VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM
A journey like no other
grammar school in the 1950s, to a non-selective comprehensive in 1967, through to our current academy status from 2014), the mission has remained the same: to ensure that boys leave well qualified and prepared to play an active role in society.
We currently have 965 boys on roll but are soon expanding to take 1,050. We serve an area of social and economic deprivation with almost half of our pupils eligible for Pupil Premium. The school prides itself on its diversity. More than 40 languages are spoken by our pupils with the vast majority speaking English as an additional language (EAL).
I
n this month’s View from the Classroom feature, we hear from Greg Morrison, Associate Assistant Headteacher at Burnage Academy for Boys. Here, he reveals how the school once plagued by a poor and unfair local reputation is now a thriving institution with an admission waiting list.
Tell us a bit about your school Burnage Academy for Boys was founded in 1932 on our current location on Burnage Lane, Manchester. The school has retained its important legacy of educating boys from the inner city. Despite our changing status (from a
Recent cohorts have bucked the national trend of the underachievement of boys. Our 2023, P8 score of +1.05 placed the school amongst the very best in the country. For our most disadvantaged boys, our P8 score is +1.03. This is almost two grades higher in every single subject compared to similar boys nationally at other schools. We were graded outstanding by Ofsted in 2018 and again in 2024. Together with our recent award for ‘Secondary School of the Year’ at the Tes Schools Awards 2024, Burnage is riding high, but it has not always been plain sailing.
How is the school challenging the misconception of a typical inner-city boys school?
The preconceptions about an inner-city school 18
www.education-today.co.uk
like Burnage are numerous: poor outcomes, bad behaviour and low expectations of students – all exacerbated by the fact that our pupils are all boys. We faced a battle to persuade people that Burnage is different, especially given that new schools had opened in the area too. In 2016, Ofsted judged the school as ‘Requires Improvement’. However, just two years later, we were delighted to be judged as ‘Outstanding’ – though the local perception that Burnage was a struggling school remained. In 2019, we had just 127 students in Year 7 – only 60 had selected Burnage as their first choice.
The challenge was not to alter what was being done within the school, but to ensure the wider community was aware of the achievements of our boys. We wanted families to imagine their own children thriving at Burnage.
How did you start to change perceptions of the school?
Our mission is to be an inclusive school community where students, staff and families all work together to ensure that students will be the best they can be. This ethos underpins our approach.
Relationships are at the heart of our work with students and are nurtured by a strong personal development curriculum that supports social, emotional and mental development. We want students to feel they are in a safe environment
October 2024
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
