Cedar Mount Academy Review 2026: A large Manchester secondary focused on culture, routine, and practical improvement

For families in Gorton and the surrounding east Manchester neighbourhoods, Cedar Mount Academy is a big, mainstream secondary with a clear emphasis on calm behaviour, inclusion, and steadily raising outcomes. It sits within Manchester City Council’s co-ordinated admissions system, and it is oversubscribed for Year 7 in the most recently available demand data, which suggests it is a realistic option for many local families but not guaranteed.

Leadership is currently under Principal Stephen Garvey, with governance records showing his appointment as principal on 22 April 2025. A key reference point for parents remains the most recent full inspection, which judged the school Requires Improvement overall in April 2023, alongside Good judgements in several areas.

This is a state school, so there are no tuition fees. Practical costs instead tend to centre on uniform, trips, and optional activities.

The school’s identity is strongly tied to being welcoming, inclusive, and explicit about respect and belonging. Formal expectations are clearly signposted, with routines that aim to keep lessons settled and corridors orderly. That matters for families choosing between local secondaries, because a predictable climate often makes the biggest day to day difference to learning, particularly for students who can be anxious about transitions or disruption.

Personal development has a named structure through the school’s Aspiring Stars personal development programme, which is presented as a whole school approach covering relationships and sex education, safety, wellbeing, character education through form time, and careers education. The point here is not a glossy add on, it is an attempt to make the “how we behave and how we live” curriculum visible and consistent for students across Years 7 to 11.

Cedar Mount Academy is part of Bright Futures Educational Trust, and official documentation and inspection material place the school’s improvement work within that trust context. For parents, that usually translates into shared policies, common professional development, and a set of expectations that can feel more consistent than in a standalone school.

The school’s current performance profile looks like a work in progress rather than a finished product. In the FindMySchool ranking for GCSE outcomes, it is ranked 3,088th in England and 69th in Manchester, placing it below England average overall (within the bottom 40% of ranked schools in England on this measure). This is a proprietary FindMySchool ranking based on official data.

Looking at the underlying measures provided, the average Attainment 8 score is 35, and the Progress 8 score is -0.71. A negative Progress 8 figure indicates that, on average, students achieve below what would be expected compared with pupils nationally who had similar prior attainment at the end of primary school.

The English Baccalaureate picture is also challenging. The average EBacc APS score is 3.42, compared with an England average of 4.08. The percentage achieving grade 5 or above across EBacc subjects is 15.3%, which underlines that EBacc success is not yet secure for a large share of the cohort.

The most important implication for parents is that academic outcomes will likely depend heavily on individual fit and support. Students who respond well to structured routines, strong attendance expectations, and consistent teaching approaches may benefit as the school continues to embed improvements. Students who need highly consistent, high challenge teaching across every subject may require closer monitoring and, in some cases, targeted intervention.

Curriculum intent is pitched as a five year journey that takes students from their starting points in Year 7 to confident outcomes at the end of Year 11, with sequencing and enrichment described as central features.

The most recent inspection narrative gives a useful, balanced lens on what that looks like in practice. The key strength is ambition and breadth, including a strong focus on reading development and catch up support for weaker readers. Where teaching is most effective, subject knowledge is used well and tasks are chosen to help pupils learn new content. Where it is less effective, the issue is inconsistency, with some activities not well matched to what students need to remember and practise, and assessment in some subjects not identifying misconceptions quickly enough.

Language learning is a notable structural choice. The curriculum expectation that all Key Stage 3 students study two languages is an example of breadth and aspiration, and it can be particularly valuable for students who gain confidence through clearly defined skill progression.

With no sixth form, Cedar Mount Academy is a Year 11 finishing school, so the key transition is to post 16 providers across Manchester. The inspection evidence points to a strong emphasis on careers education and helping students make informed next step decisions, which is often especially important in an 11 to 16 setting where the school must support applications, interviews, and course choices without the “default” of staying on site.

Parents should expect guidance around college and training routes, plus a push towards regular attendance and engagement, because those are usually the levers that most directly improve post 16 options for students whose GCSE outcomes are still developing.

Admissions for Year 7 are handled through Manchester City Council’s co-ordinated process, and Cedar Mount Academy is listed among the secondaries that use the council’s admission rules rather than a separate school specific scheme.

For the September 2026 intake, Manchester’s published timeline stated that the application round opened on 01 July 2025 and the on time deadline was 31 October 2025. Offers were scheduled for 02 March 2026, with late applications considered after on time applicants.

In terms of capacity, both the school’s admissions policy and the council’s school listing state a Published Admission Number of 180 places for Year 7. Oversubscription criteria in the admissions policy prioritise, in order, children with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school, looked after and previously looked after children, children with exceptional medical or social reasons, siblings, and then children in a defined priority area linked to feeder primaries, with distance used as a tie break where needed.

Demand is meaningful but not extreme in the most recent dataset provided. There were 194 applications for 120 offers in the latest available Year 7 admissions snapshot, which equates to 1.62 applications per place offered. That is consistent with the school being oversubscribed, but it is a different level of pressure than the most oversubscribed Manchester schools.

Because the last distance offered is not available in the provided data, families should avoid relying on informal distance estimates and instead use precise measurements when comparing options. FindMySchool’s Map Search can help families check their distance from the school gate and sense check how realistic an offer might be, especially where tie breaks may come down to proximity.

The school presents wellbeing and safety as explicit priorities within its wider personal development model, and safeguarding is described in official reporting as a well organised system with knowledgeable staff and effective work with external agencies. Inspectors confirmed that safeguarding arrangements were effective at the time of the April 2023 inspection.

Behaviour expectations appear to be built around consistent routines and staff follow through. The practical implication is that students who benefit from clarity and predictable consequences are likely to settle more quickly. For students who need a softer, highly personalised approach, it is worth exploring how pastoral teams intervene early and what escalation looks like in practice.

Enrichment at Cedar Mount Academy is framed as part of personal development rather than an optional extra, with trips, visits, and structured activities tied into a broader character and careers programme.

The most recent inspection content gives helpful specific examples of the kind of clubs students can access, including rock band, robotics, and cricket club. Student leadership also appears to be a visible strand, with roles linked to improving the school community and participation in groups focused on diversity and anti discrimination. Those are the kinds of opportunities that can suit students who gain confidence through responsibility, performance, or problem solving activities that are not purely classroom based.

Music is also presented as a practical offer rather than a token gesture. The school publishes details of instrumental tuition, including named specialist tutors and a structure of individual or paired lessons, and its published music development plan indicates that several instruments are offered and that lessons are subsidised.

A final, very pragmatic support is homework help. The school publishes that a homework club runs every day in the learning resource centre after school, which can be particularly valuable for students who struggle to study effectively at home.

Students are expected to be on site by 08:35, with breakfast available from 08:20. The school states a total of 32.5 weekly hours, and it notes that Lesson 6 is used for intervention.

There is no published sixth form, so families should plan early for post 16 choices in Manchester. Wraparound care in the primary sense does not apply here, but the published breakfast provision and after school homework club function as useful “bookends” for many families.

For travel planning, the school points families towards public transport guidance for “how to get here”, and the location within Gorton Education Village generally suits families using local bus routes and short commutes.

• Results profile. Current GCSE outcomes and progress measures indicate outcomes are below what would be expected nationally for similar starting points. Families should ask how the school targets support in English and mathematics for students who arrive behind, and how subject teams check gaps are being closed.

• Inconsistency across subjects. Official reporting highlights that teaching quality is not yet consistently strong across every area, and that this can affect what students remember over time. This matters most for students who need very clear explanations, lots of guided practice, and regular checking for misconceptions.

• Oversubscription without a published distance benchmark. Demand is above capacity in the latest available snapshot, but there is no published “last distance offered” figure provided. Families should apply with a balanced set of choices, and measure distance precisely where proximity may be a tie break.

• No on site sixth form. Students must transition at 16. That suits many young people who want a change of scene, but it does mean planning and careers guidance need to start early.

Cedar Mount Academy is a sizeable local secondary with a clear direction of travel: strengthen culture, keep behaviour settled, and lift outcomes through a more consistently delivered curriculum. The evidence base points to real positives around inclusion, relationships, and personal development, alongside an academic profile that still needs time and consistency to catch up.

Who it suits: students who respond well to routine, clarity, and a school that invests in structured personal development and enrichment alongside academics. Families who want strong outcomes already locked in across every subject should scrutinise progress plans closely, and use open events and conversations with staff to test how support works in day to day practice.