A school ledger, reopened
Ninety years, kept in the record
In the summer of 1935, four masters from Altrincham Grammar School — William Crabb, Arthur Hill, Edward Mason and Alexander Sherriffs — set out to found a junior school for boys aged five to eleven. Ninety years on, we’re opening the archive: the founders, the buildings, and the boys who passed through them.
From the founders’ notes
“APS is a monument to all the teachers, parents and boys who have served to bring about the vision of the original founders — to provide a school generating the highest standards of academic and sporting achievement, together with a true sense of decency and good citizenship in its pupils.”
Arthur Hill · Founder & Director, 1936–1989 · Chairman, 1976–1982
Ninety years, five chapters
How the school grew
Founded
Lessons begin in the Grammar School Scout Hut and at College House, South Downs Road.
Highbury House
A former ladies’ college on West Road, Bowdon, is purchased as the school grows.
Marlborough Road
A purpose-built school opens on land gifted by Lord Stamford in the 1950s.
Bank Place
A dedicated Early Years centre for boys aged two to five.
The 90th
“An ambitious, rich and cohesive curriculum” — ISI Report, 2026.
Our buildings
From a scout hut to Marlborough Road
Every site the school has called home, and the boards, architects and benefactors who made each move possible.
South Downs Road & Highbury
From a single wing of College House to Highbury House, a former ladies’ college purchased in 1950 as the school outgrew its first home.
Read the history →
Marlborough Road
A purpose-built school on land gifted by Lord Stamford, designed with APS architect and Director Alan Hurst.
Read the history →
Bank Place
A bespoke Early Years Centre of Excellence for boys aged two to five, rebuilt from a 27-room former school building — pictured here mid-transformation.
Read the history →In pictures
Shared by former pupils
Class photographs, sports days and school life across nine decades — kindly shared by APS old boys and their families.
Add your voice to the record
Were you here? We’d like to know.
As part of our ninetieth anniversary, we’ve launched an Alumni Society to bring old boys back together — and we’re collecting memories and photographs for the archive.