Knock, Seven Keys to Baldpate and The Anatomist, nurturing young acting talent such as that of Alan Badel, who later went on to appear on stage, film and television.

[2] Upon the outbreak of World War II in 1939, most pupils were evacuated to towns outside Manchester to avoid the hazards of bombing, and Burnage boys were sent to Leek, Ashbourne and Wirksworth.

[citation needed] In 1969 the school purchased a disused railway station, Buxworth in Derbyshire, and converted it for use as an outdoor education centre for pupils.

The school draws pupils from various districts of Manchester, including Didsbury, Levenshulme, Longsight, Rusholme, Fallowfield, Withington, Hulme, Ardwick, and Burnage itself.

The majority of students live in Longsight, Levenshulme, Rusholme and Ardwick wards, which suffer from high levels of poverty, deprivation, and crime.

[12] In the school's 2018 OFSTED report, it was noted that pupils make excellent progress and achieve consistently strong results in their GCSE examinations.

[16] GCSE performance results as published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) since 2001 are as follows:[17][18][19][20] Percentage of students achieving 5 or more GCSE A* – C results or equivalent (national average for each year in brackets): Percentage of students achieving 5 or more GCSE A* – C results including English and Maths (national average for each year in brackets): Percentage of students achieving 4 and above in English and Maths (new 9-1 grading): In September 1986, the school made headline news when 13-year-old Asian pupil Ahmed Iqbal Ullah was fatally stabbed in the lower school playground by another 13-year-old pupil, Darren Coulburn, in what was believed to be a racially motivated attack.

Coulburn, a juvenile delinquent who had already burned down the school art block in 1985 causing £50,000 of damage, was convicted of murder and detained indefinitely.

[22][23][24] In 2009, the school made headline news when teacher Mohammed Sarwar was arrested after police had obtained evidence that he had been leading a double life as the mastermind behind a major local drugs gang who had a large-scale operation to deal cocaine and cannabis.