The Manchester Grammar School

Our Junior School offers a challenging and creative curriculum to inspire our pupils to become problem-solvers and to take risks from early in their school careers. All our Junior School pupils gain automatic entry to the Senior School.The Junior School curriculum is a creative one, where boys use their initiative and dare to take risks.They receive a rich educational diet, released from the constraints of the National Curriculum. They are well schooled in all of the fundamentals, but bright boys need more than that. Through our skill-based activities, we can broaden the mind and develop natural inquisitiveness.

In Years 5 and 6 we have a strong and effective partnership with the Senior School, both in terms of shared facilities and specialist teaching. There is no examination preparation, as Junior School boys have automatic entry into the Senior School.Our options programme (running for half a day each week) offers a variety of activities, ranging from robotics to developing the skills needed to become future business entrepreneurs. In Languages, we want boys to be confident in embarking upon new challenges. Hence we study Spanish in Year 3, French in Year 4, Latin in Year 5 and Italian in Year 6.With highly qualified subject specialists and the freedom to offer the most stimulating and challenging courses, each department aims to develop in our boys a strong understanding of their subject, as well as enjoyment of their academic work.

The Lower School is all about developing scholars and gentlemen.Our boys come from a diverse range of schools and backgrounds, and around half of our boys come from state primary schools.Our community thrives upon this diversity.Our well-established postcode ‘buddy system’ ensures that every boy arrives knowing someone already at MGS. A specialist Lower School Tutor will oversee your son’s development, guiding and supporting him and helping him to prepare for the challenges and opportunities of Middle School.

We keep intelligent and enthusiastic boys busy by providing them with a wide and varied curriculum which nurtures a love of learning, as well as opportunities for lessons to be learned outside the classroom. We have well over 100 weekly clubs on offer. We have trips specially tailored to developing friendships, like the annual form residential to Owls’ Nest and form trips to Castleton, Conwy and the Blackden Trust.An important part of Lower School is the sense of community that we foster and this comes about through the friendships that boys develop with their classmates, their Tutor, Head of Year and Head of Section. As a Lower School team we set high, but realistic, expectations in all areas, and enjoy the diverse company of our enthusiastic and youthful cohort.

The Middle School at MGS consists of Years 9 to 11 and concludes with our boys’ first experience of public examinations.The mantra for an MGS Middle School boy is to challenge himself in a variety of ways and the breadth of academic curriculum on offer is simply the start of this.The Middle School is a time where MGS boys explore their academic interests whilst being challenged to fine-tune their strengths in preparation for IGCSE/GCSE examinations. Beyond this, Middle School boys play a great role in the co-curricular life of the School. From the Theatre to the Rugby field, from the concert stage to desert trek, Middle School boys take themselves out of their comfort zone, encountering new horizons and getting to know themselves and their peers better in the process.

Making the most of small tutor groups and a team of skilled pastoral staff, the boys in Middle School receive outstanding academic and pastoral support and enjoy three years in a dynamic and encouraging community. Our aim is that all boys leave Middle School having experienced genuine challenges in a friendly and encouraging environment, able to make intelligent well-informed choices for the future, and looking forward to a brilliant Sixth Form career.The Sixth Form is divided into five academic Colleges, containing roughly equal numbers of students from Years 12 and 13.

Each college is divided into small tutor groups, led by a Head of College. The person primarily responsible for the academic progress and pastoral welfare of students is the Tutor.The Tutor will help each individual make the transition to the habits and discipline of Sixth Form study, and will also encourage him to develop the skills, competences and experiences which will prepare him for life beyond MGS. The Tutor will also write the university reference for each of their tutees, and support them in making well-informed decisions about the future.The Colleges are more than just an administrative group; they are also a focus for activities and opportunities to develop new skill sets, and take on roles of leadership, responsibility and service.

The School proceeded to build a reputation as one of the country’s leading educational establishments, a position it still holds today as an independent day school.Much has changed in the intervening five hundred years, but our core mission to educate the brightest young men in the North of England regardless of their social, cultural, religious and financial background, has not.

We aim to teach boys to think for themselves and to develop a life-long love of learning. Lessons are taught by academic specialists with a passion for their subject, and teaching goes well beyond the narrow confines of examination syllabuses, offering our students the best preparation for the very top universities, both in this country and abroad.There is, however, much more to an MGS education than what happens in the classroom. What makes this School truly special is the outstanding achievement of our pupils in areas such as sport, music and drama, and in keeping with Hugh Oldham’s aims we produce well rounded young men who have a true sense of service to their communiti