The Hathershaw College

The Hathershaw College is a coeducational, Secondary Academy for 11- to 16-year-olds in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England.

The Hathershaw College
Address
Bellfield Avenue
Hathershaw

Oldham
,
Greater Manchester
,
OL8 3EP

England
Information
TypeSecondary Academy
MottoTogether We Succeed - historically: Agendo Discere Agere Discendo, "Learning to Learn by Doing"
Established1955
Department for Education URN137039 Tables
OfstedReports
PrincipalMark Giles
GenderMixed
Age11 to 16
Enrolment1045 (approx.)

In 2007, OFSTED rated the school as "good". In 2010, OFSTED described it as "good with outstanding features". In 2014, the school was judged to be requiring improvement overall. In 2016, the OFSTED report described the school as "good".

School history
Playing fields of Hathershaw College, the college buildings are in the centre background

As the 'Hathershaw Technical High School', it opened in 1955; it had a selective intake. The school was housed in three blocks (a main building, a science block and a craft/engineering block). The school was sponsored by the aviation manufacturer Avro, and the ground plan of the main building was inspired by the outline of a Lancaster bomber. It competed for intake with Oldham's state grammar schools, but offered a more technical syllabus. Provision of equipment and machinery for metalwork and woodwork was considered to be amongst the finest available nationally.

In 1966 the school became a co-educational comprehensive school. In 1970 it was made into an 'upper-school' for pupils in the 14–18 age range, supplied by two separate 'lower-schools', Greenhill and Fitton Hill. The two feeder schools, which were on sites significantly distant from each other and Hathershaw School, educated pupils from 11 to 14 years of age. In the school year 1977–78 the system was reorganized and Hathershaw again catered for the full 11 to 18 age range, with sixth form entry. In the same year the school uniform colours changed from blue/black to maroon/grey, at present they are maroon/black. The loss of selective entry in 1966 and the system of split-site feeder schools led to a period of falling academic attainment. The trend was reversed after the appointment of John Cole to the headship in 1976. He has been credited as having "transformed Hathershaw School."

In 1981, Oldham's first joint school/community sports hall was built. In a 1992 reorganisation, it became an 11-16 school - losing its sixth form to Oldham Sixth Form College. In December 1999 it was recognised by the government as one of the 50 most improved secondary schools in the country.

In September 2000 the school became a Technology College and in May 2003 was admitted to the Specialist Schools Trust "Value Added" club for significantly improving examination results between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4.[1] In November 2004, the school received more than £1 million in lottery funding to improve its sports facilities. Hathershaw became the first dual-specialism school in England, in March 2005, specialising in sport as well as technology. In October 2005, the school opened a £350,000 netball complex.

The OFSTED inspection of November 2007 gave the school an overall rating of "good". In November 2010, the school was re-visited by OFSTED and given the official description 'good with outstanding features'.

On 1 August 2011, The Hathershaw College gained academy status.

In 2016, the College achieved its best GCSE results to date: with 60% gaining 5 A*-C grades including both English and Maths, above both local and national averages. This was equalled in 2017, despite the introduction of the new numerical GCSE grading system in Maths and English.

In April 2016 the OFSTED inspection rated the school as "good".

Changes in name

Though an educational establishment in continuous operation from 1955, it has had a number of changes of name:

  • Hathershaw Technical High School (1955-1966)
  • Hathershaw Comprehensive School (1966-2000)
  • Hathershaw College of Technology and Sport (2000-2011)
  • The Hathershaw College (2011-)

Headteachers
  • Mr Charles Bell, 1955–1967
  • Mr John Hemmings, 1967–1976
  • Mr John H.S. Cole, 1976–1988 (left his post as Oldham's assistant director of education to take on the school's headship)
  • Miss Averil Cunnington (temporary appointment), 1988, later headteacher of Counthill School
  • Mr C. Midgely, 1988–1999
  • Mr C.W. Edney, 1999–2003
  • Mr David Ashley, 2003–2005 (left to become Headteacher at Parrs Wood Technology College)
  • Mrs Carol Cawkwell, 2005–2014 (change of formal title to Principal).
  • Mr David McEntee, 2014–2019
  • Mr Mark Giles, 2019–

Staff numbers and pupil to teacher ratio

Headcount of all teachers - 72
Headcount of all teaching assistants - 37
Headcount of all support (exc. auxiliary) staff - 26
Pupil to teacher ratio = 15.5:1

Notable former pupils
gollark: I did come up with the highly ideatic idea of applying lots of expensive enchantments (including thorns, which is balanced by using durability) to Bibliocraft tinted glasses, until SC removed those a while ago.
gollark: Sad!
gollark: I'm not sure, but this *may* have pushed squid into changing it to the present form.
gollark: So my traffic light control software just `pcall`ed an energy-consuming function in a tight loop.
gollark: See, 1249174 years ago, in the early days of Plethora, the energy system was more visible and caused an error if there wasn't enough instead of just waiting.

References
  1. Taylor and Ryan, pp. 103–104. Taylor, Cyril and Ryan, Conor (2004) Excellence in Education: the Making of Great Schools, David Fulton.
  • Official Hathershaw School website
  • Article on the history of the school, by a former pupil and teacher/assistant headteacher.
  • Film Archive clip of murals being painted by pupils and staff on the side of the school in 1980.
  • Article about a former Hathershaw pupil carrying the Olympic Torch - Chronicle Online.

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