Upton Hall School FCJ is a

catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

girls'

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 ...

with academy status located in

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

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 ...

. It was founded in 1849 by the

Faithful Companions of Jesus The Faithful Companions of Jesus Sisters (FCJ Sisters, French: ''Fidèles compagnes de Jésus'') is a Christian religious institute of the Roman Catholic Church directly subject to the Pope. It was founded in Amiens in France in 1820 by Marie ...

(FCJ).

Admissions

It is one of four

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

schools in the

Metropolitan Borough of Wirral The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It has a population of 321,238, and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, ...

. The school is located within the Catholic

Diocese of Shrewsbury The Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury is a Roman Catholic diocese in the Province of Birmingham which encompasses the pre-1974 counties of Shropshire and Cheshire in the North West and West Midlands of England. The diocese includes rural ar ...

. It was awarded 'Outstanding' by Ofsted in 2006, 2012 and again in 2022. The school holds Training School status.

History

It was founded as a girls' convent school by Nuns of the Society of the Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ) in 1862. The remains of Marie Madeleine, the founder of the FCJ, were reburied in the school's personal graveyard in 1904 due to

anti-clerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

tensions in France. Her body was moved to Kent in 1980, and subsequently to Paris in 2012.

Alumni

* Berlie Doherty, children's books author, and playwright, twice winner of the Carnegie Medal * Charlotte O'Conor Eccles, Irish writer *

Sally Nugent Sally Nugent (born 5 August 1971) is an English journalist, newsreader and television presenter. Since October 2021, she has presented '' BBC Breakfast'' along with Dan Walker, Naga Munchetty, Charlie Stayt and Jon Kay Early life and educat ...

, sports reporter on BBC Breakfast and

BBC News channel BBC News (also known as the BBC News Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel for BBC News. It was launched as BBC News 24 on 9 November 1997 at 5:30 pm as part of the BBC's foray into digital domestic telev ...

* Wendy Piatt, Director General since 2007 of the

Russell Group The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its members' interests, principally to governmen ...

* Niamh Charles, Professional Footballer

Former teachers

* Angela Topping, poet * Mavis Blackburn, Artist

References

Sources

* http://www.uptonhall.wirral.sch.uk/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20070409004554/http://www.specialistschools.org.uk/ * http://www.fcjsisters.org/

External links

Upton Hall School FCJ

History of Upton Hall School FCJ

Faithful Companions of Jesus, English

Diocese of Shrewsbury

Wirral Learning Grid

Specialist Schools and Academies Trust
Upton Hall School FCJ St Anselm's College, Birkenhead Girls' schools in Merseyside 1849 establishments in England Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Shrewsbury Academies in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral Training schools in England {{Merseyside-school-stub