Heaton Manor School - Heaton Manor School

Heaton Manor School

With Newcastle City Council's budget cuts meant that schools with low numbers had to be closed and it was decided to merge Heaton Secondary with Manor Park in 1983 to form a new school: Heaton Manor School. It was a controversial move, as many people saw Heaton Secondary school still as a grammar school and to be seen merging with a former technical school (and Heaton's closest rival in every sense) as a downward progression.

Originally, the sixth form (Years 12 and 13) were going to be housed on the former Manor Park site, but this would not be possible due to the nature of the buildings, so the unusual split of having lower school students with the sixth form on the former Heaton Grammar site.

The former Heaton Grammar site then became known as the Jesmond Site. The site itself is not in Jesmond at all, the name comes from the street from which it is on (Jesmond Park West). The former Manor Park site became known as the Benton Site (being on Benton Road). The rooms on the Jesmond site had a J- prefix (e.g. J44, JP1, JD1) to distinguish the same rooms over on the Benton site which had a B- prefix (e.g. B75, BP2, BD1)

Before 2001, the Library was found on the upper south-west corridor and there were two halls (East and West). In 2001, the west hall became a new "Learning Resource Centre" and the former library suite was rebuilt and became a British Airways sponsored suite for those studying Travel and Tourism. The separate Sixth Form Library was moved down to the new LRC, which proved unpopular amongst many Sixth Formers.

Back in 1998, a number of students were featured along with John Dryden and Ann Smedley (Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher respectively) on the front page of the Evening Chronicle with the headline "Thanks a Mi££ion!" after Heaton Manor had secured money for a complete refurbishment. However, the students (from Year 8) who appeared on the front of that newspaper only ever got to see half of the new school before they left Sixth Form as it took until 2002 until building actually started.