# St Michael's Church of England High School, Crosby

53°29′49″N 3°01′41″W﻿ / ﻿53.497°N 3.028°W﻿ / 53.497; -3.028
St Michael's Church of England High School (formerly known as Manor High School) is a secondary school and sixth form located in Crosby, Merseyside, England. The school's missionary statement is: We will ensure that each individual is valued and achieves success within a caring Christian community.
Facilities at the school include five computer rooms (140 computers in total), a sports hall and a gym. The school contains a sixth form for students wishing to study A-Levels. The latest OFSTED report (2024) described the school as "inadequate". Since leaving the LDST, the school has recently joined the All Saints Multi Academy Trust. The current Head of School is Ms C McIntyre.

## History

Reports in 1973 noted that the school was "underused", whereby in contrast the nearby Chesterfield High School was overcrowded. A decision was reached by the council's education committee that local primary school St. Thomas's should instead be a feeder for Manor High School to balance the load more evenly. Due to vandalism, the education committee pressed for expediency on a caretaker's house to be built on the school site.
A council report in February 1989 highlighted that areas of the school's building was in "urgent need of repair", including poorly fitted and rusted window frames, inadequate external lighting and a heating system which was not effective. The Director of Education John Marsden noted that the local authority had spent considerable sums undertaking repair and maintenance work at the school, which then accommodated around 715 pupils. The school came under criticism in June 1989 after cancelling a planned play of Our Day Out, citing concerns by parents who did not approve of the "bad language" and a scene which encouraged shop lifting. Playwright Willy Russell believed the language was only "staggeringly tame" and suggested that language used among students in the playground was likely to be more vulgar.

### Building work

Work on a capital building project started on 26 November 2007 and finished in September 2008. During this time, the main hall was remodeled into a performing arts venue, the dining room facilities was extended and developed, and one of the entrance areas was renovated.

#### Phase One

This started in November 2007 and finished in April 2008; it included a new Main Hall, car park and entrance. This phase is complete and the school now has new media centre and main hall with a new floor, stage, lighting and stage curtains. The hall also has a booth in the corner to control the lighting and sound. A new car park at the front of the school was also completed and in July 2008 was extended into a disused playground, ready for the 2008 academic year.

#### Phase Two

This phase started on Monday 17 March 2008 finished in September 2008. This phase included the extension to the dining room. The extension of the dining room was finished and a new front car park for the school was built, along with renovations of the old dining room.
Work was completed in October 2008 and the school now has a new Arts and Media centre, extended dining room facilities and improved access to the school. They are now renovating small areas of the school. The back of the school is getting new pavement stones put down. By 2010 the school planned to have a recording studio alongside the new main hall.
Major building work started in 2011 and finished in October 2012. This included opening the disused M block as the new sixth form learning center and humanities. Other parts of the school were changed, including all new roofing and electrics and new musical facilities. Most walls in the front were plastered and all the floors were replaced. Computer rooms received new personal computers for student use.

## School Blocks

The school is separated into five blocks, divided by broad study subjects.

### P Block

P Block is found at the main entrance of the school, containing the main office, student dining area and chapel. Subjects in this block include Design Technology, Food Technology, Textile Technology, Child Development and Art. The chapel, formerly the drama hall, is used primarily for chaplaincy assemblies, however is sometimes used for additional functions, such as displaying the work of students.

### M Block

M Block is the tallest part of the school, containing both its Sixth Form facilities alongside its History, Geography, Religious Studies and Modern Foreign Languages classrooms. Classrooms on the third floor are shared between students of the Sixth Form and lower years, whereas the second floor is used exclusively for Sixth Form sessions, and sixth form only subjects, such as Health & Social care, Psychology and Criminology.

### E Block

E block is located on the far side of the school and is furthest away from the main entrance. Subjects in the block include English, Mathematics, ICT, Business Studies and Music.The school library, which opened in 2003, was formerly found in E Block, however permanently closed in 2024. Aside from learning facilities the E Block contains the school's main hall, recording studio, media centre and isolation room. Facilties for SEN students are also found in the E Block, including the sensory room, dyslexic unit, learning support unit (LSU) and the autism base (ASC).

### S Block

S Block contains solely classrooms for scientific subjects. It is the school's newest block, following the destruction of the previous S Block in an arson attack in March 1994, started by 19-year-old Andrea Blundell, who was suffering with paranoia. The cost of the damage was estimated around £1.5 million.

### P.E. Block

The P.E. Block is at the right-centre of the school, whilst the sports hall was built on to E Block when the girls school converted to a comprehensive school. The school's gym hall was part of the original building, along with one set of changing rooms; those next to the sports hall were also an addition to E Block. There are offices for P.E. teachers and store rooms for equipment. Upstairs next to this the is IT4, which is a computer room avaliable to students during break & lunch periods to complete study, designated following the closure of the school's dedicated library in 2024. The Pastoral Hub where SLT and learning mentor leaders are based is also found in the P.E block.

## International links

The school works with the Waterloo Partnership, a local charity, by donating items such as clothes, stationery and toiletries to Peninsular Secondary School in Waterloo, Sierra Leone. In February 2007, a teacher from the school, along with other delegates from local schools and the Partnership, visited Sierra Leone. A major part of the visit was devoted to undertaking teaching in schools.

## Notable former pupils

* Martyn Andrews – TV presenter, journalist and singer (previously Andrew Martin)
* Craig Phillips – winner of the first series of reality television show Big Brother