The Alsop High School is the largest secondary school in Liverpool, now merged with St. Mary's High…read moreSchool. The amount of pupils currently studying there is huge. This shows how popular this state school is and so it should be. The school is constanly undergoing improvements and is in a much better since state the last time I could recall. With the school being a technology and applied learning specialist college, they have plenty of useful facilities to benefit pupils all set in the perfect learning environment. Whilst the school is not a private institution and pupil behaviour is not the best, it is certainly a winner in terms of ambitious teachers and facilities. The Alsop High School deserves full praise for its developments and their strive to catch up and be the best.

This was my high school so I'll try not be biased!…read more Sacred Heart recently gained specialist status in maths and IT which promoted the good reputation of the school and allowed for evolution of the site and the departments of the college. A new IT suite was built within the grounds of the upper site which is a very modern, technologically equipped building and a very comfortable teaching environment. The main building has three floors which vary in departments and aesthetic. There are plenty of IT facilities throughout, a well equipped music room, tennis courts and football field, home economics building and good laboratory facilities. I think the library is a little impoverished and there is some reliance on local libraries. Sacred Heart has good connections with the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth, and encourage able students well. The sixth form is well reputed and a great proportion of the students go on to university with their results.

Sacred Heart is a great school! The best bit about it is there is a real sense of 'community' -…read moredespite the fact the school has well over a thousand pupils everyone seems to know each other, which is really comforting, especially for the younger pupils who might feel a bit lost and confused with what is going on! The school also enjoys being - literally - the 'Heart of Crosby', taking every opportunity it can find to pun on the school's fortunate name. Even the school newspaper is called 'Heartbeat'. There is plenty of references to the Heart dotted around the school for those with attentive eyes - a heart-shaped greenery display in front of the school's main entrance, a statue of the Sacred Heart of Mary in the staff car park and, most recently, a stained glass mural of an abstract heart done by professional glass artist Julie Langam. The staff are all lovely (in my experience) and there are no real 'weirdos' - most of the teachers are really down to earth and you can tell that all of them want the very best for the children they take care of. Of course they have to punish naughty kids but that happens in every school, not their fault really. I've been to some staff only areas in my time and what really touches me is that on the walls there are some pictures of former pupils and teachers - they remember every kid that they've ever taught. In terms of facilities, I have to agree with the previous commenter. the school does have better than average I.T, Music, Art and Technology facilities and even has separate buildings dedicated to Maths, Food Tech and Sixth Form facilities. Because Upper Site is so big, it really has a campus/boarding school feel. I helped out recently at an arts day for primary school children and heard one child say about the school 'It looks like Hogwarts!'. However, may I just say about the previous commenter's concerns about the library, the library since that comment was posted has been refurbished. It looks a bit neater now and there are computers in there too. In contrast, Lower Site is a bit small and is a bit more 'blockish' compared to upper site - the building is very square and is painted shades of white and grey. It has it's own Sports Building, but lacks the facilities that Upper Site offers. Fortunately, the distance between the schools is a short walking distance so children can easily access the facilities. To conclude, Sacred Heart is a very good school and I recommend strongly to any prospective parents that you send your child there if you have the means to. The school has exceptional facilities, kind and welcoming staff, many notable former pupils (comedian Kenny Everett, Team GB gymnast Daniel Purvis, X - Factor 2011 hopeful Marcus Collins, Everton and West Brom player Victor Anichebe, dancer Jane Caulfield and opera singer Danielle Louise Thomas), great academic records, a good religious and ethical education and MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL - You really feel part of a community and feel loved. What more can you want for your child?

Both my brothers attended this school. Teaching was reported as excellent by both but at the time…read more(15 years ago) and they both enjoyed the academic teaching. Unfortunately teachers didn't act on their concerns about frequent episodes of bruising all over my brother's body at the time, including his back and other atypical areas for accidental bruising. My mother concealed it by saying it must be from rough play with other boys. My brother has longstanding health issues relating to years of physical and emotional abuse from our father, in fact all the children in our family do. I'm sure their safeguarding processes have improved but I wish they'd been vigilant to ongoing abuse markers, which were perfectly obvious at the time. Unfortunately this experience is not uncommon as middle-class parents are more likely to believed when concealing abuse.

In his excellent article, "Oh come, come, headmaster private schools are pretend charities?"…read more(Sunday Times, 20.01.08), Simon Jenkins argues against private schools registering themselves as charities. He has a point. In recent years our family has suffered illness, job loss, disability and even homelessness. We are now in social housing. Last year - choosing our daughters high school, we attended open day at Birkenhead School. A wonderful school & Best of all, they were a charity. If a gifted child could benefit from attending Birkenhead, their bursary scheme would do it. A big ask yes, but we saw a lifeline & held on tight, finding the £50 entrance test fee. The school has its own primary to feed the senior school & rumour had just 6 external places. Our clever girl was offered one of them. What joy! Even hearing our situation, they wanted our girl. We submitted bursary application and waited... How we waited. We sent off e-mails, but no reply until... Welcome evening arrived. We emailed should we come? Now a response "best not" Funding was still not secured, anyway, we could easily be "brought up to speed." I think then I saw the lie, though we still hoped. We had not requested the 100% bursary they claim is available. We did not expect a freebie & we wanted to show the school we would increase our contribution as & when we could. We also clung to knowledge that the schools own head had benefited from the grants available in his day. In July, when our girl was due to start in September, we learnt the fund could not acquiesce to our request for support. Apparently, most fee requests are low & the school will happily secure the saving that the average haggler wants? Personally, I found it all so distasteful that it still leaves a bitterness no medicine, regardless how sweet, can relieve. Beati Mundo Corde? Oh come, come,headmaster...

Merchant Taylor's is a fee paying school, which is probably my first and only criticism; it's…read moreawfully expensive each year and, while I agree education is extremely important and every parent surely wants the best for their child, said child will perform just as well over the road at the non-fee paying school. I didn't do too badly and nor did my friends, nearly all of whom went on to university, several at Cambridge. Merchants has had a bit of bad press lately with a few scandals seeping out of their well hedged boundaries. Unfortunately this is destroying the reputation it once had; there are always going to be scandals, there'll be successes and failures, what matters is the indivdual student and their attitude and response to the amenities offered. Merchant Taylors offers a good deal. The extra-curricular activities, for example, include Combined Cadet Force, Boat Club, Music and Drama skills, Swimming Club and the Gifted and Talented enrichment programme is well reputed. The school building itself, and the grounds are beautiful and have a great history, and in the main, the boys act as very good ambassadors for the school.

"St Nick's" could almost be described as a village school; with under 200 pupils, it's rather small…read morewhich creates a very intimate group with a welcoming, genial atmosphere. While this is appealing for the young children, it could, conversely be described as insular and seen to hinder the children's transition to secondary school as they lose that familiar security. The school has a strong Christian ethos and excellent links with the local parish of St Nicholas'. It has achieved "Outstanding" reviews from OFSTED and is one of the top performing schools in the area.

This school is a dictatorship. Left here years ago but I still get ptsd from this building. So…read morehere's a few things they wouldn't want you to know "No bullying tolerance" absolute bs, if you report bullying they'll roll their eyes at you, do some investigation that they're not arsed about. Then blame you for getting bullied. Whilst other schools have something called "isolation" Woodchurch calls it "work room" and "rehab" nothing too different from the typical isolation room in any other school. In fact there's people who would rather be there than in lesson. For the most part teachers are so rude, you can be so kind and they'll tell you where to shove it. The amount of times Liverpool echo has covered this school is impressive. The biggest scandal they've been in which they continually try to brush under the rug is making students eat lunch outside during a hurricane and locking the doors so students can't go the toilets during lunch either (they have a tendency to lock toilets all day) FYI. They used covid and vandalising as an excuse for both of these. You can't find google reviews for this school anymore because of the accusations of SA and grooming from the teachers. Which they would claim as false until you realise a teacher there has been arrested for grooming a student. (It's always the science and history teachers funny enough) You are not allowed to bring in your own coat, you have to buy the Woodchurch branded ones which a lot of people tend to think is optional going here. It's not. If you bring in your own coat it's taken off you immediately. The excuse for this is bullying. Trust the response from parents having their kids finish in this school is always "I should've sent you to another school" so don't bother wasting your time.

I had the worst 4 years here at this school. All the teachers did at this school to help was say…read morewhatever was on the script they don't care about you at all they treat their school as a monarchy making the children peasants that they can just trample on. The last year I was in this school I was suffering with depression and every time I went to my head of year he shut me down and told me to get over it. It was to the point I was sobbing to my dad to not let me go back. The school is absolutely atrocious and shouldn't even be open. If you don't have mental health problems when you start, you will by the time you finish. This school made me transfer to a much better school (st Mary's Catholic college) who actually help their students. DO NOT SEND YOUR KIDS TO WOODCHURCH HIGH SCHOOL it will kill them mentally.