Bury Church of England High School

Bury Church of England High School is a mixed-sex secondary school located just south of Bury town centre.It maintains a specialist humanities status.

In 2005 Bury Church of England High School was awarded Specialist Status in Humanities with the focus on Geography, History and RE. The school is the only Humanities College in Bury, and at the time of the award was one of only two in Greater Manchester.

As a Specialist College we receive extra government funding to pioneer new teaching and learning methods in the Humanities departments which will then benefit pupils within and well beyond the school.

The requirements of the Specialist Status programme involve the Humanities subjects disseminating good practice across the curriculum in order to deliver whole school improvement and innovative approaches to teaching and learning. Strong links with partner schools and the wider community are also key elements of the Specialist Status agenda.

As part of this programme the school has hosted GCSE revision sessions for other secondary schools in the Authority and provided in-service training in ICT. The Geography department in 2006 designed and delivered a one week cross-curricula course at St. Stephen’s C of E Primary School on the Amazon Rainforest. In 2007 the pattern was repeated with the Department delivering a themed week on Indian Culture at St. Thomas’s Primary School. The Department has become one of only three schools in the North West to be awarded the Secondary Geography Quality Mark (SGQM) by the Geographical Association for it’s commitment to ensuring lively and effective learning in geography. The GA also awarded Miss Sumner the department’s HoD, the status of Chartered Geographer for her work in developing new resources and teaching and learning strategies. A subject OFSTED inspection in February 2008 classed the Department as ‘Outstanding’.

The History department have promoted strong links with Bury Museum seconding museum staff to assist in the classroom. Pupils have been involved in classifying museum artefacts and putting together resource packs for use in the classroom. The Department have also created a World War II audio diary which involved pupils visiting local residential/ retirement homes to record experiences of their more elderly residents. Recent projects have included the production of a DVD based on the growth and decline of the Textile Industry in Bury. The department also organised an evening presentation on the theme of ‘Tracing your family tree’.

Members of thee RE department are in the process of developing a series of morning assemblies which can be delivered in local primary schools. They are also working on developing links with other partner schools to create greater religious and racial harmony.

Bury Church has been around for many years and its pupils from time to time arrange reunions, this years is for the class of 1988 please link email to [e-mail]