford.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/starting-school-and-admissions/school-admissions-appeals/secondary-admission-outcomes-2025

I don't know much about Manchester area schools, and even less about Trafford, but I don't think most of the areas of south Manchester mentioned are anywhere near the tram. Didsbury is quite a middle class area, and I'd expect that a lot of the schools have good results because of their starting point/intake - a bit like Muswell Hill a few miles from me in north London.

For commuting to central Manchester, there are trains from Stockport, including Heaton Chapel, the first stop on the local trains between Stockport and Manchester. Regional trains to Stockport continue further into Cheshire and into Derbyshire, but Stockport is also on the Manchester to London line, and I don't know how that affects commuters. My sister lives in Stockport and the whole family work or study in central/south Manchester, but I'm fairly sure she and her husband normally drive and the kids use buses or sometimes my niece cycles to her sixth form college.

All the Dids and Chorlton schools are 5-10 min max walk from a tram stop. Places do come up as I know plenty who have moved schools and kids that have started in later years.

Primary wise if you fancy Didsbury then the big primary is Beaver Rd. Ofsted outstanding very recently. Kids come & go as Didsbury can be relatively transient population. It’s 5 form entry so you’d prob get a place quickly and the kids move on to Parrswood, Didsbury, Barlow, private secondary grammar schools & free Trafford grammars & the odd other option

great to know there are lots of choices in a relatively close distance. Are the single sex schools grammars? Do you know if they link up with other similar schools? I used to work in a boys school and would often have events and some cross over with the girls school.

will have a look at the ones you mentioned ~ thank you!

Love that there is such a variety. The schools close to me are either exam factories or are so strict, children lining up outside until everyone is silent style. My son’s secondary tries to offer a variety but is relatively small. So I think all of mine would love to have some choice with their GCSEs.

This is untrue.

Thank you for your honesty. I wonder if the council would have data relating to spaces in schools, or if I would have to contact individual schools. Will have to look into that. Unfortunately due to health concerns my husband has to keep surrending his driving licence so we have been looking at places that have excellent and reliable transport systems. We love Manchester and where we currently live, you need a car to go anywhere, including my children’s schools, shops etc. just places a lot on me and also makes any husband feel quite isolated at times.

certainly need to consider if there are options of several schools close by with spaces, would be awful to move to an area and then can’t get into the schools!

Thank you, that’s really useful to know. Sounds like the catchment areas are really narrow. Think I have some investigating to do! 😅

There is a declining birth rate and capacity in Trafgord. For the next few school years ahead there is and will be spaces for children in secondary schools in Manchester and in Trafford. There were issues recently (bumper birth years and the Hong Kong influx) this is not the case now.

Gosh that must be stressful for her/them.

my children are in Yr7, Yr3 and Reception. We love the Trafford area and also having access to the tram system is really appealing to us as a family. I don’t think my eldest 2 would pass the 11+ anyway, so would probably limit us to the non-selective schools in the area, do you know what behaviour/pastoral systems are like in that area?

several people have praised didsbury/chorlton and again appeals to us because of the tram system. Again over subscription sounds like it might be difficult to move to.

I am really feeling a bit bamboozled.

heard some great things about Cheadle Hulme High School, but being on the train line makes me nervous with my husband currently needing to rely on public transport to get into the city.

Thank you for this. Am going to look to see if they have data on current year numbers and where there may have spaces. Also makes me wonder if these catchments change every year based on the number of applications.

Thank you, have heard similar good things about the school in Cheadle Hulme. Will have a look into the trust too!