Xaverian College

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Xaverian College is a Catholic sixth form college in the English city of Manchester. It lies in the inner city suburb of Rusholme close to Wilmslow Road The College's location means that its intake is extremely diverse with many students coming from ethnic minorities as well as from various socio-economic classes. As well as running conventional AS-Level and A-Level courses, the college also provides facilities for the resitting of core GCSE subjects and various vocational courses. The college also caters to a group of around 50 students from the University of Manchester taking a foundation degree in dentistry and medicine. The college principal has been Mary Hunter since 2007. Evidence of the colleges success can be seen in the number of alumni who go on to graduate from Oxbridge and other world renowned universities.

The College was attended by the author Anthony Burgess, record producer and Factory Records co-founder Martin Hannett, the musician Mark Collins of The Charlatans, Gary Mounfield of The Stone Roses, the artist Chris Ofili, the actor Bernard Hill, writers Billy Hopkins and Bill Keeth, theoretical physicist Benjamin Oakley,and the footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips.

[edit] History

The College was founded by the Xaverian Brothers in 1872 on open parklands. It was originally comprised of just a single building known as Firwood but over time through new building projects and acquisition, the Campus has grown. For this reason, buildings date from 1840 onwards.

Firwood was home to the brothers up until 1993 when the last of them left. It has been rumoured that the first Irish Prime Minister, Eamon de Valera, was hidden within the building while fleeing the British authorities.^{[citation needed]} Another former house which has now become part of the college, Ward Hall, was used as a camp for American servicemen during the Second World War.^{[citation needed]}

The College operated as a Roman Catholic grammar school for boys until 1977, when it became a mixed sixth-form college. This allowed a significant expansion.

More recently, additions and renovations have been ongoing. The Ryken Centre and Mayfield buildings have been added within the last decade and provide students with high-tech information technology equipment.