| Motto | Carpe Diem (Seize the Day) |
|---|---|
| Established | 1932 |
| Type | comprehensive academy |
| Headmaster | Steve Turner |
| Specialism | Technology |
| Location | Hazel St Audenshaw Greater Manchester M34 5NB England |
| Local authority | Tameside |
| Students | 1,100 boys (and 100 girls in the sixth form) |
| Gender | Boys (with a co-educational sixth form college) |
| Ages | 11–16 (18 for sixth form) |
| Colours | Red, white and black |
| Publication | The Audit, The Sixth Form Journal |
| Website | www.audenshawschool.org.uk |
Audenshaw School is a male-only secondary school in Audenshaw, Greater Manchester, England, established in 1932 as Audenshaw Grammar School. An adjoining co-educational sixth form college was opened in 1997, the same year the school was granted foundation school status. Audenshaw School, a specialist Technology College, is the only non-denominational school in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside.[1]
As of 2009 the headmaster is Steve Turner, successor to Alan Crompton, who retired at Easter 2005. Turner has taught and been headmaster at several other schools, including Golborne High School.
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On 29 July 1932, Audenshaw Grammar School for Boys was opened, providing facilities for 300 pupils.[2][3] The first headmaster was John Lord, who was in charge until 1955. He was followed by Ronald Porter (1955–1961), then Kenneth Exley (1961–1979).[4]
In the early-1970s pupils of Audenshaw Grammar School formed a Canal Restoration Society with the objective of cleaning, restoring and reopening the then derelict Ashton Canal. Successful in their aim, the canal was reopened on 13 May 1974 by Denis Howel, then Member of Parliament for Birmingham Small Heath and the Minister for Sport.[5]
In 1981 Graham Locke succeeded Exley as headmaster and in 1989, Audenshaw became one of the first Grant Maintained (GM) schools in England.[6] The parents voted for the maintenance – 86% of those eligible voted; 91% of them voting in favour of the school receiving grant maintenance.[7] Locke was headmaster until 1994 and the school's sports hall is named after him. Terry Hall has been the Chair of Governors since 1988. Locke was appointed to the Order of the British Empire for his role in making Audenshaw a grant-maintained school and for services to the community and Hall was made an MBE in 1997 for services to education.[4] Along with Graham Locke, Hall led the school to GM status and more recently to Foundation status. He is the founder Member of the Grant Maintained Standing Advisory Committee (GMSAC).
Alan Crompton was headmaster from 1994 to 2005, when he retired and was succeeded by the current headmaster. In 1999, Audenshaw School won the inaugural – and only – schools' series of Channel 4's daytime quiz show Fifteen to One.[8] During Crompton's tenure the school twice received "outstanding" ratings in reports by the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted), taking it into the "best of the best" list published by Ofsted in 2004. However, In 2007, it was one of the 200 schools in England with the lowest staying-on rate for further education, when only 26.4% of year 11 pupils entered the sixth form.[9] On 10 October 2007, the school celebrated its 75th anniversary and invited Anne, Princess Royal to tour the new cadet facilities and officially "open" the Sixth Form. She also planted the first of 75 celebratory trees in the presence of the entire student body.
Audenshaw is no longer a grammar school. There are about 1,100 boys and over 100 girls (in the sixth form).
Audenshaw School was granted Academy Status by the Secretary of State for Education on 1 September 2010. The school is one of only 32 schools who were given permission to convert by the start of the new academic year.
The Audit has been the school magazine since 1998, when it was set up by pupil Ian Adderley, who was editor until 2005. Originally the magazine was printed in black and white A4 format, but it is now in A5 with a colour front and back cover. There are plans to extend colour to the rest of the magazine.
Since September 2006, the Sixth Form has had its own magazine, The Sixth Form Journal. The magazine was set up after an article for The Audit was considered inappropriate for younger pupils.
In 2009, the Tameside Local Education Authority was ranked 117th out of 148 in the country – and 8th out of Greater Manchester's 10 LEAs – based on the percentage of pupils attaining at least 5 A*–C grades at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) including maths and English (41.8% compared with the national average of 47.6%).[10] In 2008, Audenshaw was the most successful school in the borough, with 64% of its pupils achieving at least five GCSEs A*–C, ahead of the second-place St Thomas More RC College with 59%.[11] The same year, Audenshaw School also lead the field in terms of A-level results of Tameside's three schools providing sixth form education; Audenshaw had an average of 1004.9 points per pupil, nearly 250 points ahead of the second-place Ashton Sixth Form College.[12] The 2008 results put Audenshaw School in the top echelon of English schools.[13]
| Year | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | |||||||
| Students with 5+ GCSE at A*–C including Maths and English |
66% | 64% | 64% | 64% | 57% | 64% | |||||||
| Source: BBC Online | |||||||||||||