Ardwick Green Site, post-1977

The Ardwick Green site, post-1977 

When the new St Gregory’s High School opened in September 1977, those pupils who had been on the Ardwick site before reorganisation in years 1 to 4 could continue their education there until the last pupils completed their fifth year, in 1981, after which the building ceased to be part of the school. The 1976-77 fifth-formers who wished to continue their studies after O-levels could choose to enrol at Loreto or Xaverian Sixth-Form Colleges, or elsewhere. In fact, a small group returned to the Ardwick site of the new school in September 1977 and embarked on a restricted number of A-level courses, the cohort comprising pupils from the ex-St Gregory’s and ex-St John the Evangelist Boys’ school.  Many of the 1976-77 Lower Six pupils, whose parents had been given assurances that they could complete their courses of study at the new school, returned to find that many of the old staff had departed to other schools and colleges. In addition, a small group of pupils made up from the amalgamated schools, returned to prepare for GCE resits. Staffing and timetabling must have been extremely problematic for the management.

For two years after reorganisation boys from the Openshaw site were bussed to Ardwick for part of the day in order to use the workshop facilities, which were in short supply at Openshaw. 

Another thing in short supply were teachers qualified to drive the school coach. Reorganisation had taken away virtually all the old staff qualified to drive the coach. For a while the new school raised some money by hiring it out to other schools that did have a driver. Eventually it began to have mechanical problems and was too expensive to repair so it was sold for scrap.

The Ardwick building was gradually phased out as more and more resources were concentrated at Openshaw. It seemed to some of the staff and pupils that the old St Gregory’s site was being left to die of neglect. For instance, broken windows were not replaced and instead were boarded up so that classrooms were almost permanently in darkness and the lights were on all day, even in midsummer.

A small social gathering was organised in the summer term of 1981 following the departure of the 1976 (and final) intake of original Gregorians and before the closure of the old building. Invitations were sent out to former teachers and refreshments and drinks were made available, with Mr Bernard Clough making a short address in which he welcomed back former colleagues and raised a toast to the old school. A few months later the site closed down and St Gregory’s became a single-site, 11-16 mixed comprehensive school based in Higher Openshaw.

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