St Ambrose Barlow RC High School is a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

located in Wardley,

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England. The school is named after St

Ambrose Barlow Ambrose Edward Barlow, O.S.B. (1585 – 10 September 1641) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk. He is one of a group of saints canonized by Pope Paul VI who became known as the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Early life and educa ...

, one of the

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales or Cuthbert Mayne and Thirty-Nine Companion Martyrs are a group of Catholic Church, Catholic, lay and religious, men and women, executed between 1535 and 1679 for treason and related offences under variou ...

. The school serves a wide range of parishes including St Charles' RC Primary School in Swinton, St Mark's RC Primary School in

Pendlebury Pendlebury is a town in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,069. It lies north-west of Manchester, north-west of Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford and south-east of Bolton. Histori ...

, St Mary's RC Primary School in Swinton, St Luke's RC Primary School in

Irlams o' th' Height Irlams o' th' Height is a suburb of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, on top of the Irwell Valley, on higher ground than Pendleton, Greater Manchester, Pendleton, hence the name. The first part of the name derives from the Irlam family t ...

, St Edmund's RC Primary School in

Little Hulton Little Hulton is a suburb in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, south of Bolton, northwest of Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford, and northwest of Manchester. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, histo ...

and Christ the King RC Primary School in

Walkden Walkden is a town in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, northwest of central Salford, and of Manchester. Walkden has been designated as one of seven main town centres in the City of Salford, and now largely functions as a r ...

. St Ambrose Barlow has been accredited with many national awards including National Teaching School status, the School Inclusion Award and Dyslexia Friendly Status. The majority of pupils are baptised Roman Catholic.

History

The school was established on land at Shaftesbury Road in nearby Swinton. Building work commenced on Ash Wednesday 1953 and the school entered use in January 1955 with the official opening and blessing on 16 February 1955, by Bishop Henry Vincent Marshall. In April 2013, the school moved into a new building in Wardley near Swinton. St George's RC High School closed in August 2014 with most pupils transferring to St Ambrose Barlow.

Ofsted

In 2018 an inspection of the school was carried out in accordance with Section 48 of the Education Act 2005. The Diocese of Salford awarded the school "Good" in all seven categories. At another inspection carried out by Ofsted in 2018, the school was rated as "requires improvement" Another Ofsted inspection was carried out in March 2022, the school was rated as “requires improvement”

Leadership

Executive Principal, Mrs. C. M. Garside, was awarded CBE for Services to Education in January 2015. Mr Ben Davis was appointed as the Headteacher of St Ambrose Barlow in 2015.

In popular culture

The old site of St Ambrose Barlow was used for filming the CBBC show ''

4 O'Clock Club ''4 O'Clock Club'' is a British comedy drama and musical children's television series set in a secondary school, which premiered on 13 January 2012 on CBBC. Background In March 2011, auditions were held for ''4 O'Clock Club'', and the show was ...

'' for both interior and exterior shots. The site was first used for filming in the summer of 2013 for the third series which began airing in January 2014. The site continued to be the building for the fictional Elmsmere Manor High School until 2017 when production moved to a former school in

. The former site was used as the set of '' Waterloo Road'', from January 2023 until February 2024, from Series 14 onwards the school will move to the former Nicholls Campus of

The Manchester College The Manchester College is the largest further education college in the United Kingdom and the largest single provider of 16–19, adult and higher education in Greater Manchester, with more than 25% of Greater Manchester’s learning provision ...

as Waterloo Road joined the trust and relocated to a new premises.

References

External links

Department for Children, Schools, and Families page about the schoolSt Ambrose Barlow RC High School, Ofsted report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Ambrose Barlow RC High School Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Salford Secondary schools in Salford Voluntary aided schools in England Educational institutions established in 1955 1955 establishments in England