Hope Hall and Hope High The present-day academy has its origins in Hope Hall
Secondary Modern School which opened in 1958 on Prestwood Road/Eccles Old Road in
Pendleton. It was named after Hope Hall, a manor house on the site, demolished in 1956 by the City of Salford Education Committee to make way for the school. The architects,
J. C. Prestwich & Sons, had already been appointed in 1939, but building was postponed by the Second World War. In 1954, the Education Committee decided to resume their plans due to a shortage of school capacity in West Salford. The first phase of building was completed in 1958, with extensions in 1964-1965 doubling the school's area. The school was later renamed Hope High School. In 2001, Windsor High was closed and its pupils transferred to Hope and
Buile Hill high schools, resulting in an expansion of the school.
Transfer to Oasis Plans began in 2006 under the
Building Schools for the Future programme to replace Hope High with an Oasis Trust sponsored academy with sixth form provision and to relocate the school to Salford Quays. Some reasons given by
Salford City Council for closing the school in Pendleton were a decline in demand and the high density of schools in the area. When it became an academy in September 2008 it was renamed Oasis Academy MediaCityUK. The name reflected the planned location of the school in
MediaCityUK, chosen in anticipation of the
BBC's relocation there. The closure of the school and transfer to Oasis was brought forward to 2008, despite objections from the
National Union of Teachers and
NASUWT, though the school initially remained on the same site. The academy opened a
sixth form centre with a planned capacity of 250, which had 40 students in 2009, and was no longer operational as of 2012. Ahead of the move, the academy also made 14 teachers involuntarily redundant in 2011. Unionised teachers called for a meeting with management to address concerns about transparency for affected staff and educational standards for students who would lose teachers part way through the academic year. Staff
walked out when management refused to revisit their handling of the redundancies, closing the school for a day. Students rioted in support of their teachers.
At MediaCityUK site In September 2012, the academy moved to its £25 million (equivalent to £ million in ) new-build site at
Salford Quays. After a full inspection in 2014,
Ofsted deemed the school "inadequate" in all areas and it was put into
special measures. Fiona O’Sullivan was appointed principal in November 2014, and expelled nine students, recruited a new leadership team, and brought in six extra teachers in a turnaround bid. Weekly staff training was put in place and assistance was accepted from
St Patrick's Roman Catholic High School in Eccles.
Former headteachers and principals Hope Hall and Hope High School • Victor Innes Tomlinson, 1958 - 1972 • Valerie Ivison, at least 1978 - 1985 • Alan Hewitt, 1991 - 2004 • Nick Joseph, until closure in 2008
Oasis Academy MediaCityUK • Dave Terry, 2008 - April 2010 • Patrick Ottley-O'Connor, 2013 (for 3 weeks) • Fiona O'Sullivan, May 2014 - October 2018 • Mr Paul F McEvoy, June 2021 - August 2025 ==Description==