St Hilda's Church of England High School is a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

with a

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

, located in Croxteth Drive,

Sefton Park Sefton Park is a public park in south Liverpool, England. The park is in a conservation district of the same name, It is the largest public park in Liverpool and the Liverpool City Region. Suburbs neighbouring the park include Toxteth, Aigb ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, England. As of 2022-23, The school has been Co-educational since 2015. St Hilda’s spent many years as an all girls school, but in September 2015 the school began to enrol boys into the lower years after the completion of the new £15 million building. The sixth form has been

coeducational 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 ...

for many years.

History

St Hilda's was established as a girls' school in 1894 by Emily 'Mother Emily' Ayckbaum. Mother Emily's strong views on Christianity remain part of the school ethos. The Community of the Sisters of the Church opened "Sefton Park School" on 1 May 1894 with 17 pupils. By 1905, the roll had risen to 377, and the name changed to "Arundel Central School" in 1924. After the

Education Act 1944 The Education Act 1944 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 6. c. 31) made major changes in the provision and governance of secondary schools in England and Wales. It is also known as the Butler Act after the President of the Board of Education, R. A. Butler. Histori ...

, the name became "St Hilda's C of E Secondary Commercial Technical School", and, eventually, "St Hilda's C E High School" before its move to a new building in Croxteth Drive, Sefton Park, in 1967 when there were 361 pupils including 32 in the sixth form. The Diocese persuaded St Hilda's to become comprehensive in 1980 with a four-form intake, and numbers have subsequently increased to 863 with a large sixth form. On becoming Grant Maintained in January 1995, the school began a building programme to improve its educational facilities, and this continued after returning to Voluntary Aided status with the addition of a Drama Studio and new library, officially opened on 15 April 2005. For ninety years, St Hilda's only had women headteachers until 1980 when Mr Dawson arrived at the school, serving one of the longest periods. In 1997 he retired, leaving the school in the care of headteacher Christopher Yates. In 2009 Yates retired and Eleanor Benson, the former head of the sixth form, became acting headmistress. In 2016 Jo Code became headmistress. In September 2015 the school became a coeducational school with 56 boys and 94 girls in that year's intake.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Hilda's Church Of England High School Secondary schools in Liverpool Church of England secondary schools in the Diocese of Liverpool Educational institutions established in 1894 1894 establishments in England Voluntary aided schools in England