Redcourt St Anselm's was a Catholic preparatory day school for boys and girls aged 3 to 11 in the Oxton suburb of

Prenton Prenton is a suburb of Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. Administratively, it is also a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was part of the County Borough of Birkenhead, within ...

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, Wirral ...

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 ...

. It closed in 2019.

History

Redcourt St Anselm's began as the prep department of

St. Anselm's College St Anselm's College is an 11–18 boys, Roman Catholic, grammar school and sixth form with academy status in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. It was established in 1933 and is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury. It is one of ...

. The Christian Brothers were looking for a place to relocate the younger boys due to the lack of space and purchased Redcourt for £3,250 in 1946. The 197 junior boys moved in the following year with Brother H F Malone as the first headmaster and six other Brothers and lay staff members as teachers. In 1991, girls were first admitted and the nursery department was opened. Due to the Education Act 1993, the senior school (College) took the option to join the state sector (it later became a

voluntary aided school A voluntary aided school (VA school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a religious organisation), contributes to building costs and has a substantial influence in the running of the school. In ...

) and Redcourt chose to remain

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

. While it became a fully independent school in its own right and run by lay staff members, it was still under the trusteeship of the Christian Brothers and maintained links with the College. The school closed at the end of the Summer term in 2019.

Redcourt

Redcourt was originally a

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

family home built by prominent Scottish banker George Rae between 1876 and 1879 and designed by Edmund Kirby. The Rae family lived there until the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It was used by the

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or military reserve force, reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the America ...

during the War before it was purchased by the Brothers when the War ended. It was designated a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

building in 1974.

Academics

Children were prepared for the

Common Entrance Common Entrance Examinations (commonly known as CE) are taken by independent school pupils in the UK as part of the selective admissions process at age 13, though ten independent schools do select at 11 using different test papers. They are se ...

and

11-plus The eleven-plus (11+) is a standardized examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academic ...

exams. Leavers usually transferred to local grammar and independent schools or other Catholic schools. Redcourt had links with two local Catholic schools -

(boys) and Upton Hall School (girls) - and special provisions were made for those intending to continue their secondary education there.

Former pupils

Paul O'Grady Paul James O'Grady MBE DL (born 14 June 1955) is an English comedian, broadcaster, actor, writer and former drag queen. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag queen persona Lily Savage, very popular in ...

References

External links

School WebsiteProfile
on the

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