Birkenhead School - Overview

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)
• 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.