Kirkby High School is a Knowsley based

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

educating pupils aged 11–16 years of age in the

Kirkby Kirkby ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. The town, historically in Lancashire, has a size of is north of Huyton and north-east of Liverpool. The population in 2016 was 41,495 making it the largest ...

area of

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

, England.

History

Previously known as 'Brookfield High School', in 2008 the school was merged with Ruffwood School to form 'Kirkby Sports College Centre for Learning' on the site of Brookfield. The school was completely rebuilt under the

Building Schools for the Future Building Schools for the Future (BSF) was the name given to the British government's investment programme in secondary school buildings in England in the 2000s. The programme was ambitious in its costs, timescales and objectives, with politicia ...

programme. In September 2013 the school converted to academy status and was renamed Kirkby High School. Kirkby High School is in the borough of Knowsley which had been singled out by the government for the poor achievement of their students on the assessment targets the government preferred. Kirkby has served their students, who were from a largely disadvantaged, white working class community by entering them for the more vocationally targeted BTEC qualification. In 2013, the government 'reformed' the target. Only academic subjects examined in an end-of-course exam would count. In 2011, Kirkby High School achieved a respectable 41% (5 A to Cs) that wouldn't happen in 2015: 24% achieved the new government benchmark of five

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

s with English and maths at A* to C. The school was visited by

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

in June 2015 and graded as level 3, which would have been Satisfactory, but is now spoken of as Required Improvement. The results came in August 2015. After two Section 8 monitoring inspections the school had a full inspection in 2017, where it was deemed as 'inadequate' and put back in

special measures Special measures is a status applied by regulators of public services in Britain to providers who fall short of acceptable standards. In education (England and Wales) Ofsted, the schools inspection agency for England and some British Overseas Ter ...

. The school was released from special measures in December 2018, when Ofsted described it as a changed school.

Academics

Virtually all maintained schools and academies follow the

National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with Federated stat ...

, and are inspected by Ofsted on how well they succeed in delivering a 'broad and balanced curriculum'. Schools endeavour to get all students to achieve the

English Baccalaureate The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) is a school performance indicator in England linked to the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) results. It measures students' attainment by calculating an average score from specified subject grades. ...

(EBACC) qualification- this must include core subjects a modern or ancient foreign language, and either History or Geography. In Key Stage 3, students are setted by ability in the core subjects of English, Mathematics, Modern Foreign Languages, Science, Geography, History, RE, and Physical Education. Personal Development, Art, Computing, Drama, Music, and Technology are taught in mixed ability classes. In Key Stage 4, students continue with a core curriculum of Mathematics GCSE, English Language and literature (worth 2 GCSEs) and the Science Trilogy or Triple Award (worth up to 3 GCSEs). They also have three options chosen from History, Geography, Spanish, Food and Nutrition, Design Technology, Computer Science, Travel and Tourism, Sports Studies, Textiles, Art and Design, Music, Dance, Drama, Childcare and Religious Studies.

Notable former pupils

* Peter Bradley, former

Archdeacon of Warrington The archdeacons in the Diocese of Liverpool are senior ecclesiastical officers in the Church of England in a highly irregular area surrounding the city of Liverpool. They are the archdeacons of Liverpool, of St Helens and Warrington, of Knows ...

Crockfords (London, Church House, 1995) *

Phil Thompson Philip Bernard Thompson (born 21 January 1954) is an English retired footballer, who played as a defender for Liverpool team of the 1970s and 1980s. During this time, he also represented the England national football team on 42 occasions, and ...

LFC footballer

References

External links

Kirkby High School official websiteGuardian feature article 2015
{{authority control Secondary schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley Academies in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley