Derby High School, Bury

Derby High School or "The Derby" as it is known locally, is a secondary school, located on Radcliffe Road, Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It opened in September 1959 as the Derby School, a new school that offered both a grammar and a technical education. Some of the pupils moved from Bury High School, on nearby Parliament Street, which closed when the Derby opened. They had gone there having passed the Eleven Plus examination. Other pupils came from Bury Junior Technical School having attended that school from the age of 13 years. The school was formed by merging those two schools into a grammar-technical school. In September 1979 it became a comprehensive school and its sixth form was closed. There are extensive playing fields to the front of the school and the school is easily recognised with its distinctive tower.

Uniform

The school uniform consists of a blazer with the school emblem on, dark trousers or a dark skirt for the girls, dark shoes and a school tie. The school tie is a navy blue background with diagonal smaller strips of gold and red, but the prefects wear a red tie. The boys wear sports shirts with vertical blue and white stripes.^[1]

History

The school's patron was the Earl of Derby, with the school's badge being based on the earl's coat of arms. Mr G.A.C. Sawtell was the headteacher from the opening until his retirement in 1979 when he was succeeded by Mr Geoff Wolsternholme. The current headteacher is Ms Alyson Byrne who was due to leave the Derby in December 2008, but has now decided to stay and develop on the success she has received.^[2]

Teachers of note

Mr Hogg founded the Bury Amateur Wrestling Club in the school hall in the '60s. The club had some success sending boys to the British Championships. He later moved the club to Porter Street in Bury. Mr Hogg also helped the boys build a GP14 class boat (general purpose 14 foot).

Dave Edmundson, PE teacher. Went on to be Secretary of Lancashire County Cricket Club and then Chief Executive of Burnley Football Club. In 2007 he was appointed as General Manager of a new body called the 'Football League Trust', to oversee Community and Youth Development activities at Football League clubs, arising from the Premier League's 'solidarity payments' to the League.^[3]

Ms Deprez once head of music and founded the school choir who travel to the M.E.N. Arena every year to sing and participate in productions.

Warren Bradley taught at the school in the mid '60s. He had played football for Manchester United immediately after the Munich air disaster. He was also capped for England. He coached the school first eleven which for a time included Jimmy Kerr, a young Scottish footballer who had come to the town to play for Bury F.C.

Mr John Stainton, PE teacher. Went on to be the head coach of the English paralympic basketball team, represented them in the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta.

Alumni of note

Susan Bassnett - Academic. Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Warwick, Professor in the Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies and author of over 20 books.^[4]

David Crausby - Member of Parliament (Labour) for Bolton North East since 1997.

Ray Fitzwalter - Journalist. Investigative journalist, former editor of World in Action and 'top 100' UK journalist in 1986. Visiting Fellow at the University of Salford School of Media, Music and Performance.

Alec G. Hargreaves - Academic. Director of Florida State University's Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies and a Chevalier in the Legion of Honour (Knight of the Legion of Honour), an elite order created by Napoleon to honour outstanding service to the French nation.

Peter Skellern - Musician and Singer/songwriter. First hit was "You're a Lady", in 1972, which reached number three in the UK Singles Chart.

Heath Brown - Fashion Journalist and former Fashion Editor at the Times newspaper, London and the Daily Telegraph. Associate Lecturer in Fashion at Solent University

Buildings and grounds

A view of Derby High School

The school is essentially a three story building with a smaller single story block at one end where Domestic Science and Practical Crafts such as woodwork and metalwork are taught. At the other end is the main entrance serving a large reception area, kitchen, offices and staff rooms. Above the reception area is the library and the school's distinctive tower. Behind the reception area is the school hall with a stage at the far end. Two gymnasiums run from the rear of the stage with one for boys at one side and one for girls opposite. There is also a small hut originally used by the sixth form behind the boys' gym. It was later used as a music room until it was recently converted to a dance and drama studio it has currently been named Inspire. There is a caretaker's house at the side of the girls' gym. There are extensive grounds in front of the school which abut the fields of Bury Church of England High School, Bury Rugby Union Football Club, Radcliffe Road and the grounds of Radcliffe Road Baptist Church and the gardens of houses on Inglewhite Close. A recently constructed (2014) sports hall is situated at the "town end" of the main school building. To the rear of the school is a rough track and the embankment of the Manchester Metrolink Tram line. Access by car is via Radcliffe Road or by foot and bike via a path, off Manchester Old Road which passes Bury C of E High School, to the rear of the school.

Houses

The school promoted the house system for internal competitions and prefect duties. Originally the school houses were Wren (after Christopher Wren) (house colour yellow), Stephenson (after George Stephenson) (house colour red), Newton (after Sir Isaac Newton) (house colour blue) and Rutherford (after Ernest Rutherford) (house colour green).

This changed in September 1979 when, as part of a borough wide reorganisation the school became a 'comprehensive' high school. The sixth form was moved to Peel Six Form College, now part of Bury College, in the old Bury High School buildings. Many long serving members of staff left.

At the same time the forms changed (1C, 2B, 3C...and so on up to F, with the number denoting the year group) and the houses became Coniston (house colour light blue), Derwent (house colour blue), Grasmere (house colour green), Keswick (house colour red), Langdale (house colour orange) and Rydal (house colour yellow) - named after towns, villages and lakes in the Lake District. The school now has no house system. Form names are made up of the teacher's initials and the year. For example, the Year 9 pupils in Mr P. Smith's class are in 9PS.

Lowfield

The school held a property near Coniston called Lowfield. The property was bought by the school in the early 1960s and was converted over a number of years from a run down old mill into an outdoor pursuits centre. This old house provided many pupils with a weekend holiday in the Lake District. One "highlight" of any visit was a trek up the Old Man of Coniston, a nearby mountain or some of the older boys attempting to gain entry to the Ship Inn which was facing the property at Bowmanstead. Lowfield has recently been sold and has been renovated (pictures are on the school's alumni website).

As well as a holiday many pupils including Head Boy Jim Metcalf and Head George Sawtell worked on the property and made it 'livable' in the year after purchase. During such early work a stash of gelignite was found in the grounds

Today

In 2006-07, the school achieved their best ever results, Artsmark Gold, a positive Ofsted report and built a brand-new dance studio. The school continues to make improvements and has ambitions to see the first Science and Arts College built on the present site.

External links

• The Derby High School Website
• Alumni webpage
• 2007 Ofsted report
• DFES Performance Tables

References