Balderstone Technology College

The school was once called Rochdale Grammar School for Boys, formerly known as Rochdale Municipal High School for Boys on Church Lane. It was administered by Rochdale Education Committee, and moved to Queen Victoria Street in 1953 at a cost of £180,000. A grammar school had been founded in 1565 in Rochdale by Matthew Parker, then Archbishop of Canterbury. There was also Rochdale Grammar School for Girls on Falinge Road, becoming Falinge Park High School.[4]

It became a comprehensive in 1969 - the Balderstone High School, then Balderstone Community School in 1972 for boys and girls aged 14–18. In 1992 it became a high school for boys and girls aged 11–16. In 1999 it gained Technology College status.

• James Diggle, Professor of Greek and Latin at Queens' College, University of Cambridge since 1995
• Sir Leslie Fowden, Professor of Plant Science from 1964–73 at University College London, and Director from 1973–86 of the Rothamsted Experimental Station, discovered two plant amino acids (one being methyleneglutamine) not part of proteins, and became a world authority on plant amino acids [5]
• Glynn Boyd Harte, artist [6]
• Sir Peter Ogden, businessman who founded Computacenter in 1981 and Dealogic in 1983
• Sir Joseph Pilling, KCB, Identity Commissioner since 2009, and Director General from 1991–92 of HM Prison Service
• Christopher Ray, High Master since 2004 of Manchester Grammar School
• Frederick Llewellyn Smith CBE, Chairman from 1967–71 of Rolls Royce Motor Cars, and President from 1955–56 of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
• John Sykes, General Editor of English Dictionaries from 1992–94 at the Oxford University Press
• Philip Tinker OBE, President from 1983–84 of the British Society of Soil Science, and Deputy Director from 1981–85 of the Rothamsted Experimental Station
• Cyril Smith MP