In accordance with its founder's wishes, MGS remains a predominantly academic school and belongs to the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.

[9] Historical accounts suggest that he was not a particularly learned man, but was in Royal service, being a favoured protégé of Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, mother of Henry VII, and became recognised for his administrative abilities.

His great wealth came from his water-powered corn mills on the River Irk near Manchester, which were subsequently used to fund the school's endowment.

On 2 July 1515 he signed an endowment trust deed establishing the Manchester Free Grammar School for Lancashire Boys.

The combined cost was £218.13s.5d, largely given by Oldham, but with the help of his and the Bexwyke (Beswick) family who had provided an earlier endowment for a school within the parish church.

[12] The original deed promoted "Godliness and good learning" and established that any boy showing sufficient academic ability, regardless of background, might attend, free of charge.

[14] The original foundation provided a school house in the curtilage of Manchester's Parish Church and two graduates (the 'High Master' and the 'Usher') to teach Latin and later Greek, to any children who presented themselves.

This was facilitated by a bequest from a wealthy businessman (and ex-pupil) Humphrey Chetham, which also served to create a bluecoat orphanage there, schooling 40 poor boys.

[17] An extra room had been built onto the school house for boys who needed instruction in English before they started Latin, and another master was employed to teach them.

Going from the Old Church to Long Millgate ... one is in an almost undisguised working men's quarter, for even the shops and beerhouses hardly take the trouble to exhibit a trifling degree of cleanliness ... [The Irk, immediately beside the school,] is a narrow, coal black, foul smelling stream full of debris and refuse.

Then, in the 1870s, a new building, the Manchester Grammar Extension, was built, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, and including new classrooms, laboratories and a gymnasium, reflecting the wider curriculum that had developed since the 1830s.

It was said that the bridge's purpose was not for ease of movement between the parts of the school, but rather to dwarf Chetham's gatehouse both in terms of size and grandeur.

The tenure of Michael George Glazebrook as High Master, beginning in 1888, saw the introduction of three changes according to pupil Ernest Barker: a system of prefects to keep order, the singing of school songs conducted by John Farmer, and the wearing of school-caps and school-hats.

[5] In 1930 the school moved out of the city centre to accommodate a growing pupil body and provide a wider range of facilities.

[5] After the Education Act 1944, MGS became a direct grant grammar school, which meant that the bulk of funding was provided by government.

Entry was by merit (based on examination) and parents were means-tested and fees paid primarily by local education authorities on a sliding scale.

It reverted to independent status in 1976 after the Labour government – in the person of Education Secretary Shirley Williams – abolished the direct-grant funding system.

This badge replaced the original one when the school colours changed from red, black and yellow to dark and light blue to reflect its connection with the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

This is in addition to classrooms (subjects taught in this building are Art and Design, Mathematics, Economics, Classical Civilisation, Computing, Greek, History, Latin, Religion and Philosophy) and administrative offices.

[31] It currently hosts the following departments: Physics, General Science (taken by Year 7 and 8 pupils – before the subject splits into the usual three divisions), Geography, Computing and Mathematics.

The MGS Theatre has recently undergone extensive rebuilding, to provide a modern and comfortable auditorium, together with studios for rehearsals and drama teaching.

The former rectory of St James's Birch-in-Rusholme (the adjacent redundant church) is located near the Sports Hall, and is the home of the Biology Department.

Boys entering the Junior School do not sit an entrance exam but attend an assessment day and gain automatic admission into Year 7.

[34][35] The school owns the Owls' Nest, a large hut situated in Disley, south of Manchester, near to Lyme Park.

The maths and science departments decided that pupils were finding the coursework (which forms a fifth of the marks awarded in the national GCSE) undemanding and tedious and so made the switch in 2005.

It is produced in-house by the Public Relations Department for visitors at open events, current and prospective parents and teachers and the wider MGS community.

[43] The school's alumni are called "Old Mancunians", or informally Old Mancs, and include academics, politicians, mathematicians, sportsmen, such as former England cricket captain Mike Atherton, former Lancashire Captain, Mark Chilton, and former Lancashire and England batsman, John Crawley, several notable writers, such as Thomas de Quincey, playwright Robert Bolt, author Alan Garner, after whom the school's Junior Library is named, and journalist and broadcaster Martin Sixsmith.

1929) who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, chemist Michael Barber, actors Ben Kingsley and Robert Powell, historians Michael Wood and Victor Kiernan, popular science writer Brian Clegg, concert organist Daniel Moult, comic Chris Addison, and cryptographers Clifford Cocks, Peter Twinn and Malcolm J. Williamson.