Eden Girls' Leadership Academy, Manchester

About Eden Girls' Leadership Academy, Manchester

Eden Girls' Leadership Academy, Manchester sits within the Manchester local authority as a state-funded Muslim girls' secondary school for ages 11 to 18, led by headteacher Kulsum Vali. Among the 31 secondary schools in Manchester ranked by Progress 8, it places second, placing it firmly among the city's top performers. Its closest peers in the local rankings are Eden Boys' Leadership Academy, Manchester (first), Levenshulme High School (third), and Burnage Academy for Boys (fourth). The school is oversubscribed by a significant margin: for the 2025/26 intake, it received 397 applications for 143 places, with 227 of those applicants naming it as their first preference. Of those, 138 received offers. The school currently has 636 pupils on roll against a capacity of 800, and 42.9 per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals, a figure well above the national average. Its most recent Ofsted inspection, in 2022, rated the school Good overall, with Outstanding marks for behaviour and attitudes and for personal development.

Academically, the school's performance is striking. Its Progress 8 score of 1.02 is well above average nationally and far exceeds the Manchester local authority average of 0.18. In the North West region, it ranks ninth out of 445 schools on this measure, and nationally it sits 75th out of 3,141. The Attainment 8 score is 55, and 76.6 per cent of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths. The school enters a very high proportion of pupils for the EBacc — 94.4 per cent — and 49.2 per cent achieved the full EBacc at grade 5 or above. Progress in individual subject areas is consistently strong: English Progress 8 is 0.9, maths 0.8, and the EBacc subjects collectively score 1.18. The school does not currently have a sixth form, so pupils move on elsewhere after Year 11. Ofsted rated the quality of education Good and leadership and management Good, with personal development judged Outstanding.

The school offers a wide range of facilities including a swimming pool, sports hall, gymnasium, theatre, tennis courts, and a sixth form centre (though no sixth form is currently running). Sports on offer include rugby, swimming, football, rounders, cross country, martial arts, and badminton, while clubs range from gardening and eco club to debate, orchestra, and film club. SEND provisions cover specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, hearing and visual impairments, and physical disability. Parent View responses, collected between September 2024 and September 2025 from 48 respondents, are overwhelmingly positive: 98 per cent would recommend the school, and 96 per cent of parents strongly agreed or agreed that their child is happy. This school will particularly suit families seeking a high-performing, oversubscribed girls' school with a Muslim religious character, strong academic outcomes, and a clear focus on personal development and behaviour.

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