Community Engagement

We are immensely proud of our links with the community and, from our foundation in 1487 by Sir Edmond Shaa, our place in Stockport’s history, present and future. We continuously look at ways we can engage and develop relationships in support of fellow schools, public bodies, community groups, charities and other organisations.

Our own pupils also benefit from this engagement. By interacting with the world around them, SGS students gain an understanding of different communities and the ways they can have a positive impact.

Here are just a few examples from the 2024-2025 academic year:

Bursaries

Through our means tested bursary scheme, we enable local children whose families could not otherwise afford the fees to attend SGS. These free and partially-funded places are available at 11+ and 16+. For more information about the scheme, please visit our Bursaries section. The scheme is primarily funded by the school, assisted by donations from the SGS community. Visit our Support Us page to find out more about how you can help.

Teaching and Learning

Year 5 Maths Competitions

252 young mathematicians from 33 primary schools across Greater Manchester gathered on the 23rd and 24th June for the annual Maths Challenges for Year 5 children. The level of demand meant that we held three competitions across the two days.

Year 5 Art Competition

107 local primary school pupils from 15 schools took part in the Year 5 Art Competition in February. The shortlisted artwork was also displayed at a special exhibition evening for them and their families to enjoy.

Year 10 Science Competition

The annual Year 10 Science Competition saw 40 Fourth Year pupils from 10 local high schools attend and compete in hour-long tasks in Biology, Chemistry and Physics in the school’s laboratories.

Year 5 Taster Days

In the Summer Term, we held three Taster Days for Year 5s from local primary schools with 200 places booked, in addition to a Taster Day for SGJS children.

Pupils experienced sessions in a wide range of Senior School subjects as part of their preparation for the transition to secondary school.

Year 6 Mock Trial 

36 children from six primary schools took part in a regional heat of a ‘Mock Trial’ in association with Greater Manchester Magistrates Association. The Year 6 competition saw schools from the Stockport and Trafford areas take to the school’s historic Hallam Hall to battle it out as prosecution or defence teams in a scripted simulated trial.

Drama Outreach 

Third Year Drama pupils visited Adswood Primary School, The Ryleys School and St Thomas’ C of E Primary School to deliver ‘Theatre in Education’ workshops. The task for our pupils was to devise a bespoke piece of theatre in response to a brief set by the local primary schools to support their learning module.

Staff

SGS staff members support the community in a wide range of ways.

Some are Governors, trustees or PTA members at local schools and chair various committees and conferences whilst others volunteer for groups or organisations such as the Scouts, Girlguiding, Lancashire Police and the Crime Commissioner.

Staff members work with exam awarding bodies and use their skills and knowledge to provide resources and training for organisations. Examples of these activities include acting as a subject mentor for a Manchester Metropolitan University trainee teacher, being part of local and national rugby committees, collaborating with the National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD) and having a YouTube channel with demonstration videos that are available as open access.

Other staff members lead on projects in the community, and many get involved in charity initiatives, such as volunteering for Age UK.

The Art department participated in the Chorlton Art Festival, the Sports department hosted and ran festivals and tournaments for athletics, rugby, football, netball and hockey, and members of the Music department directed or conducted a number of orchestras.

Art department staff were delighted that Third Year pupils had their work on architecture put on display in an exhibition at St George’s Church, and Library staff worked with the Senior Charity Prefects for a book drive for the Children’s Book Project.

The Food and Nutrition department hosted Food Teachers Centre’s ‘Foundations in Food KS3’ course in our Food and Nutrition department. The course gave teachers an opportunity to learn the method of teaching food and also covered the practical elements which will help practical sessions to run smoothly.

The Modern Foreign Languages department held a software training event for Sanako. Teachers and staff from state and independent schools attended the session which shared knowledge of how to use the software with colleagues.

Facilities

Our swimming pool is used by a number of organisations including Norris Bank Swimming Club, Lucy Hesford’s Swim School, Aqua Seals, Rotary Club Swimathon, Great Moor Junior School and Trafford Artistic Swimming.

The Sports Hall has been used by North East Cheshire Cricket Club and High Lane Cricket Club.

The Wellspring charity for homeless people in Stockport used our facilities to support their activities.

The car park has been used by Stockport Scouts for their St George’s Parade and Service.

Various locations around the school site featured in the video from The Blossoms’ song ‘Perfect Me’.

Charity Fundraising

The school is proud to be able to fundraise for charities locally, nationally and internationally.

Both the Senior and Junior Schools have a Charity Club and the pupils work together with staff to choose the causes they would like to support and to create ideas to engage the SGS community. Previous ideas have included fun days, non-uniform days, taking part in physical challenges and food collections.

In the 2024-2025 academic year, Senior School activities raised a total of £5,962.65:

• Amnesty for Unicef – £90 from the Christmas Fair
• British Heart Foundation – £103 from roses sold for Palentines Day
• EducAid – £4,100 from non-uniform days
• EducAid and Francis House Children’s Hospice – £415.16 each from the First Year Christmas Party
• Francis House Children’s Hospice – £279.30 from Sports Day
• Toilet Twining – £70.03 from selling candy canes
• WaterAid and WWF – £490 from World Ocean’s Day and International Day of the Forest

Other events:

• Bare Necessities Toiletry Bank – collection of toiletry items
• Chelwood Food Bank – Reverse Advent collection
• The Shoebox Fairies – Amnesty+ asked pupils to fill a shoebox full of essential items
• The Wellspring – food collection for Harvest

In the Junior School, numerous activities raised a total of £5,736.31:

• Children in Need – £1,121.50
• Comic Relief – £920
• Diabetes UK – £1,811
• Royal British Legion – £694.81
• The Christie – £1,189 from Cuppa for Christie

A vehicle full of food items were donated to The Wellspring charity as part of the Harvest collection.

Voluntary Work

230 pupils enjoyed undertaking voluntary work at various locations via The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, of which we are proud to be a Direct Licensed Organisation. Sixth Formers also take part in Voluntary Service on Wednesday afternoons, helping out and gaining valuable skills in a wide range of settings including schools, hospitals and charities.

Other Events

Heritage Open Event

On 10th September we held a Heritage Open Evening where we invited the local community to come into the school to listen to a couple of talks, take a tour of the site and meet each other over coffee and cake.

Learning to Lead Training Day

On 22nd November we hosted GRJ Education’s Learning To Lead training day where 28 teachers from 14 schools across England were in attendance.