Birkenhead School
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| Motto | Beati Mundo Corde (Blessed are the Pure in Heart) |
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| Established | 1860 |
| Type | Independent HMC |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Headmaster | John Clark |
| Chaplain | Mrs Lesley Rendle |
| Deputy Headmasters | David Edmunds Ralph Barlow |
| Chair of Governors | Mr A Sutton |
| Location | 58 Beresford Road Oxton Merseyside CH43 2JD England |
| DfE number | 344/6023 |
| DfE URN | 105123 |
| Staff | 80(approx.) |
| Students | 750 |
| Gender | Fully Co-Educational |
| Ages | 3 months–18 |
| Houses | Beresford Bidston Kingsmead Shrewsbury |
| Colours | Red, Black |
| Publication | InFocus |
| Former pupils | Old Birkonians |
| Website | www.birkenheadschool.co.uk |
Coordinates: 53°23′08″N 3°03′18″W / 53.3855°N 3.0551°W
Birkenhead School is an independent, selective, co-educational school located in Oxton on the Wirral Peninsula in the north west of England. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
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[edit] Overview
The school is subdivided into
- Nursery Department (for children aged three months to three years),
- Pre-Prep (for pupils aged three to five),
- Preparatory (six years from ages five to eleven),
- "Overdale" (two years from ages eleven to thirteen)[1]
- Senior School (five years from thirteen up to the sixth form at about eighteen).
Entrance is via the Prep School, by open competitive examination at 11, by Common Entrance at 13, or by interview at the sixth-form level. The school offers some assistance with fees to pupils who would not otherwise be able to take up a place at the school through a bursary scheme financed by the Birkenhead School Foundation Trust. This charity was established in 1998 and is currently supporting about sixty pupils in the school. A few scholarships are also awarded, based principally on academic ability, but occasionally as a result of exceptional sporting or musical potential. These give a fixed reduction in fee, independent of the parents’ financial circumstances. The school no longer has boarders.
The current headmaster is John Clark (since 2003). Previous headmasters include Stuart Haggett (1988–2003), John Gwilliam (1963–1988), Kenneth "KD" Robinson (1946–1963) and Warin Foster Bushell (1930–1946).
As well as a strong sporting tradition, the school has a large Combined Cadet Force contingent and Chapel Choir. It also has a student council, created in 2003, which seeks to improve the lives of Birkenhead School pupils.
[edit] Quality of education
The last formal inspection of the school took place in late 2007. The report by the Independent Schools Inspectorate concluded that the overall quality of teaching was 'good' with a significant proportion 'outstanding.' It added that pupils have "evident self-esteem and positive, secure moral values… excellent relationships with teachers and other pupils, [they] willingly take on responsibility and recognise the importance of contributing to the social good. They have a good understanding of their own culture and that of others. Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary, and they have an excellent attitude to their studies in lessons." These comments largely echo inspection reports of previous years. The next inspection is likely to take place in 2011. [2]
[edit] History
Birkenhead School was opened in Park Road North, Birkenhead on 9 August 1860 at first called Birkenhead Proprietary School. It started with 18 pupils but had grown to 30 by the end of the first term. By 1870 there were 85 pupils and so a new building was required. The school moved to its present site in Oxton on 2 November 1871. The school's motto was taken from the gospel reading for that day. The Chapel was opened in 1883. The Preparatory Department was established in September 1889 and moved to Beresford Road in 1893. During 1899 the ground alongside Beresford Road was leveled to create the school’s playing field.[3][4]
In 1905 the Noctorum ground, approximately 2.3 hectares (5.5 acres), was rented and subsequently bought in 1910. Buildings on Bidston Road were acquired in 1920 for use as a science block and in 1921 the Lodge in Beresford Road was purchased for the use of the school. The Fender Ground, 9.3 hectares, was acquired in 1922 and part was used by the newly formed Old Birkonian Football Club, prior to moving to an adjacent ground in 1926. Matches were played here until 1976, when the club merged with Birkenhead Park Rugby Club. As playing fields nearer the school were developed, Fender Field was later sold.[3][4] In 1931, "Junior School" was started in Overdale at the top of Beresford Road.
In 1948 the L.C. McAllester Memorial Ground, 4.7 hectares, was presented to the school. It was officially opened in 1952. A purpose-built science block on Bidston Road was built in 1958, and has since been expanded. In 1982 the Bushell Hall was opened for use by the main school, and the Preparatory School moved into the vacated Shrewsbury Road buildings. These included the original "big school" dating back to 1871, and the recently closed boarding house which at its peak had catered for over forty boarders. The vacated Preparatory School building in Beresford Road was then adapted to provide an extensive Music School, although this has subsequently moved onto the main School campus and the Beresford Road property sold and redeveloped as apartments.[3]
What was the headmaster’s house on Shrewsbury Road was acquired in 1988 so that by then the school owned all the properties in the block apart from the Holy Name Church on Beresford Road. In 1992, the Sports Hall was completed. In conjunction with Oxton Sports Club, an all-weather pitch was completed on the McAllester Field site, and also in 1992 the Preparatory Department’s purpose built Little School was opened in Kingsmead Road South. In 2001 a climbing wall was added to the Sports Hall.[3] The school opened a Nursery in 2006, catering for children from 3 months upwards. Building work to support the co-educational future of the school, including additional classrooms on Shrewsbury Road and an extension to the Sports Pavilion at McAllester Field to provide female changing facilities, was completed in 2009. In 2011 the redeveloped Sixth Form Centre on Bidston Road opened.
In 2000 the sixth form became co-educational. This was followed by the Pre-Prep Department (kindergarten) in 2006. Partly in response to the decision of Birkenhead High School to become a non-selective city academy, Birkenhead School became wholly co-educational in 2008 and girls currently make up around 28% of the school (38% of Prep).[5] In 2010 the first female chaplain was appointed.
In 1935 Birkenhead School became a Direct Grant school. Under this scheme it received a subsidy from the local education authority allowing fees to be based on the ability to pay, with some places being free. The Direct Grant scheme began to be phased out in 1976 and so the School became independent. An Assisted Places Scheme was introduced in 1980 but this was abolished in 1997. Bursaries and assisted places are now provided by the privately funded Birkenhead School Foundation Trust.[4]
[edit] Notable Old Birkonians
- Charles Harrison Townsend (1851–1928), architect
- Cecil Reddie (1858–1932), Founder and Headmaster of Abbotsholme School, 1889–1927
- Robert Hope-Jones (1859–1914), inventor of the theatre organ
- Frank Hope-Jones (1867–1950), horologist and creator of the Greenwich Time Signal pips
- Leslie Brooke (1862–1940), children's writer and illustrator
- Wynfrid Duckworth (1870–1956), anatomist, and Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, 1940–1945
- F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead (1872–1930), barrister, Attorney-General, 1916–1919, Lord Chancellor, 1919–1922, and Secretary of State for India, 1924–1928
- Douglas Laurie (1874–1953), Professor of Zoology, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1922–1940, and Founding Honorary General Secretary, Association of University Teachers, 1919–1953
- Henry Graham White (1880–1965); Liberal politician[6]
- Lieutenant-General Sir Wilfrid Lindsell (1884–1973), Quartermaster-General, British Expeditionary Force, 1939–1940, Lieutenant-General i/c Administration, Middle East, 1942–1943, and Principal Administration Officer, Fourteenth Army, 1943–1945
- Sir Melvill Jones (1887–1975), Francis Mond Professor of Aeronautical Engineering, University of Cambridge, 1919–1952
- Martin Percival Charlesworth (1895–1950), classicist
- Geoffrey Webb (1898–1970), Slade Professor of Fine Art, University of Cambridge, 1938–1949, and Secretary, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1948–1962
- Sir Gordon Willmer (1899–1983), Lord Justice of Appeal
- Andrew Irvine (1902–1924), mountaineer who attempted the summit of Mount Everest with George Mallory
- Nevill Willmer (1902–2001), Professor of Histology, University of Cambridge, 1966–1969
- Brigadier Sir Philip Toosey (1904–1975), merchant banker, Territorial Army officer, and senior Allied officer during the building of the Bridge on the River Kwai
- Peter Shepheard (1913–2002), architect
- Henry Pelling (1920–1997), historian
- Air Chief Marshal Sir John Aiken (1921–2005), Director of Training, Royal Air Force, 1971–1973, and Commander, British Forces in Cyprus, 1973–1976
- Gruffydd Evans, Baron Evans of Claughton (1928–1992), lawyer and politician
- Clifford Embleton (1931–1994), Professor of Geography, King's College London, 1982–1994
- William Wade, Baron Wade of Chorlton (born 1932), businessman, and Joint Treasurer of the Conservative Party, 1982–1990
- Donald Nicholls, Baron Nicholls of Birkenhead (born 1933), Vice-Chancellor, High Court of Justice, 1991–1994, and Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, 1994–2007
- Andreas Whittam Smith (born 1937), journalist and co-founder of The Independent
- Barry Porter (1939–1996), Conservative politician
- Graham Richards (born 1939) Head of Chemistry (1997–2006) at the University of Oxford.
- Timothy Mason (1940–1990), historian
- Michael Gray, (born 1946), author and Bob Dylan critic
- Michael F. Land (born 1942), Professor of Neurobiology, University of Sussex
- Crispin Wright (born 1942), philosopher
- Tony Hall, Baron Hall of Birkenhead (born 1951), Chief Executive, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
- Alan Rouse (1951–1986), mountaineer, and first Briton to reach the summit of K2
- Donald Allister (born 1952), Bishop of Peterborough
- Graham Vick CBE (born 1953), opera director
- Kevin Sampson (born 1961), novelist
- Karl McCartney (born 1968), Conservative politician
[edit] Notable masters
[edit] References
- ^ Overdale
- ^ http://www.isi.net/schools/6252/
- ^ a b c d School History
- ^ a b c Birkenhead School 150th Anniversary Brochure
- ^ Co-educational School
- ^ English Historical Review
- ^ BUSHELL, Warin Foster, in Who Was Who 1897-2007 online, retrieved 24 May 2008 from BUSHELL, Warin Foster (2008)
