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Wright Robinson College is an 11-16 coeducational secondary school situated in Abbey Hey, Gorton, Manchester, England. The college is situated in extensive grounds alongside Gorton reservoir and surrounding greenbelt.^[1]

The college has state of the art facilities set in an impressive campus which facilitates an exceptional learning environment. The college caters to pupils of all socio-economic and religious backgrounds and was previously a specialist college of Sport and the Arts. Wright Robinson College is the single largest and most over-subscribed school in the city of Manchester, with around 1,800 pupils on roll. The school converted to academy status in November 2019 and is now sponsored by the Flagship Learning Trust.

The college is named after Wright Robinson, a long-serving Manchester city councillor.^[2]

The Executive Headteacher of the college is Mr M. E. Haworth and the Chair of Governors is Mrs C Shaw.

The college was graded Outstanding in all areas by Ofsted in both 2016 and 2021.

Student outcomes at the college are significantly above national average. The college Progress 8 score is significantly above the national average, meaning that students attending the college will achieve higher grades compared to students of the same ability nationally.

In 2024 Wright Robinson was named as one of The Times 'Best Places to Work'.

In 2024 Wright Robinson became a DfE Attendance Hub, supporting over 60 schools across the UK to improve school attendance.

New building

In September 2007, the college moved out of the old building and into the new £23m+ building on the adjoining fields. The school was built under the PFI scheme and is the most expensive school or college ever built in Europe. At a total of £53m, the school and grounds are home to some of the finest sporting and educational facilities in the world with some of the sporting facilities including; a 25-metre swimming pool, multiple sports halls, fitness suite, dance studio, weights room and numerous tennis and football pitches.

The school holds a total number of 8 ICT laboratories with an additional learning centre named the Learning Resource Centre (known as the LRC), all with computer facilities. The school also is equipped with a 300+ seat auditorium, an exhibition area, an audio visual suite, Apple Mac suites for the use of media studies classes, electronic registration and monitoring system, a drama studio, music recital rooms, outdoor eating facilities (referred to as "pods"), five separate pupil break areas (quads) and excellent science experimentation facilities.

Awards

Times Best Workplace 2024

SSAT Transforming Practice Principled Curriculum Design 2024

SSAT Transforming Practice Principled Assessment 2024

afPE Quality Mark

Education Business Awards Outstanding Progress 2024

School Games Platinum Award

SSAT Educational Outcomes Award 2023

Modeshift STARS Good Travel Plan

Manchester Healthy Schools 'The Big Health Challenge' Award

Goldsmiths’ Company Silver Award for Community Engagement

SEND Inclusion Award (SENDIA)

Excellence in Pupil Development Award (EPDA)

Wellbeing Award for Schools (WAS)

National Online Safety Certified School

Sport

The college holds the afPE Quality Mark, a prestigious award which evidences the strength and quality of Physical Education, School Sport and Physical Activity (PESSPA) at Wright Robinson. In 2024, Wright Robinson College was one of only three Greater Manchester Schools to be awarded the Platinum School Games Mark.

The school has played host to such events as the British U15, U16 and U18 weightlifting championships and played a part in the hosting of the Commonwealth Games of Manchester 2002.

Wright Robinson College has been involved with the 2002 Commonwealth Games weightlifting events.

In 2007, The Times named the school "The best school for sport in the United Kingdom".^{[citation needed]} This was based on a national record that WRC holds for the most number of Junior sporting titles held by a British high school. Various sports teams at the school at the time had achieved 43 national sporting titles, 56 regional titles and 63 county/Manchester Schools titles.

In conjunction with the Manchester Institute of Sport and Physical Activity (MISPA) at the Manchester Metropolitan University and the Youth Sports Trust, Wright Robinson has taken part in a ten-year research project. The project was designed to support the school's strategic aim of raising academic standards and increasing whole school participation in Physical Education and Sport. In ten years over 10,000 children and 1,000,000 hours of PE have been assessed. The evidence shows that participation in physical activity enables young people to significantly improve their physical competence, confidence and self-esteem. More active pupils were also found to generally achieve higher academic attainment with 62% of physically active pupils achieving five or more A*-C GCSE grades including mathematics and English compared to 38% of the least active pupils.^{[citation needed]}

The research project won a Times Educational Supplement Award for Outstanding Sporting Initiative at the 2009 inaugural TES School awards for excellence and teamwork in education. The judges noted, "The good partnership between the school and the university. The university acts as an excellent prefect. The research has provided long-term, serious evidence". They also praised the involvement of disaffected pupils.

Student leadership

The college offers a comprehensive student leadership programme providing opportunities for leadership both within the classroom environment and in more formal leadership roles.

A Head Boy, Head Girl and Senior Prefects are elected each year. The prefects, Head Boy and Head Girl are voted for by the students of the school. When elected, the pupils hold the title for one academic year, taking an active role in representing the school at events and taking leadership responsibilities. Prefects and Senior Prefects are distinguished by the colour of their school ties.

Official opening

In September 2008, the college was officially opened by the First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr Gordon Brown. The Prime Minister was accompanied by his wife Sarah whilst in the city of Manchester for the Annual Labour Party Conference at the Manchester Central (Conference Centre). The centre, then known as G-Mex, was also the venue for gymnastics, weightlifting, judo and wrestling during the 2002 Commonwealth Games.