Harrytown Catholic High School review 2026: Catholic secondary in Romiley

At 8.15am on Fridays, Mass appears on the HarrytownExtra programme, held in the school chapel with everyone welcome. It is a small, very practical detail, but it tells you quickly how Catholic life threads through the week here.

Harrytown Catholic High School is a state secondary school for boys and girls aged 11 to 16 in Stockport, Derbyshire. It is a Voluntary Aided school with a published capacity of 825, serving families who want a clearly faith-shaped ethos alongside the usual demands of secondary education. There is no sixth form, so your child’s next big transition comes at 16.

Romiley is named again and again across the school’s own pages, and that local rootedness matters. This is a school that expects families to be present: to show up for form time routines, to support attendance, and to understand that school life is not only about GCSE season, but about a shared set of values lived out over five years.

Catholic identity, stated plainly

The school traces its story back to 1913, founded by the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Evron. The virtues the school highlights are clear and memorable: service, humility, simplicity, charity and unity. In a Catholic school, these are not meant as posters; they set the tone for how students are expected to treat one another, and how staff frame responsibility when things go wrong.

Relationships between students and staff are a strength, and the atmosphere is described as friendly and safe. At the same time, expectations around conduct have been a live issue. Behaviour systems have been renewed, but the day-to-day consistency has not always matched the ambition, which is important context for families choosing between schools with different levels of structure.

Harrytown’s headline measures point to a mixed picture, with a clear need for momentum. The school is open about raising expectations and working to strengthen the quality of education across subjects; the data gives a useful snapshot of where the baseline currently sits.

GCSE results

Ranked 2964th in England and 12th in Stockport for GCSE outcomes (FindMySchool ranking based on official data), the school sits below England average overall, in the bottom 40% of schools in England.

On the standard measures, Attainment 8 is 41.9 and Progress 8 is -0.32. The EBacc average point score is 3.4, compared with an England average of 4.08, and 6% of students achieved grade 5 or above in the EBacc measure. For parents, the implication is straightforward: this is not a results-led outlier in the local market, so you are choosing it primarily for fit, ethos, and the school’s direction of travel, rather than for being the strongest academic option on paper.

If you are comparing outcomes across Stockport, the FindMySchool local hub comparison tools are the quickest way to see how these measures sit alongside nearby schools, without relying on hearsay.

Curriculum work has been under active development, with the school reshaping what is taught so that students meet a broad range of subjects with clearer building blocks. Where subject planning is tighter, lessons are more coherent and students build knowledge in a logical sequence; where it is less developed, learning can feel more uneven, and gaps can accumulate.

Teaching benefits from staff with strong subject knowledge, and many lessons are planned to engage students rather than simply keep them occupied. The more variable piece is checking understanding at the right moments. When misconceptions are not caught early, some students move on without the foundations they need, which then shows up later as weaker confidence and lower outcomes.

Reading has been prioritised, with support in Key Stage 3 for students who need help to build fluency. The weaker point is ensuring that older students who still struggle with reading get equally effective support, because at GCSE the curriculum assumes students can read independently and securely across every subject.

With no sixth form on site, Harrytown is a five-year runway. The school day is framed around preparing students for what comes after Year 11, whether that is sixth form, college, apprenticeships or work-based routes.

Careers education is not treated as an add-on. Students learn about different pathways and receive guidance intended to help them make realistic choices for post-16. The benefit for families is that the transition at 16 is handled as a planned next step, rather than a last-minute scramble once GCSEs are under way.

Admissions are competitive, and the demand figures make that plain. For a family who is set on Harrytown, the most important work is understanding the rules early, then preparing the paperwork and the timeline carefully.

Routes and criteria

For this entry route, there were 404 applications for 165 offers, which is about 2.45 applications per place. The school is oversubscribed, so the criteria matter, and small details can become decisive.

As a Catholic school, faith-based priority applies, and Stockport’s admissions guidance is explicit that Catholic schools prioritise children baptised Catholic over non-Catholic children when allocating places, with families able to upload a baptism certificate as part of the application. If you are weighing how realistic a place is, use FindMySchool Map Search to check where you sit geographically, then match that to the oversubscription criteria you qualify under.

Timeline and practicalities

Secondary applications in Stockport follow a clear annual rhythm: applications typically open in mid-August, close at the end of October, and offers are released in early March. Open evening information sits in the same seasonal pattern, typically in early October for Year 6 families, which is a good moment to test whether the school’s expectations and day-to-day routines match your child.

Support is built around two ideas: keeping students safe, and keeping them in school. Safeguarding arrangements are effective, and that matters because it underpins everything else, from attendance to behaviour to the confidence students need to learn.

Behaviour has been an area of focus, with strengthened systems and practical spaces designed to help students regulate and reset. The challenge is consistency. When staff apply expectations unevenly, a small number of students can disrupt learning for others, and that is exactly the kind of issue families should probe at open events: not whether a policy exists, but how reliably it is followed across different lessons and year groups.

Support for students with special educational needs and/or disabilities includes early identification and liaison with external specialists. The key question for parents is how effectively that support is joined up with subject teaching, because the best pastoral structures still depend on classroom routines that help every student learn.

The extra-curricular offer is unusually easy to pin down because it is presented as a named programme. HarrytownExtra is not framed as a vague promise; it is a timetable of specific clubs, responsibilities and experiences.

Clubs & enrichment

The range includes activities that suit very different students, from Chess Club and Art club through to DJ Club, Drama Club and a Python Programming Workshop. Music has visible space too, with options like Chapel Choir and group band sessions. There are also identity-shaping roles and committees such as Eco Council, alongside student leadership roles that build confidence through responsibility.

Faith and service are not kept separate from enrichment. Youth SVP (St Vincent de Paul) is part of the offer, and charitable work includes fundraising for homeless shelters. For many families, that blend of worship, service and wider enrichment is the point of choosing a Catholic school in the first place.

Sport and trips

Sport sits alongside the broader programme, with options including trampolining listed among clubs. Trips add another layer, including skiing as well as cultural visits such as theatre productions and museums, which can broaden horizons for students who might not otherwise access those experiences through family life alone.

The school day

The timetable is clearly structured: form registration runs from 9.00 to 9.30, followed by five teaching periods, with break and lunch built in, and the final period ending at 15.35. The total compulsory time in school is 32.5 hours per week.

Transport & parking

The school provides bus information for families and points to Transport for Greater Manchester for wider travel guidance. For rail, Romiley railway station is the obvious local link. If you are driving, build in time for the pinch points around the start and end of the day, especially if your child is staying later for clubs.

A school under pressure to improve. The 2024 Ofsted inspection rated Quality of Education, Behaviour and Attitudes, and Leadership and Management as Requires Improvement, with Personal Development graded Good. If you are considering Harrytown, ask direct questions about what has changed since then, particularly around consistent classroom routines and behaviour expectations.

Competition for places. With 404 applications for 165 offers (about 2.45 applications per place), admission is a real hurdle. Families who leave it late often find they have fewer realistic options, so get clear early on how the criteria apply to your child.

Academic profile and fit. The current GCSE measures sit below England average. For a child who needs highly consistent teaching to thrive, you will want to look closely at how the school is tightening curriculum planning and checking understanding, subject by subject.

Transition at 16. With no sixth form, every student moves on after Year 11. That suits families who want a fresh start at college, but it is a non-negotiable transition, so consider how your child handles change and travel before you commit.

Harrytown Catholic High School is a faith-centred, values-led 11 to 16 that wears its Catholic identity openly, from chapel-based enrichment to service-focused groups and student leadership. The pastoral foundations are there, and the extra-curricular programme is specific enough to feel real rather than aspirational.

Best suited to families who want a Catholic secondary where worship, service and community expectations are part of the weekly rhythm, and who are comfortable engaging closely with school routines. The limiting factor is admission, and for those who do secure a place, the key question becomes how quickly the school converts its improvement work into consistently strong classroom experience.