The Belvedere Academy is an all-ability state-funded girls’ Academy secondary- formerly independent- school in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Its predecessor, The Belvedere School, was founded in 1880 as Liverpool High School. It is non-denominational, non-feepaying, and one of the 29 schools of the

Girls' Day School Trust The Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) is a group of 25 independent schools, including two academies, in England and Wales, catering for girls aged 3 to 18. It is the largest group of independent schools in the UK, and educates 20,000 girls each ye ...

. In September 2007 it became an Academy, as one of the first two independent schools in the UK to do so.

Academic achievement

As of the 2011/12 academic year, the school educates over 730 pupils, between the ages of 11 and 18. Following the 2010/11 academic year, 96% of the pupils left the school having achieved five GCSEs, with a grade of A* to C, including both English language and mathematics. This places the non-selective Belvedere Academy in second place in the Liverpool schools' league tables, second only to Liverpool's only remaining selective

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

History

The school was founded in 1880 as Liverpool High School, by the then Girls' Public Day School Company (which became the

). The first building was at 17 Belvedere Road, and the school gradually acquired other premises in the road. The name was changed to The Belvedere School in 1911. The school was a

direct grant grammar school A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...

while this scheme existed (1946 to 1976), and later took part in the

Assisted Places The Assisted Places Scheme was established in the UK by the Conservative government in 1980. Children who were eligible were provided with free or subsidised places to fee-charging independent schools - based on the child's results in the school ...

scheme. From 2000 onwards a unique "Open Access" scheme was set up by the Sutton Trust in partnership with the Girls' Day School Trust, to fund girls who would otherwise not be able to attend the school due to financial circumstances. This meant that girls admitted into the school were admitted solely on academic potential. In the first three years of the scheme 71% of the entrants had all or part of their fees paid, of whom 32% had their fees fully paid through the Open Access Scheme. The first "access girls" entered the school in September 2000 and achieved record results in their GCSEs, taken Summer 2005. The school's buildings comprise five Victorian villas and some more recent buildings. A major building programme was under way to create a new three-storey teaching block which is now completed and includes science laboratories, dance and drama studios and ICT facilities. The name of the school is spelt differently from that of the road because of a mistake made by the council when the school was first opened.

The Belvedere School GDST

The academy's predecessor, The Belvedere School, was rated the best school in Liverpool by the official league tables, having gained 100% 5 A-C passes at GCSE in 2006. The same year, the school's Sixth Form was ranked "Best Value for Money" in the city area by locals. In 2008, 98% of all A-Level exams taken got A-C passes, and 74% of exams received A/B passes, a record for the school.

Changes

The change to an academy resulted in the abolition of school fees, as well as a change in the way in which the school selects its pupils. Unlike grammar and other selective schools, the Belvedere Academy may select only 10% of its pupils by academic potential and fair banding is now employed to ensure intake of the full breadth of academic ability. At the same time that the senior school became an academy, the junior school was established as a stand-alone non-state funded preparatory school for girls aged three to 11, The Hamlets. This was subsequently sold in 2010 out of GDST ownership, renamed Belvedere Preparatory School and became co-educational.

Notable former pupils

* Alyson J K Bailes (CMG) (1949–2016), diplomat, political scientist, academic and polyglot. *

Dorothy Gradden Dorothy Anne Gradden OBE (born 1962) is a British Nuclear Engineer for Sellafield Ltd. She leads the projects to decommission the large "legacy" ponds. These are nationally important projects as part of country's nuclear clean up operation on "Bri ...

OBE, leading nuclear engineer * Linda Grant (b. 1951),

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. *Dame

Rose Heilbron Dame Rose Heilbron DBE, QC (19 August 1914 – 8 December 2005) was a British barrister who served as a High Court judge. Her career included many "firsts" for a woman – she was the first woman to achieve a first class honours degree in l ...

(1914–2006),

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

. *

Jane Lightfoot Jane Lucy Lightfoot (born 1969) is a British classical scholar. She is Professor of Greek Literature at the University of Oxford and a fellow of New College, Oxford. Early life and education Lightfoot was born in 1969 in Liverpool, England. She ...

(b. 1969), classical scholar * Liz McClarnon (b. 1981), member of pop group Atomic Kitten, winner of

Celebrity Masterchef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking reality show produced by Endemol Shine UK and Banijay and broadcast in 60 countries around the world. In the UK, it is produced by the BBC. The show initially ran from 1990 to 2001 and was revived in 20 ...

2008, and

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for ...

. * Esther McVey (b. 1967),

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and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

. * Anne Ziegler (1910–2003),

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

and popular singer-actress.

References

External links

Official website

GDST website

Sutton Trust

BBC Education League Tables listingSchool listing on Edubase
from Department for Children, Schools and Families * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Belvedere Academy Educational institutions established in 1880 Girls' schools in Merseyside Schools of the Girls' Day School Trust 1880 establishments in England * Secondary schools in Liverpool Academies in Liverpool