A History of MGS in Numbers

A school’s size is often marketed as a defining feature. Small schools often describe themselves as “close-knit” and “friendly”. Larger schools often project an image of energy and vibrancy. MGS in 2022 currently has 1668 pupils, with 1432 in the Senior school (running from year 7 – 13) and 236 in the Junior School (running from year 3 – 6). It certainly falls into the bracket of “large school”.

It has been interesting to take a look into the archives and track the pupil population of MGS across the years. Maintaining school numbers can often be a delicate balance, sometimes requiring the need to predict demographic shifts in the local area.

The original MGS preceded Manchester’s status as a major English city. Manchester in 1515 was, by modern standards, a small settlement with a population of roughly 3000. Hugh Oldham had chosen Manchester as the place for his school because of his ties to the area, including land owned by his family. He also chose Manchester because whilst neighbouring Bolton and Stockport had grammar schools, Manchester did not.

Figures to indicate the size of MGS in its early years are hard to come by, as the first admissions registers are believed to have been lost or destroyed in the Civil War. Alfred Mumford in his 1919 history attempted to estimate numbers based on lists of individuals from Manchester who went to English universities. His estimates suggest an early size of around 50 pupils. Initially it is thought that the School drew its pupils from the immediate area of Manchester.

The School population seems to have grown to around 100 pupils by the early 18th century. By this stage, due to a generous benefaction from Sarah, Duchess of Somerset, the School had begun to be able to offer scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge. The appeal of MGS grew, and boys from further afield began to attend the School, lodging in private boarding houses near Long Millgate. Our numbers are more accurate by this stage, as we have admissions registers from 1730 onwards, and below is Mumford’s summary of the statistics for a century between 1736 and 1835. The presence of boys from outside Manchester is apparent. The drop in numbers in the 1740s may have been due to the opening of Old Mancunian John Clayton’s school in nearby Salford, which he created as a direct competitor to MGS, believing the School lacked academic rigour. His school, which he called St. Cyprian’s, closed on his death in 1773.

Numbers stabilised at around 250 by the mid-nineteenth century. When High Master Frederick Walker introduced fees in 1867, the boys already in attendance remained as free pupils whilst a further 250 fee paying places were added. It took a while for the School to attract sufficient fee payers despite the capacity to take 250, with the total number of both free and fee paying pupils equalling 288 in 1868. Nevertheless, there was now capacity for growth and the numbers steadily increased. A new building was added to the site in 1871 to accommodate the growing school, and another in 1880. By the 1880s numbers averaged around 800 with a peak at over 950 in 1883. It is clear that the decision to introduce fees was the turning point for the MGS rolls. At this stage Manchester itself had grown to a population of around 600,000 and the wider region that is now known as Greater Manchester numbered around 1.5 million. The original plan to offer half the available places to fee payers and half to scholarship boys was difficult to maintain, and inevitably the balance shifted towards fee payers to bolster the School’s delicate finances. Mumford’s history of the School notes that in 1878 there were 600 fee paying boys at the school and only around 150 scholarship places.

Into the 1890s, overall numbers started to decline and averaged around 700. This was in part due the opening of more schools locally, and partly due to an increase in funding from the government for existing competitor schools to modernise and expand provision in languages and sciences. High Master John Edward King asked the governors for permission to open the three MGS preparatory schools to act as feeders and provide some stability for the future. The three schools were opened in 1897 and looking at the statistics, their impact is clear. During the first decade of the twentieth century numbers averaged around 850. By 1915 High Master J.L. Paton reported to the governors that “The number of boys in the School had for the first time in its history reached over 1000.” However, WWI had an impact on numbers further up the School. High Master Paton reported to the governors in 1917 that “The calling up of boys of eighteen years of age has very seriously weakened the Upper Forms of the School. On the other hand, the Junior Forms have been full to overflowing, and the proportion of junior boys to senior boys is probably larger than it has been for the last forty to fifty years“.

The 1920s were times of stability when it came to the rolls. Numbers averaged around 1000 and when plans were made for the move to Rusholme, the new building was designed to accommodate that number. However, the governors had banked on financing the new buildings through the sale of the Long Millgate site. The financial climate of the 30s and 40s meant it took two decades for the buildings to be sold, and the governors had to take out loans instead to cover the cost. Out of financial necessity, the School had to expand admissions to fee payers to try and pay back the loans as soon as possible. Thus, the very first intake of boys to Rusholme in 1931 totalled 1078, greater than the 1000 pupil capacity of the buildings themselves. In contrast, the stretched School only employed 59 staff in 1931, including the High Master, and thus class sizes were big. The numbers rose rapidly to 1200 boys by 1935, though staff numbers remained the same and the School did not have the means to extend the buildings.

The evacuation of the School to Blackpool in 1939 led to an immediate exodus of boys whose parents would not risk disruption to their education. In the 1938/9 academic year, boys had numbered 1221, but only 909 boys were evacuated. However, numbers did recover once the School returned to Manchester and by March 1940 there were 1180 boys on the roll. Numbers rose steadily so that by 1942, pupils numbered 1236. Growth continued and by 1945 there were 1464 boys on the roll, albeit with only 66 staff. Class sizes were large with most consisting of over 30 boys, with some as big as 37 or 38 pupils. 36 boys from the former prep schools were taken into two “prep” forms in 1946. The school museum (the rooms to the left of the archway which now house Art) was commandeered and converted into two classrooms to accommodate the newcomers. [note – the figures gathered for the school years 1940 – 46 are average numbers of boys for the academic year included within the “Receivers Report and Summary of Accounts” which were presented to the Governors each year. The rest of the figures come from the Owl Lists and Form Lists and are therefore the numbers in school at the start of the academic year. The Owl Lists were discontinued during the war years due to paper shortages so not available as a source for those years]

Once the Long Millgate site had finally been sold in 1953, the School had the opportunity to expand the buildings and 1955 saw both the construction of the War Memorial Pavilion and the conversion of the Rectory to house the Biology department. The 1950s saw the expansion of the sixth form so that in 1930 there were only 130 boys in the sixth form, rising to 326 boys by 1946. By 1960 there were 560 boys in the sixth form. The raising of the compulsory school leaving age to 16 will have had an impact on numbers and Eric James was keen to persuade boys to stay on for sixth form. A significant number of boys also decided to stay for an extra year in sixth form to focus on gaining a place at Oxbridge, and the most academic boys often entered the sixth form a year early. The 1960s saw the continuing expansion of the school site, with the Marks (Physics) building, Sieff Theatre and the Mason building constructed in this decade. The number of boys in the sixth form began to decline in the mid 1980s when Oxford and Cambridge changed their admissions procedures, dropping entrance examinations and hence the need for boys to stay at school for an extra term or year in “Div i”.

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the School had to balance the need to maintain numbers with the desire to offer free places in line with the wishes of its founders. The introduction of the direct grant in 1945 was a welcome chance to recruit a greater quantity of boys from across the region regardless of parental income. The direct grant scheme alongside greater financial ability to build extra accommodation provided stable rolls. The abolition of the grant in 1975 would again create the need to skilfully balance maintenance of overall numbers with offers of places to boys from more modest backgrounds. The assisted places scheme was a help in this, created in 1981 but abolished in 1997. The MGS bursary scheme set up in 1998 has been a worthy successor to those schemes.

The below charts shows the fluctuating numbers of pupils and staff at MGS, as well as numbers in the sixth form. Data was obtained using the Form Lists, Owl Lists and Receivers Reports to Governors, all held in the MGS Archives. There is a gap in our records of sixth form numbers during WWII.